The Sultana, Just North of Memphis
Soft the silent sun sets
beyond the dusty green fields,
as the shadows lean
toward the Mississippi,
toward the wide, wide river,
where across the muddy water
one by one the lights of Memphis
slowly light the coming night.
Quiet the river flows
past green soybean fields,
past the fertile soils
where the charred remains
of a sad history lay.
In the darkest shadows
of a nations deepest night
two thousand men faced the fire,
the Sultana's savage plight,
on April Twenty Seven,
Eighteen Hundred Sixty Five.
Just past the lights of Memphis
the early morning quiet
shattered in the flash
as the boiler blew.
And in the fire, in the steam
in the swirling muddy water
eighteen hundred died.
They had survived the famine, the blight
of Cahaba, of Andersonville,
the years of war and death
only to die in the Sultana's night,
just north of Memphis
on the river heading home.
Tonight, twilight fades over soybeans
and the muddy river
shines in the Memphis light
as dusty fields await the mourning
of a tragic history.
Author notes
At about 3 am on April 27th, 1865, 18 days after Robert E. Lee surrendered and 13 days after Lincoln was assassinated, the Sultana, a ship built to hold 376 passengers, exploded with nearly 2,400 people on board. Almost all of the passengers were Union Soldiers returning home from Vicksburg, Mississippi after surviving the war and the deplorable conditions at prisoner of war camps at Cahaba and Andersonville. While an exact count of victims was impossible to compile, experts indicate that as many as 1,800 soldiers died, a greater number than those who died later in the sinking of the Titanic. News coverage of the event was nearly hidden in the back pages of newspapers, where the editors thought that, after the tragic news of Lincoln, and the years of carnage reported during the war, the readers would not want to read of the tragedy. The Army, who was partly responsible for the overloading of the ship, was happy to see the incident out of the spotlight. A civic group in Marion Arkansas plans to build a monument in the soybean field across the Mississippi from Memphis where experts believe the remains of the Sultana are buried.
A contest entry
- Rivers by malkinpuss.
500 points, ended May 7, 2006, 6 entries
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest - Write me a Poem about History {{Editted to Allow Pre-Writes}} by SpydurPoet.
705 points, ended August 19, 2007, 27 entries
Honorable mention
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest
What did you think
Comments
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Line #17 - shouldn't 'me' be 'men'?
This was an excellent poem. I loved the flow. This was definitely an interesting piece, something I had never heard of before. Thanks for entering the contest!
Write on.
~*~SP~*~
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It's sad that not more work is devoted to historical themes. History is a goldmine waiting to be tapped. This is a fine poem and I applaud you.
I read recently that somehow sand had gotten into the boilers from using dirty river waters.
D -
Wonderful historic write! Thanks for entering!
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