Local writer publishes children's book
The cover of Alice Morrison's book shows the Mississippi river boat that sank taking 1,700 to 2,300 Civil War soldiers to their death.
By Kay James, Dells Events
In April 1865, the United States’ worst maritime disaster occurred, but few people today and even at the time heard about it.
The disaster is the explosion of the boilers aboard the Steamboat Sultana on the Mississippi River as it was carrying released Union prisoners of war home after the end of the Civil War. A paddlewheel steamboat with known boiler problems took on 1,700 to 2,300 soldiers for a trip home. The boat was licensed to carry 376 passengers and a crew of 85. When the soldiers came on board, eager to be going home after stints in Confederate prisoner of war camps, the board already had passengers.
Two days after taking on the soldiers, the Sultana’s boilers exploded and an estimated 1,700 soldiers, passengers and crew perished — more than died in the sinking of the Titanic. Because the disaster occurred in the Midwest, because it was shortly after Lincoln’s assassination and because it closely followed the ending of the Civil War, the disaster did not get much publicity at the time.
Local writer, Alice Morrison has chronicled the story of the Sultana through the eyes of a 13-year-old boy who stows away aboard the Sultana. The boy, Ray Shaw, is searching for his brother, an apprentice riverboat pilot.
“I’m not trying to make a lot of money,” Morrison told the Events. She wants people to remember the ones who perished in the disaster because she does not believe they have been memorialized properly. She also hopes the book will appeal to middle school students studying the Civil War. Until her self-published book, no books had been written about the disaster for that age group.
She’s also working on a follow-up or sequel to the book to take her hero through the investigation into the disaster.
The first book took her five and a half years to write, she said. It took so long because she wanted to be sure the facts were right, she was working a job and raising two teenage daughters.
Morrison heard about the Sultana disaster through a friend, Laurie Bries. Bries’ great-great-grandfather Winfield Scott Colvin, with the 6th Kentucky Cavalry, was a survivor of the disaster and Bries attended reunions of the Sultana Association. Morrison said she read a handwritten account by Colvin of the disaster. That prompted more research and in April 2004, she wrote an article about the sinking.
“I’m not a big Civil War buff,” Morrison said, adding she did not find stories about the war’s battles interesting. “I’m captivated by this story.”
Morrison’s book, “River Reunion: Seven Days Aboard the Sultana” can be purchased at Book World in Wisconsin Dells or online at www.sultanariverreunion.com. People can also contact her by e-mail at freewrite40@yahoo.com to order the book or by regular mail at S201 Highway 12 and 16, Wisconsin Dells, WI 53965. The book costs $10 plus $2.75 for shipping.