Description:

Civil War
n.p., ca. 1860s
Sultana Disaster! Capt. Frederic Speed, Implicated in Maritime Accident, Rare Cabinet Photo in Uniform
Photograph
A circular, full body photograph depicting Captain Frederic Speed (1841-1911) in uniform. 1p, 5.25" x 7.25", n.p., ca. 1860s. Speed, a solider from Maine promoted to the rank of Captain in 1862, was later court-martialed for his alleged involvement in the sinking of the steamboat Sultana. This early, war-period image is mounted to a stiff cardstock board, measuring 6.5" x 8.5" overall. Expected age toning, scattered markings, and bumped corners. Small tear preset at lower left of card. Very good to near fine.

The Sultana was a commercial steamboat that exploded and sank on the Mississippi River on April 27, 1865, killing 1,547 people in what remains the worst maritime disaster in United States history. For two years, she ran a regular route between St. Louis and New Orleans and was frequently commissioned to carry troops during the American Civil War. Although designed with a capacity of only 376 passengers, she was carrying 2,128 when three of the boat's four boilers exploded and caused it to sink near Memphis, Tennessee. The disaster was overshadowed in the press by events surrounding the end of the Civil War, including the killing of President Abraham Lincoln's assassin John Wilkes Booth just the day before.

The subsequent trial of Captain Speed was held in Vicksburg, MS between January 9 and June 5, 1866, culminating in him being found guilty of neglect. The prosecution claimed that Speed, going against the wishes of his superiors Capt. R. B. Hatch and W. F. Kerns, disregarded any concerns for safety by placing two thousand soldiers upon the steamer. This fact was later disproved when the Judge Advocate General of the U.S. Army overturned Speed's guilty verdict just months after the original trial. New evidence was taken into account which supported that Captain Hatch himself had selected the Sultana to transport the men, and Kerns only complained of the overcrowding after it was too late for the detachment to be divided. It should also be noted that just days before the disaster, Sultana's boilers were imperfectly repaired after the engineer's job was rushed due to time constraints. To this day, no one was ever formally held accountable for the event despite its magnitude.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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  • Dimensions: 6.5" x 8.5"
  • Medium: Photograph

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