Corporal Albert W. King was honored last year with a special monument in Riverside Cemetery, a recognition of his Civil War service, especially his survival of the famous explosion of the Sultana.
King enlisted in Company D, 100th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry on July 17, 1862. Prior to his enlistment, he worked as a clerk in a store and lived with the Leopold Waltenberg family in Defiance, according to the 1860 census.
His service for the Union was an adventure as he endured many famous battles and an imprisonment at Andersonville in Georgia. Traveling north on the Mississippi River after his release, he found himself on the Sultana, packed in among other soldiers, all fighting to survive when the ship exploded.
On April 27, 1917, he gave an account of his experiences to a reunion of Sultana survivors. This account came from the notes he wrote in his journal (the spelling is his) to use as he spoke to the group:
"My Dear Colonel, Ladies and Friends:
There's some few comrades present here this evening who were taken prisoners at the battle of Franklin, November 30, 1864, where I was captured.
You remember very distinctly how we suffered for want of clothes and rations on our way south that winter. After traveling for months on foot, on railroads and boats, we were finally landed in Andersonville prison. Our stay in Andersonville was not long due to the surrender of General Lee and his army at Appomatox, where we were released and guarded to our lines at Black River near Vicksburg where we received rations from our U.S. Government. For some, there were weeks in paroll camp with Confederate General Howard Henderson and his staff to see that we should be exchanged or parolled before we took up arms in defense of the U.S.
Finally, we got transportation north on the Steam Boat Sultana, a large river boat with a usual passenger list and a heavy guard of Yankee soldiers from New Orleans. Perhaps nearly two thousand of us parolled prisoners were placed on board, crowding the boat in an indiserible manner, on every deck, on the wheel houses, and the wood racks over the boilers.
After steaming up against the heavy current, as the river was very high and in many places flooded the country for miles inland, we reached Memphis the second or third evening where a large quantity of sugar and other groceries were unloaded up to about midnight. When the steam left Memphis for coal barges above the city to take on a supply of coal, I and five members of my company fell asleep about this time and inside of one hour, the explosion of the boilers occurred, we being on the boiler deck near the stern of the boat. We were stunned, smothered with steam and ashes and tumbled over and over, and many men, cord wood and coats were thrown onto us, and over us, shattering the house work beyond us. And when we came to our senses, we made frantic efforts to get out on the stern deck.
Soon thereafter, a large body of fire shot up, the igniting of gas which the explosion produced, which showed us the center of the boat, shattered and torn out. The blase was only of short duration and the boat in utter darkness, but not long when the next blase started. It soon devoured the cabins. Many men, women, and children had been blown overboard in the explosion and were calling for help. The crowd on the boat were now rushing overboard to get away from fire and heat. Many, who were crippled in the force of the explosion, begged to be thrown overboard, but received little attention. Five of us had slept together and were not very badly injured and were trying hard to break out a section of the house work, but did not succeed. And soon the heat became so intense that we could not remain on the steam deck, and it was now every man for himself.
I jumped upon the stern railing and watched the crowd in the water, waiting to see an opening to make the jump without striking anyone. And when I did make the plunge, I came in contact with drowning men, and when I came to the supposed surface, I struck the bottom of the boat. But I soon succeeded in getting out, but many were still on the water and got a hold on me, but I fought hard for freedom, and saw a chance to pass under the stern of the boat without being nabbed. When a lady jumped down upon me and getting a hold on my shirt and nearly strangled me, I soon broke away from her and swimming but a short distance where a board came up in front of me, which I grabbed for support and returned to help the lady who was loudly calling for assistance. When another board popped up in front of me, I placed one on top of the other and went back to her and placed the boards under her arms. She informed me that she had on a life preserver which slipped down when she jumped from the cabin window to water while clinging to a rope.
I was causious to keep her in front of me, working hard toward the Arkansas side. Often she would ask me if I thought we would be saved. To this, I could give her no incouraging answer as everything around us was now in darkness, and many going in the same direction were calling loudly for help. The boat had burned down and was floating a long distance below us when I discovered that we were drifting in amongst brush up on an island over which the water was rushing many feet deep. We were soon seated on a log amongst the drift wood and by us holding onto a cottonwood sapling , we could keep our heads above water. It was one of the Hen & Chicken Islands.
Sometime after daylight, we were picked up by men in a large rowboat, attracted to us by Commander L. G. Morgan who called to them for to pick us up, which they did, and were taken to a cabbin on the island and placed before a hot fire in a fireplace in company with many others, where we soon thawed out. Later in the day, we were taken aboard a small steamer with many others and transported to Memphis. On landing, we were given wool underclothes by the citizens, I presume merchants of Memphis. As I refused to go to the hospital, I was taken along with others to the Soldiers Home some distance out from the city.
The lady was taken charge of by some doctors. While we were in front of a good fire in the cabbin on the island in the presence of one of my company comrades, the lady took from her finger a very nice ring and presented it to me, saying that she was the wife of an engineer who operated on Red River, that his name was W. C. Perry whom she had just visited and was on her way home to Cincinnati and had lost all her valuables in the disaster.
Twenty years later, I went to Cincinnati to locate these Perrys, but did not succeed. Afterwards, I tried to find them by using the newspaper, but without learning anything as to their whereabouts."
TO BE CONTINUED...
(This is part of a series on Civil War veterans of Defiance County who were part of the G.A.R., Bishop Post, that headquartered in the city. Formed in 1879, the post was named after a local man, Captain William Bishop, Company D, 100th Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Army who died as a result of wounds received in battle. The veterans' photos are part of a composite photo of members that has survived. If you have other information or corrections to add to the soldiers' stories, please add to the comments!)
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