At Vicksburg the Sultana took on recently released Union Prisoners of war from Confederate prisons at Andersonville, Georgia and Cahaba, Alabama. Many had fought at Gettysburg, Chickamauga, Nashville and Kennesaw Mountain only to be captured and endure long months of inprisonment. Of the approximately 5,000 exchange prisoners 1,300 to 1,400 were to be loaded into all available cabins, quarters and on the decks of the Sultana. They represented units from Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Kentucky, Tennessee, and West Virginia.

Governmental records place the total troop count at 1,866. Others counted as many as 2,200 which brought the total of crew and passengers, to 2,400 people while the Sultana had an authorized capacity of only 376 passengers and crew. This coupled with the weakened boiler was a formula for certain disaster.

At 1 A.M. on April 27th the Sultana steamed away from Memphis and continued its voyage up river after a short stop. At 2 A. M. the Sultana's boilers exploded in a deafing roar.

The United States Custom Service reported that 1,547 were lost. Other equally reliable figures were as much as 1,647

The Sultana sinking was unquestionably the greatest marine disaster in American history.

Among those lost that dark night were the following Wells men who had thought their trials were at last at an end and they were going home: