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The Sultana was the name of a steamship that operated on the Mississippi River, usually between New Orleans and St. Louis, Missouri. It was built in 1863 by the John Lithoberry Shipyard on Front Street in Cincinnati, Ohio, but was intended to operate for the cotton trade in the lower Mississippi River. It had a crew usually of about 85 men and for two years ran a route between New Orleans and St. Louis. Frequently the ship was contracted by the US government to transport troops. It had a legal passenger rating of 376 persons.

The Civil War had just ended and on April 15, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln passed away, having been shot by John Wilkes Booth. The newspapers were filled with the stories related to the assassination and the war's end.

On April 21, 1865, Captain J.C. Mason of St. Louis piloted the Sultana out of New Orleans with 75 to 100 passengers and numerous heads of livestock that were going to market in St. Louis.
The Sultana reached Vicksburg, docked and took on additional passengers while a repair crew came aboard to make repairs to one of the four boilers. As the repairs were being done, former military men, many just released from Confederate prisons were eager to get aboard and did so using any method that worked, including bribery and threats. These men wanted to get back home to their families. Before long, the Sultana had over 2000 men aboard! Many of these men had been weakened by their incarceration or were ill from it. Passengers were placed in every possible location on the ship and still the decks were overcrowded with passengers. The vastly overloaded Sultana, fighting a strong southward current, departed Vicksburg at 9 p.m. on April 24, 1865 and headed north toward Memphis.

The Sultana docked at Memphis on April 26th and a few of the passengers disembarked.

The Mississippi River was at flood stage and cold as the Sultana left the docks of Memphis at about midnight. At about 2 a.m, as the Sultana navigated around some small islands, the sound of an explosion echoed through the still hollows along the river. The Sultana was in desperate trouble! Looking upriver from Memphis, the light from the fire was visible. A boiler had exploded, blasting men skyward, into the cold water after burning them with escaping steam. Others had hot coals rain down on them, the same hot coals that started the fires. Most of the men were badly injured with severe burns and broken bones. The screams could be heard for miles along the Mississippi.

One of the first to arrive on the scene was a mysterious man in a small johnboat. He wore a tattered Confederate uniform, but he put the war aside and started pulling out the injured as he could with such a small boat and delivering them to awaiting medical personnel at the docks in Memphis. He repeated this act over and over again, until he had rescued 15 of his former enemies. His name would never be known, other than the legendary Unknown Hero of the Sultana.

At about 3 a.m, the Bostonia, a southbound steamer saw the burning hulk, which at this point was dead in the water, having no power and had settled on the Arkansas side of the river. The Bostonia immediately began to take on survivors. Live and dead men were everywhere in and along the river. They were on the river banks, in the trees, some living, some dead, some horribly burned and maimed!

In time, the steamer, Arkansas arrived to help, as did the Jenny Lind, the Essex and the Navy side-wheeler gunboat, USS Tyler.

For weeks following the incident, bodies were found along the river. The newspapers had only small articles on the subject; it occurred at a time of much history-making news, therefore was relegated to lesser newspaper space.

The Sultana Disaster cost the lives of an estimated 1800 men, making it the deadliest maritime accident in U.S. history.