General Robert F. Hoke: Lee's Modest Warrior Book

Loss of the Sultana and Reminiscences is the single most important primary source about the Sultana steamboat explosion. The complier, Chester Berry, was one of the soldiers who lived through the disaster, and he collected statements from over 100 other victims for this book. The statements vary in quality, and it appears some were reluctant to talk about they went through, but there are still many fascinating stories here.

Berry's own story is among the more detailed ones. He had been sound asleep with the explosion occurred, and he was struck in the head by a stick of cord wood that fractured his skull, and he could feel hot water from the escaping steam soaking through his blanket. He went to the bow and saw the upper decks wrecked and the boat on fire. He went back to his sleeping place and found his bunkmate scalded to death. Taking a piece of cabin door casing, he looked into the Mississippi and realized it was literally black with drowning human beings. He decided to wait before entering the water and stood listening to men shouting, swearing, praying, and crying.

Berry eventually jumped into the water and swam off, right before the wheel house broke away from the hurricane deck. He looked back and watched a screaming man burn to death, trapped on the wheelhouse. Berry soon grew cold and weak in the water. He began to despair and thought about throwing his board away to shorten his misery. But at that moment, he seemed to see his mother at home, praying for the safety of her son. Gathering his strength, Berry clutched his board and made another effort to escape. Nonetheless, he was weighed down by an irresistible feeling of drowsiness. He came across an ash sapling, put it beneath himself, and fell asleep. He woke some hours later to find he was wedged on a snag.

Berry says he was out of his mind at this point and crying from the pain of his fractured skull. Making another attempt to escape, he entered the water again and climbed a drowned tree, only to be attacked by hundreds of biting buffalo gnats. Eventually he was rescued by the steamer Pocahontas. He remained in the hospital a week, overhearing a doctor say he would never get well, and found that his family had been told he had been killed. Berry recovered from his fractured skull anyway, and many years later he had much trouble getting an army pension because he was supposed to be dead. Berry later became a minister.

This is not a book to read all at once. Dipping into it from time to time and reading some of the accounts is better way to experience it.