After Fort Fisher: Prisoners

From the North Carolina Civil War and Reconstruction History Center:  "From Fort Fisher to Elmira" byccwinslow394, submitted by Tom Fagart.

When Fort Fisher fell, the exact number of  Confederates captured is not known, but it is known that the majority of them, 1,154 men, were sent to Elmira Prison in New York.

Other Union prisons also received those captured at Fort Fisher:

639 to Point Lookout Prison, Maryland

97 to Fort Columbus Prison in New York Harbor  (Officers)

61 to Fort Delaware Prison in Delaware

22 to Fort Morgan Prison in Virginia  (I am unable to find this place.)

The Union Navy ships used to transport the prisoners north were the California, DeMolay, General Lyon and North Point.  (I could only find additional information on these ships on the tragedy of the General Lyon.)

--Old B-Runner

The Satacona Grounded at Nantucket This Date 150 Years Ago

From the June 6, 2015, Yesterday's Island, Today's Nantucket "Civil War Shipwreck" by Amy Geness.

This article certainly cost me some interesting time researching the story further.

Today marks the 150th anniversary, June 10, 1865, of the grounding of the SS Satacona in thick fog near the head of Hither Creek, Nantucket Island.  It was carrying returning Union soldiers.

This got me very interested.  I just recently came across the sinking and deaths of nearly 500 aboard the SS General Lyon, also carrying returning Union soldiers.  This was another shipwreck that I had not known.  And, of course, there was also the much better known Sultana Disaster.

Then, the story got better, because it said that for some of these soldiers, this was their second shipwreck in two days.  Their troopship, the Admiral DuPont had collided with the Satacona and sunk off Cape May, New Jersey on June 8th.

The article continued saying that the soldiers marched through town after the grounding and boarded a steamship preparing to go to the mainland.  Citizens scrambled to provide food and clothing to the troops.

This is a Story That Needs Further Research.  --Old B-Runner

The Sultana Disaster

APRIL 27TH, 1865:  Just a few earlier, the steamer General Lyon had caught fire off Cape Hatteras with around 550 dead, now this.  The river steamer Sultana blew up in the Mississippi River above Memphis, Tennessee, killing some 1450 of its 2,000 passengers-- all but 50 of them former prisoners of war.  She was en route to Cairo, Illinois, when a violent explosion ripped her apart and turned her into a sheet of flame..

The cause of the explosion was never determined, but one of the theories advanced was that a coal torpedo-- such as the one suspected of having destroyed the Army steamer Greyhound on 27 November 1864, had been slipped into the steamer's coal bin.

--Old B-Runner

The Sinking of the SS General Lyon on March 31, 1865

I even wrote about this ship disaster in my Saw the Elephant Blog yesterday, but failed to mention that yesterday was the 150th anniversary of this largely forgotten tragedy.  It was even mentioned in the Civil War Naval Chronology, CWNC) which I have been using so much in this blog.

I know it was an army transport, but the fact it was at sea off Cape Hatteras North Carolina, and the large number of deaths (at least 520 and as high as 578) should have been listed in the CWNC.

I make amends for it today.

To the Memory of the Poor Souls Aboard the SS General Lyon 150 Years Ago.  --Old Secesh

The SS General Lyon Disaster

I have been writing about the wreck of the Army Transport SS General Lyon in my Saw the Elephant: Civil War Blog.  I came across the name in connection with an Illinois soldier by the name of James O'Roarke from Rochelle, Illinois, who was a member of the 92nd Illinois Infantry Regiment and was returning northward from Andersonville Prison.

  The Gen. Lyon was also carrying 205 members of the recently discharged 56th Illinois Regiment.  Of that number, only five survived.  It is estimated that at least 500 perished when the ship sank on March 31, 1865.

And, the ship had a Fort Fisher and Wilmington connection.  It had carried Union troops during both attacks on Fort Fisher and had been busily ferrying troops between Wilmington and Fortress Monroe and New York during February and March.

This was a huge disaster, and sadly, one that is not too well known.

--Old B-Runner