>>20978251

>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sultana_(steamboat)

Although designed with a capacity of only 376 passengers, she was carrying 2,128 when three of the boat's four boilers exploded and caused it to sink near Memphis, Tennessee. The disaster was overshadowed in the press by events surrounding the end of the Civil War, including the killing of President Abraham Lincoln's assassin John Wilkes Booth just the day before. No one was ever held accountable for the disaster.

>>20978298

>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_submersible_implosion

>>20978338

>designed with a capacity of only 376 passengers, she was carrying 2,128

Although Hatch had suggested that Mason might get as many as 1,400 released Union prisoners, a mix-up with the parole camp books and suspicion of bribery from other steamboat captains caused the Union officer in charge of the loading, Captain George Augustus Williams, to place every man at the parole camp on board Sultana, believing the number to be less than 1,500.  Although Sultana had a legal capacity of only 376, by the time she backed away from Vicksburg on the night of April 24, she was severely overcrowded with over 1,951 paroled prisoners, 22 guards from the 58th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, over 70 fare-paying cabin passengers, and 85 crew members, for a total of 2,128 people. Many of the paroled prisoners had been weakened by their incarceration and associated illnesses but had managed to gain some strength while waiting at the parole camp to be officially released.

The massive steam explosion came from the top rear of the boilers. It went upward at a 45-degree angle, tearing through the crowded decks above and completely destroying the pilothouse. Without a pilot to steer the boat, Sultana became a drifting, burning hulk. The violent explosion flung some deck passengers into the water and blew a gaping 25–30 foot hole in the steamer. With the boilers blown to pieces, the twin smokestacks fell; the starboard smokestack fell backward into the blasted hole, and the port smokestack fell forward onto the crowded forward section of the upper deck, hitting the steamboat's bell as it fell. The forward part of the upper deck collapsed onto the middle deck, killing and trapping many in the wreckage. Fortunately, the sturdy railings around the twin openings of the main stairway prevented the upper deck from crushing down completely onto the middle deck. The men located around the twin openings quickly crawled under the wreckage and down the main stairs. Further back, the collapsing decks formed a slope that led down into the exposed furnace boxes. The broken wood caught fire and turned the remaining superstructure into a raging inferno. Survivors panicked and raced for the safety of the water, but in their weakened condition, they soon ran out of strength and began to cling to each other. Whole groups went down together.

>>20978372

>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sultana_(steamboat)

April 15, she was tied up at Cairo, Illinois, when word reached the city that Abraham Lincoln had been shot. Immediately, Captain Mason grabbed an armload of Cairo newspapers and headed south to spread the news, knowing that telegraphic communication with the southern states had been almost totally cut off because of the recently-ended American Civil War.

Upon reaching Vicksburg, Mississippi, Mason was approached by Captain Reuben Hatch, the chief quartermaster at Vicksburg, with a proposal. Thousands of recently released Union prisoners of war who had been held in the Confederate prison camps at Cahaba and Andersonville had been brought to a small parole camp outside of Vicksburg to await release to the northern states. The U.S. government would pay US$2.75 per enlisted man and US$8 per officer to any steamboat captain who would take a group north. Knowing that Mason needed money, Hatch suggested that he could guarantee Mason a full load of about 1,400 prisoners if Mason would agree to give him a kickback. Mason quickly agreed to Hatch's offer, hoping to gain much money through this deal.

>>20978426

>Captain Reuben Hatch

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/63496/search-photo-man-behind-sultana-disaster

This story’s Public Enemy No. 1 still lurks in the shadows. Experts know who he is, but they don’t know what he looked like. While photos have been found for every other major Sultana character, images of Col. Reuben Hatch remain missing.

>>20978438

>Reuben Hatch

Evidence had started pouring in years before, when Hatch was an assistant quartermaster in his home state of Illinois. Reportedly, he indulged in graft there, involving government lumber purchases, the selling of army supplies, and steamboat charter fraud. According to The Sultana Tragedy, as investigations began, Hatch apparently tried to destroy the evidence by dumping it into the Ohio River. But the doctored ledgers washed ashore and were found shortly thereafter.

In this situation, most other officials would be toast. And indeed, it appeared a court-martial for Hatch was imminent. But he had very powerful connections to save him. His brother Ozias Hatch, for starters, was Illinois’ secretary of state and one of Abraham Lincoln’s closest friends and political campaign benefactors.

Ozias Hatch asked Lincoln to vouch for his brother’s character to a judge advocate general, and he did. Lincoln also recommended a few people for the three-person commission that would decide Reuben Hatch’s fate. Ultimately, two Lincoln cronies were appointed and Hatch was cleared of all charges.

Mishaps mark the entirety of Hatch’s military career during the Civil War, yet improbably he kept getting promoted. Experts agree that as he ascended the ranks, he almost certainly would have had his photo taken. Not only did his powerful brother and contacts help shield him from “from his own ineptitude and ethical lapses,” Marshall says, but it’s possible he might have received help in his later years covering his own material tracks.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-prisoner-of-war-disaster-overshadowed-by-lincolns-death

>>20978462

>His brother Ozias Hatch was Illinois’ secretary of state and one of Abraham Lincoln’s closest friends and political campaign benefactors.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozias_M._Hatch

born to Dr. Reuben and Ann Hatch

After Lincoln was assassinated, Hatch traveled along the East Coast to procure funding for the Lincoln Tomb in Springfield.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln_Tomb

Constructed of granite, the tomb has a tall, story-and-a-half base in trapezoidal form, surmounted by an obelisk, with a semicircular receiving room entranceway on one end and a semicircular crypt or burial room opposite. The balustrade extends around the terrace to form a parapet, and there are several bronze statues, reliefs, and stone carvings located at the base of the obelisk. The obelisk rises 117 feet (36m) high.

Constructed of granite from Biddeford, Maine, dressed at Quincy, Massachusetts, it has a rectangular base surmounted by a 117-foot (36 m)-high obelisk and a semicircular entranceway.

In the center of the terrace, a large and ornate base supports the obelisk.

In front of the obelisk and above the entrance stands a full-length statue of Lincoln.

Infantry and Cavalry statues at the corners of the obelisk.