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Lost Military · Found

Sultana

1865 · Steamboat disaster, Mississippi R. near Marion, AR
RECOVERED
Evidence status: Historical tradition. no documented source (historical tradition); legal status unknown (manual verification recommended). This account is presented as historical tradition, not verified fact. Manual verification recommended. Repository evidence: 0 sources · 0 timeline events · 0 media items · legal unknown · view on the Map Evidence on file: historical tradition

Sultana: still unexplained.

The law of this ground: Not a war grave; the buried wreck lies on private Arkansas farmland.
The subject
Sultana
The account

Her boilers exploded, killing ~1,700, mostly released Union POWs, the deadliest maritime disaster in US history.

Leads, where the trail points now
  • The site is documented at Mississippi R. near Marion, AR; the open questions now are access and what remains, not where it is.
  • Not a war grave; the buried wreck lies on private Arkansas farmland.
  • What is there: study the documented surveys of Sultana before going.
What the record holds

What remains open

  • No period map of the site has surfaced.
  • No contemporary press coverage has been found.
What we know, and what we don't
Established

No documentary claim is yet established. The account rests on tradition.

Still open
  • No period map of the site has surfaced.
  • No contemporary press coverage has been found.
The evidence room

No documentary or visual exhibits have been located yet. The trail below and the open leads are where this dossier grows next — every exhibit that enters here carries a source.

Where the trail points now
  • The site is documented at Mississippi R. near Marion, AR; the open questions now are access and what remains, not where it is.
  • Not a war grave; the buried wreck lies on private Arkansas farmland.
  • What is there: study the documented surveys of Sultana before going.
  • Search Library of Congress + DPLA (IIIF) for period cartography of the site.
  • Run Chronicling America for dated newspaper mentions.
  • Query NARA for archival records tied to the site.

Have a source, a map, or a clipping? Add a lead and it enters the record with its citation.

Start the hunt here
The first leads, so no one walks in cold.
Sources and the record
Related case files

The full hunt kit

Starting brief, what's known and disputed, evidence timeline, source list, map card, coordinate-confidence and legal-access summaries, and a field checklist, free with a Fellowship account.

Latest Word From the Newswire

Context, not proof. The dossier's own sources remain the evidence record.

Checking the wire…

Chart position 35.215°, -90.198° (approx.) View on the Map