A 1986 Birmigham News article relates how McEachern discovered a long lost account of this history in a rare volume of the Alabama Historical Association, printed in 1898.
McEachern claims that in June of 1865, the remains of some 750 Union POWs were reported to have been aboard the steamboat Autauga for transport to Montgomery. The Autauga never reached Montgomery. It was said to have hit a stump while passing Autauga County, overturning and dumping much of its cargo into the river. The overturned Autauga floated downstream, coming to rest near Carter's plantation where it eventually sank.
Bert Neville, a confederate researcher and resident of Selma, AL, describes the Autauga in his book, Directory of River Packets in the Mobile-Alabama-Warrior-Tombigbee River Trades (1818-1932), as a Confederate vessel that sunk at Autauga Landing, Alabama Rivier in 1865.
It is McEachern's contention that these 750 Union POW remains were from the Cahawba Prison, south of Selma, AL. McEachern stated that Official rolls only reported 300 burials at Cahawba Prison out of over 3000 inmates. Such low death rates (10%) in Civil War prisons were unheard of, and he claimed that rates around 45% were more likely. McEachern estimated that nearly 1350 Union POWs would likely have died of disease, especially noting Cahawba's tendency to flood. He also believes other deaths may have occurred from atrocities at the prison. Based on these estimates, and that there were no other known sources in the area to provide this high number of Union POWs, McEachern concluded that the reamins aboard the Autauga had to be from the Cahawba Prison.
It has been the thought that at Montgomery, the remains were to be taken by rail for reinterrment at the Marietta National Cemetery, Marietta, GA. Marietta is where later remains from the Cahawba prison were removed. However, Marietta National Cemetery was not established until sometime in 1866, a year after the sinking of the Autauga. The only two deepsouth National Cemeteries in 1865 were located at Mobile, AL, and Andersonville, GA.
Lonnie R. Speer, author of PORTALS TO HELL, Military Prisons of the Civil War, estimates the total number of POWs at Cahawba Prison during its existance to have been over 5000. He reports that only 162 bodies of those who died there were removed to the Marietta National Cemetery, although 224 depressions in the cemetery ground can still be seen today. Speers goes on to mention the claims of the Autauga and its sinking, as reported above, noting his sources as the January & February 1991 issue of The Civil War News magazine. This issue highlights an interview with McEachern & includes his thoughts on the Autauga & her cargo of Union POW remains. It states that McEachern's research on the Cahawba Prison dates from 1975. In that interview, McEachern claimed the he located the wreck of the Autauga and confirmed her cargo saying, "It was a pitiful sight". However, he does not describe the location of the wreck, Autauga Landing, or any characteristics of the steamer Autauga & her cargo. The discovery details of that century old underwater river disaster would be extremely interesting.
William Bryant's book Cahaba Prison and the Sultana Disaster also mentions the Autauga and states that the Montgomery Advertiser carried an item on March 14, 1894, reprinted from the Mobile Register, listing boats lost on the Alabama River from 1865 to 1894, as recalled by an "old Alabama River pilot". The Autauga was the first boat on that list, and was said to have supposedly sank near Montgomery while carrying the corpses of Union dead from Selma to Montgomery. While the report did not mention the date of the sinking, the number & source of the bodies, nor the Cahawba prison, it is said to be the same report that was reprinted in the Transactions of the Alabama Historical Society 1897-1898. This is the same report referenced by McEachern. With that being the case, where did McEachern come up with the number 750 Union POW remains? Bryant claims that Cahawba hospital records list only 142 deaths, but agrees with Speers that there are 224 depressions in the ground within the original cemtery, and one other burial near the river bank.
Arthur E. Green, Confederate reseacher and the author of several books about Alabama Commands including the 38th, 43rd, and 63rd Infantries, generously searched the Mobile Public Library and found a publication of the Monroe County Heritage Museum called The Legacy, Spring/Summer 2001 issue listing Alabama River Boats that sank or burned, taken from the Montgomery Advertiser on March 14, 1894, as reprinted from the Mobile Register. This seems to be the exact same report that Bryant references in his book, but from a different source. Here is what it said about the Autauga;
"Autauga which was sunk at Autauga Landing. The river was very high and the boat landed on a stump, which tore a hole in her bottom. She filled and turned completely upside down. She was on her way from Selma to Montgomery and was loaded with the corpses of Yankee soldiers. The hull floated down to Carter's plantation near Gainestown, bottom up. The Negroes swarmed out and thought they had struck a rich find, but consternation spread among them when they found nothing but dead bodies. At the time of the accident C. J. English was Captain and Joe Powers pilot."
Captain C.J. English may have been the same Captain English commanding the steamboat La Grande, mentioned in J.C. Swayze's Confederate Rail-Road & Steamboat Guide, Hill & Swayze Publishers, Griffin, GA, 1862. The La Grande was a first class steamer that operated daily trips between Mobile & Montgomery, under the general management of Cox, Brainard & Company. The La Grande was one of seven steamers making this daily trip. One of the seven boats was said to leave each end of the route every day, and carry passengers of the Alabama & Tennessee River Railroad between Selma & Montgomery. Cox, of Cox, Brainard & Co. is Autauga County's very own Jesse J. Cox. It is known from newspaper clippings that Captain Cox commanded several steamers on the Alabama River, covering its entire length from Wetumpka to Mobile. The steamers he commanded along this route were the Fashion, Saint Nicholas, and the Messenger. Another interesting note is that on the 1850 Autauga County Census, nine households down the list from Jesse Cox, is listed the family of one Joshua English. The totality of this information begs to question, "Was the Autauga one of Cox, Brainard & Co.'s seven steamers running the route between Montgomery and Mobile?"
Certain maps place Autauga Landing about a mile and a half downstream from the mouth of Swift Creek on the Alabama River at Autaugaville, in Autauga County. This may be the landing referred to today as Rose Marie Island, off Dutch Bend Road, or another very near this location. The 1860 Autauga County Census Record for the Autaugaville Beat lists the household of Seaborn A. Carter, occupation "Overseer", and is likely the Carter plantation mentioned above and referenced by McEachern as being in the 1898 Alabama Historical Association article. If the Autauga sank here on its way to Montgomery from Selma, then it was headed away from the National Cemetery at Mobile. Were the remains being taken to Andersonville, GA, the only other National Cemtery in the area in 1865?
The April 1998 volume 6 No.2 issue of the Montgomery Historical Society's newsletter, The Herald, gives the best evidence to date that suggests the remains were likely going to be buried at Montgomery, and not at one of the established National Cemeteries in 1865. After the death of 198 Union prisoners housed in a cotton warehouse in Montgomery that was being used as a makeshift military prison,& their bruials at Oakwood Cemetery in 1862, the City of Montgomery donated a parcel of land in Oakwood Cemetery for the burial of Federal soldiers from elsewhwere within the state, about 1 + 1/2 acres. A Cemetery Inspection report by Brevet Major C. W. Folsom, A.Q.M., on the 18th of April, 1867 notes one parcel of 400 Union bodies, of which 160 were from Cahawba. Other places of origin were Selma and Demopolis. Folsom stated that many interments had not yet been entered and many more did not list the origianl burial sites. At this time, there were already 811 burials at Montgomery. The Federals continued bringing in the remains of soldiers who had died in other locations, until the cemetery was filled to capacity (about 1,200). These some 1200 Union POWs were not removed from Montgomery until 1868 when they were reinterred at the Marietta National Cemetery in Georgia.
http://www.mindspring.com/~mchs/herald/prison.htm
The listing of Union prisoners reinterred at Montgomery from locations at Selma, Cahawba, Demopolis, and other unnamed sources lends strongly to the idea that the Autauga's cargo could have been from numerous like, or same sources in Alabama, not from any one single source, such as Cahawba. The fact that Union remains were still being transported to Montgomery for burial as late as 1867, puts Montgomery at the top of the list for the burial site of the Autauga's cargo in June of 1865.
Are the 162 Cahawba remains at Marietta, GA the same 160 remains from "Cahawba" that are on Brevet Major Folsom's list, buried at Montgomery in 1867? Probably so, with the other two bodies being mistakes in the records, or misidentifed as Cahawba remains during the reinterrment process from Montgomery to Marietta, or even perhaps two other burials from graves found at Cahawba sometime after the reinterment from Montogmery. From the 224 depressions in the original cemetery ground at Cahawba, it is more likely that only the remaining 64 unaccounted for bodies from the cemetery were aboard the steamer Autauga when it sank in 1865. The rest of the Autauga's cargo of Union remains were probably from other locations south of Montgomery.
There are no known Official Government Records listing the Autauga and her cargo of Union POW remains. So soon after the horrific disaster of the steamboat Sultana in April, 1865 which exploded and killed nealry 1000 Cahaba survivors on their way home, a story riddled with illegal payoffs & underhanded deals to pack men on boats reaching 3 times thier capacity... could the Autauga disaster and her POW remains have simply been swept under the rug to spare further embarrassment and/or criminal charges against the Federal authorities overseeing the safe return of Union prisoners and the reinterrment of Union remains to National Cemeteries? We may never know the entire story, but thanks to the efforts of Warren McEachern, at the very least...a monument stands in their rememberence at the Prattville Memory Gardens.
River Packets were steamboats used to carry mail, freight, and passengers. A Packet could be a sidewheeler or a sternwheeler and range in size from mammoth to miniscule. Usually, Packets in long distance trade had sleeping & dining accomodations for overnight passengers, while Packets in short distance trade only operated in daylight hours and did not require such accomodations.
The Autauga may have been a short distance trader, transporting goods and equipment between Montogmery, Prattville, and Selma. It may have very well been used by the Confederate Government to transport materials and goods manufactured at Pratt's Cotton Mill and/or from William Penny & Company who were under contract with the C.S. Navy and operated out of Pratt's Mill. The Autauga may have shipped goods and materials to other locations for rail transport to troops in the field or offloaded cargo onto larger steamers headed to Mobile Bay. The stories of a Prattville produced steam engine makes one wonder if the Autauga may have been a steamboat fitted with one of these Prattville prototypes.
Pratt's_Mill_&_the_Confederacy
Thanks go out to Art Green, and Merrill Pratt for contributing sources, and a special thanks to Lloyd C. Lanphere for supplying the 1986 Birmingham News article featuring McEachern's research.
