‘Sultana’ author, expert comes to CVNP
The National Park Service welcomes author Jerry O. Potter on Jan. 8, as he presents a program about the sinking of the Sultana as part of the Lyceum Distinguished Speaker Series.
Admission is $8 for adults, $6 CVNPA members, and $3 children ages 3 to 12. Attend any three for the subscription price of $20 adults, $15 CVNPA members.
Advance sales are available by calling 330-657-2909.
Lectures occur at Happy Days Lodge, from 7 to 9 p.m. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.
On April 27, 1865 the Sultana, a wooden-hulled steamboat carrying six times the legal capacity, exploded on the Mississippi River, killing more than 1,800 men, mostly soldiers just released from southern prison camps when the war ended.
The magnitude of the catastrophe was overshadowed by the turbulent events that shook our headlines in April of 1865—namely the end of the Civil War, the assassination of President Lincoln, and the capture of John Wilkes Booth. As a result, the explosion of the Sultana was nearly passed over in the pages of history.
A headstone honoring Private Thomas Coady, who served in the Ohio Volunteer Infantry, is located in Mater Dolorosa Cemetery next to Happy Days Lodge in Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Coady, an early resident of Boston Township, was captured and held at Andersonville Prison Camp. When the Civil War ended, he was returning home on the Sultana when it exploded.
Happy Days Lodge is at 500 West Streetsboro Road (Route 303) in Peninsula .
For more information about the park, visit www.nps.gov/cuva/ or www.dayinthevalley.com/ or call 330-657-2752 or 800-445-9667.