What was the most significant event on April 27 during the U.S. Civil War?

Today I was moved by the 1865 Sultana Disaster with its dramatically overcrowded troop ship, faulty boiler, former prisoners of war on board and owners motivated by greed. Nobody wants to be killed after hostilities have ceased. Soldiers from TN and KY were closest to the boiler as they were packed in like sardines. Over 1800 people perished in that disaster or shortly afterwards from the explosion, fire, drowning, etc.
1863: It has been interesting posting the progress and setbacks of the ultimately successful COL Grierson’s Raid and the doomed to failure COL Streight’s Raid.

Pictures:
1. 1865 at Vicksburg, MS of Sultana loading soldiers before leaving that city. There has been no other maritime disaster in the US which killed so many people; 2.
1865 Memorial to Steamboat Sultana;
3. CSA Gen Nathan Bedford Forrest;
4. Col Abel D Streight

Since RallyPoint truncates survey selection text I am posting events that were not included and then the full text of each survey choice below:
A. 1861: President Abraham Lincoln extends the blockade to include Virginia and North Carolina and Virginia offers Richmond to be the Confederate capital.
B. Monday, April 27, 1863: Col. Abel Streight leaves Tuscumbia, Alabama moving his command with the goal of raiding Rome, Georgia.
C. Monday, April 27, 1863 Grierson’s Raid: On this date, Grierson’s raiders send a small detachment of troopers in Rebel butternut uniforms to seize the ferry crossing at the Pearl River. The raiders then ride into Hazelhurst, where they sack the railroad yard and set a string of boxcars on fire. The sparks spread to the houses in the town, and the Federal troopers find themselves fighting the fires alongside the townsfolk.
D. Thursday, April 27, 1865: The Sultana Disaster
In the early hours of April 27th, 1865, mere days after the end of the Civil War, the Sultana burst into flames along the Mississippi River. The Sultana was a 260-foot-long wooden steamboat, built in Cincinnati in 1863, which regularly transported passengers and freight between St. Louis and New Orleans on the Mississippi River.
On April 23, 1865, the vessel docked in Vicksburg to address issues with the boiler during a routine journey from New Orleans. While in port, it was contracted by the U.S. Government to carry former Union prisoners of war from Confederate prisons, such as Andersonville and Cahaba, back into Northern territory. In order to fulfill the lucrative contract, J. Cass Mason, the Sultana’s captain, opted to patch the leaky boiler rather than complete more extensive and time-consuming repairs. Fearing that his colleagues were taking bribes to transport prisoners on other boats, Union Army Captain George Williams, who oversaw the operation, hastily ordered that all former prisoners at the parole camp and hospital at Vicksburg be transported on the Sultana. Although it was designed to only hold 376 persons, more than 2,000 Union troops were crowded onto the steamboat - more than five times its legal carrying capacity. Despite concerns of overloading from several officers, Williams refused to divide the men, insisting that they travel on one vessel.
The Sultana steamed north up the Mississippi, but the severe overcrowding and faster river current caused by the spring thaw put increased pressure on its newly patched boilers. Shortly after leaving Memphis, Tennessee on April 27th, the overstrained boilers exploded, blowing apart the center of the boat and starting an uncontrollable fire. Many of those who were not killed immediately perished as they tried to swim to shore. Of the initial survivors, 200 later died from burns sustained during the incident. Records indicate that 1,800 men died, making the Sultana incident the deadliest maritime disaster in U.S. history.
1. Monday, April 27, 1863: Major General Simon Bolivar Buckner assumes command of the Department of East Tennessee.
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2. Monday, April 27, 1863 --- Gen. Grant prepares to make a move on Grand Gulf, the proposed landing spot on the east bank of the Mississippi River, from where he might launch his land campaign against Vicksburg
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3. Wednesday, April 27, 1864: Northern armies break winter camp in preparation for the Spring campaigns.
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4. Wednesday, April 27, 1864 --- The remainder of Gen. Banks’ army returns to Alexandria, Louisiana. It is becoming increasingly apparent that the falling of the river levels at Alexandria Falls will not permit Porter to get his gunboats over the falls.
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5. Wednesday, April 27, 1864 --- John Beauchamp Jones, of the Confederate Ward Department in Richmond, writes in his journal of conditions in Richmond, where food is scarce and getting more scarce, and of politics, military policy, and—as usual—his garden: Another bright and beautiful day; and vegetation is springing with great rapidity. But nearly all my potatoes, corn, egg-plants, and tomatoes seem to have been killed by the frosts of March. I am replanting corn, lima beans, etc. The other vegetables are growing well. One of my fig-bushes was killed—that is, nearly all the branches. The roots live.
It is rumored that the armies on the Rapidan were drawn up in line.
The enemy have again evacuated Suffolk.
Gen. Beauregard is at Weldon. Perhaps Burnside may hurl his blows against North Carolina.
Food is still advancing in price; and unless relief comes from some quarter soon, this city will be in a deplorable condition. A good many fish, however, are coming in, and shad have fallen in price to $12 per pair.
The government ordered the toll of meal here (which the miller, Crenshaw, sold to the people) to be taken for the army; but Col. Northrop, Commissary-General, opposes this; and it is to be hoped, as usual, he may have his way, in spite of even the President. These papers pass through the hands of the Secretary of War. .
The Enquirer, to-day, has a communication assaulting Messrs. Toombs and Stephens, and impeaching their loyalty. The writer denounced the Vice-President severely for his opposition to the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus. During the day the article was sent to Mr. Secretary Seddon, with the compliments of Mr. Parker—the author, I suppose.
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6. Monday, April 27, 1863 --- On this date, by Hooker’s orders, the V, XI, and XII Corps are on the March toward the Rappahannock fords, and the Campaign is begun.
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7. Monday, April 27, 1863 --- Lt. Col. Fremantle continues his account of his travel: I left San Antonio by stage for Alleyton at 9 P.M. The stage was an old coach, into the interior of which nine persons were crammed on three transverse seats, besides many others on the roof. I was placed on the centre seat, which was extremely narrow, and I had nothing but a strap to support my back. An enormously fat German was my vis-a-vis, and a long-legged Confederate officer was in my rear.
Our first team consisted of four mules; we afterwards got horses.
My fellow-travellers were all either military men, or connected with the Government.
Only five out of nine chewed tobacco during the night; but they aimed at the windows with great accuracy, and didn’t splash me. The amount of sleep I got, however, was naturally very trifling.
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8. Monday, April 27, 1863 --- Col. Elisha Franklin Paxton, a Virginian in the Army of Northern Virginia, writes home to his wife, filled with dark thoughts about the Confederate cause and his own spiritual condition: The future, ever a mystery, is more mysterious now than ever before. Our destiny is in the hands of God, infinite in his justice, goodness and mercy; and I feel that in such time as he may appoint he will give us the blessings of independence and peace. We are a wicked people, and the chastisement which we have suffered has not humbled and improved us as it ought. We have a just cause, but we do not deserve success if those who are here spend this time in blasphemy and wickedness, and those who are at home devote their energies to avarice and extortion. Fasting and prayer by such a people is blasphemy, and, if answered at all, will be by an infliction of God’s wrath, not a dispensation of his mercy.
The future, as you say, darling, is dark enough. Though sound in health and strength, I feel that life to many of us hangs upon a slender thread. Whenever God wills it that mine pass from me, I feel that I can say in calm resignation, “Into thy hands I commend my spirit.” In this feeling I am prepared to go forward in the discharge of my duty, striving to make every act and thought of my life conform to his law, and trusting with implicit faith in the salvation promised through Christ. How I wish that I were better than I feel that I am; . . . May God give me strength to be what I ought to be—to do what I ought to do! And now, darling, good-bye. When we meet again, I hope you will have a better husband— that your prayer and mine may be answered.
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A Saturday, April 27, 1861: Abraham Lincoln extends the blockade to include Virginia and North Carolina
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A+ Saturday, April 27, 1861: Virginia offers Richmond to be the Confederate capital.
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B Monday, April 27, 1863: Col. Abel Streight leaves Tuscumbia, Alabama moving his command with the goal of raiding Rome, Georgia.
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B+ Monday, April 27, 1863: Streight's Raid, a Civil War campaign conducted by Union colonel Abel D. Streight from April 19 to May 3, 1863, to destroy portions of the Western & Atlantic Railroad, had little effect upon Union attempts to defeat the Confederate Army of Tennessee. Its principal significance lies in the legends that grew up around Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest's capture of Streight and his men, with the aid of Emma Sansom, near the present-day city of Gadsden.
Streight, a native of New York, owned a printing company and lumber yard in Indianapolis, Indiana, and was a Republican Party member who openly espoused abolitionist sympathies. He enlisted in the Federal army days after Confederates fired upon Fort Sumter. In July 1862, Streight served as part of the Federal occupation force in northern Alabama. During this brief period, he routinely interacted with north Alabama Unionists and recruited many into the Federal army. He greatly overestimated their numbers, and this misconception, shared by many Federal military commanders and President Abraham Lincoln, jeopardized the planned Union raids months before they began.
In March 1863, Union major general Willam Starke Rosecrans ordered Streight to organize a provisional brigade to conduct a mounted raid across northern Alabama and into northwest Georgia, where it would strike the Western & Atlantic Railroad, one of the Confederate Army of Tennessee's supply arteries located in northwest Georgia. Streight's brigade contained portions of the First West Tennessee and First Alabama (U.S.A.) cavalry regiments, and the Third Ohio, Fifty-first Indiana, Seventy-third Illinois, and the Eightieth Illinois infantry regiments, totaling approximately 1,700 soldiers. Lacking horses, a majority of Streight's infantry instead mounted temperamental mules recently procured from farms in western Tennessee. Many of the mules were unbroken, old, or incapable of carrying their riders for great distances without frequent stops. The amused onlookers who watched the large mass of Union soldiers riding mules through the countryside embarrassed the men and slowed their movement. During the raid, Confederates hurled insults toward the brigade, referring to them as the "Jackass Cavalry." Undoubtedly, the lack of horses had a negative effect on Union morale.
Mules were not the only problem. The raid's success also depended upon Brig. Gen. Grenville Dodge's ability to screen Streight's movements from Confederate cavalry commanded by General Forrest as well as cavalry led by Col. Phillip Roddey, both part of the Army of Tennessee. On April 19, 1863, Streight's brigade boarded several boats at Nashville that transported the force southward on the Tennessee River and disembarked at Eastport, Mississippi. That night, a stampede scattered approximately 400 of the brigade's mules into the surrounding countryside causing a delay as Streight waited in Eastport for a shipment of mules. Two days later, Streight rendezvoused with Dodge and his 8,000 cavalrymen, and moved toward Tuscumbia, in Colbert County. During the march, skirmishers who had detached from Forrest's division impeded Federal movements. At Tuscumbia, Streight and Dodge separated, with Streight riding toward Moulton, in Lawrence County, and Dodge screening the movement by heading north in the hopes of distracting Forrest and Roddey. As Streight left Tuscumbia late on April 26, a heavy rainstorm made the roads virtually impassable, forcing him to make an unscheduled stop at Mount Hope in Lawrence County. There, Dodge informed Streight that the two would not meet at Moulton, as previously planned. Dodge reported that his command had driven Forrest to the north, thereby clearing a path for Streight to continue the raid unmolested. Dodge's movements, however, had not deterred Forrest, who closely pursued the "Jackass Brigade."
As Streight moved eastward, the morale of his command temporarily improved as dry weather and the capture of several Confederate supply wagons bolstered spirits. The mood changed, however, when Union scouts spotted Confederates moving along both their right and left flanks, threatening to surround the entire command. These movements led to the Battle of Day's Gap, which took place in Cullman County near Sand Mountain. During this fight, Streight's men thwarted Forrest's attempt to surround him from the rear with a series of charges led by the Seventy-third Illinois and Fifty-first Indiana. Undeterred, a few hours later Forrest resumed the attack upon Streight, whose men dismounted and occupied a ridge along Hog Mountain in preparation for what they incorrectly believed was a larger force. Again Streight's men repulsed several assaults and then resumed the march at an accelerated pace, which allowed them to successfully ambush a portion of Forrest's cavalry near Blountsville (Blount County). As Streight's men pressed toward Gadsden (Etowah County), Forrest's constant presence behind the Union forces prevented Streight from resting his weary troops and mules, which proved too slow to outrun Forrest's horsemen. In addition, their constant braying enabled Forrest's scouts to detect Streight's force from more than two miles away.
On the afternoon of May 2, Streight crossed Black Creek (located three miles from Gadsden) ahead of Forrest and burned the only nearby bridge, impeding the Confederate pursuit. Streight soon realized that his cavalry could not outrun Forrest for long and desperately needed to reach the city of Rome, Georgia. There, Streight intended to fight what he believed to be the numerically superior foe from behind some hastily prepared breastworks. Unbeknownst to him, the actions of two locals thwarted his plans. Unable to use the bridge to cross the swollen Black Creek, Forrest rode to a nearby home to find a guide. He found 16-year-old Emma Sansom, with whose guidance he located the ford, crossed it, and caught up with Streight's force. Meanwhile, ferry operator John Wisdom came upon the troops having burned his ferry on the Coosa River at Gadsden and raced 67 miles to Rome, where he warned residents of the approaching Union troops. As a result of his actions, Rome's inhabitants repelled a detachment of Streight's cavalry sent to occupy a vital bridge crossing the Coosa River, thus blocking the only available route into the city. Streight then turned west toward Centre, in search of another crossing. His exhausted command, however, abandoned the search.
At Cedar Bluff, Streight's men stopped for a much needed rest. Many of the cavalrymen had been walking due to the deaths of numerous mules. To make matters worse, during a recent skirmish the soldiers learned that the bulk of their ammunition was rendered useless due to its exposure to water. There at Cedar Bluff, Forrest and his 500 men surrounded Streight and his men. Rather than face possible annihilation, Streight decided to surrender his command. During the negotiations, Forrest craftily reaffirmed Streight's misconception that the Confederates greatly outnumbered his brigade. In order to reinforce the ruse, Forrest's artillery repeatedly rode in circles in and out of Streight's view along a neighboring ridge. On May 3, 1863, Streight surrendered, convinced he had been captured by a numerically superior foe. When Forrest's smaller division appeared following the surrender, Streight angrily demanded his men be allowed to renege their surrender, but Forrest refused. Defeat proved especially bitter for the soldiers of the First Alabama Cavalry (U.S.A.), who had risked their families and homes to defend the Union despite their state's decision to secede. The Confederates transported Streight and the majority of his brigade to Libby Prison in Richmond, Virginia. During the arduous trip, many of his weary malnourished soldiers succumbed to disease and many later died in prison, with approximately 200 lost in total. In 1864, Streight and 107 other prisoners escaped through an intricate system of tunnels.
Streight's Raid was an abysmal failure as a result of inadequate supplies, poor communication among Federal commanders, exaggerated estimates of Confederate forces and local Unionists, and bad luck. Whereas Nathan Bedford Forrest, and to a lesser degree Emma Sansom, are credited for foiling the raid, its failure had less to do with Confederate actions than the bungling mishaps of their Union counterparts. In the end, the raiders failed to disrupt the Army of Tennessee's supply lines and had no impact upon the battles fought in middle Tennessee and northwest Georgia during the summer and fall of 1863, and they endured a humiliating defeat. In northern Alabama and northwest Georgia, accounts of Forrest's heroics further elevated his already mythical status. In 1908, the city of Rome dedicated the first statue commissioned to honor the famed Confederate cavalryman and first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. Equally important, the state of Alabama and Confederacy acquired a wartime heroine, Emma Sansom, whose exploits would later reinforce postbellum notions that stressed the sacrifices and contributions of Confederate women during a war lost by southern men. The city of Gadsden erected a monument to Sansom in 1906.
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C Monday, April 27, 1863 --- Grierson’s Raid – On this date, Grierson’s raiders send a small detachment of troopers in Rebel butternut uniforms to seize the ferry crossing at the Pearl River. The raiders then ride into Hazelhurst, where they sack the railroad yard and set a string of boxcars on fire. The sparks spread to the houses in the town, and the Federal troopers find themselves fighting the fires alongside the townsfolk.
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D. Thursday, April 27, 1865: The Sultana Disaster
In the early hours of April 27th, 1865, mere days after the end of the Civil War, the Sultana burst into flames along the Mississippi River. The Sultana was a 260-foot-long wooden steamboat, built in Cincinnati in 1863, which regularly transported passengers and freight between St. Louis and New Orleans on the Mississippi River.
On April 23, 1865, the vessel docked in Vicksburg to address issues with the boiler during a routine journey from New Orleans. While in port, it was contracted by the U.S. Government to carry former Union prisoners of war from Confederate prisons, such as Andersonville and Cahaba, back into Northern territory. In order to fulfill the lucrative contract, J. Cass Mason, the Sultana’s captain, opted to patch the leaky boiler rather than complete more extensive and time-consuming repairs. Fearing that his colleagues were taking bribes to transport prisoners on other boats, Union Army Captain George Williams, who oversaw the operation, hastily ordered that all former prisoners at the parole camp and hospital at Vicksburg be transported on the Sultana. Although it was designed to only hold 376 persons, more than 2,000 Union troops were crowded onto the steamboat - more than five times its legal carrying capacity. Despite concerns of overloading from several officers, Williams refused to divide the men, insisting that they travel on one vessel.
The Sultana steamed north up the Mississippi, but the severe overcrowding and faster river current caused by the spring thaw put increased pressure on its newly patched boilers. Shortly after leaving Memphis, Tennessee on April 27th, the overstrained boilers exploded, blowing apart the center of the boat and starting an uncontrollable fire. Many of those who were not killed immediately perished as they tried to swim to shore. Of the initial survivors, 200 later died from burns sustained during the incident. Records indicate that 1,800 men died, making the Sultana incident the deadliest maritime disaster in U.S. history.
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D+ Thursday, April 27, 1865: Civil War vets are caught in steamboat explosion
In 1865, an explosion on a Mississippi River steamboat kills an estimated 1,547 people, mostly Union soldiers returning home after the Civil War. Although this disaster near Memphis took a huge toll, it was barely noticed against the backdrop of the end of the Civil War, a conflict in which tens of thousands had died.
The previous day had marked the final surrender and end of armed resistance by the remaining Confederate forces. Only two weeks earlier, President Abraham Lincoln had been assassinated. Prisoners of war who had been held in hellish conditions in Alabama’s Andersonville and Cahaba prison camps were trying to make their way home to Illinois. The steamboat Sultana was one of their only options.
At 2 a.m. on April 26, the steamboat left Vicksburg, Mississippi. It was built to hold 376 passengers, but reports say that there were as many as 2,700 people on board as it lumbered slowly up the Mississippi River. It took 17 hours to make the journey to Memphis, where it stopped to pick up more coal.
A couple of hours past midnight, the trip came to a sudden end: near the Arkansas side of the river, one of the Sultana‘s three boilers suddenly exploded. Hot metal debris ripped through the vessel and two other boilers exploded within minutes of the first. The passengers were killed by flying metal, scalding water, collapsing decks and the roaring fire that broke out on board. Some drowned as they were thrown into the water, but rescue boats were immediately dispatched, saving hundreds of lives.
The final tally of casualties was hotly disputed. Some believe it may have been almost 2,000 people, though the U.S. Army said that only 1,200 people had been killed. Local customs officials determined that 1,547 were killed; that became the generally accepted count. The Sultana disaster remains one the most deadly maritime accidents in U.S. history.
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D++ Thursday, April 27, 1865: The Shipwreck That Led Confederate Veterans To Risk All For Union Lives
On April 27, 1865, the steamboat Sultana exploded and sank while traveling up the Mississippi River, killing an estimated 1,800 people.
The British luxury liner Titanic glides through the Southampton, England, harbor to begin her ill-fated maiden voyage. A few days later, on April 15, 1912, the $7.5 million vessel sank after striking an iceberg in the north Atlantic. The tragic disaster claimed 1,517 lives. There were 711 survivors.
The event remains the worst maritime disaster in U.S. history (the sinking of the Titanic killed 1,512 people). Yet few know the story of the Sultana's demise, or the ensuing rescue effort that included Confederate soldiers saving Union soldiers they might have shot just weeks earlier.
So on the 150th anniversary of the sinking, the city of Marion, Ark., is trying to make sure the Sultana will be remembered. The city has created a museum and is hosting events intended to bring attention to the tragedy.
"It was like a tremendous bomb going off in the middle of where these men were. And the shrapnel, the steam and the boiling water killed hundreds."
Jerry Potter, lawyer and author of The Sultana Tragedy
Marion, across the river from Memphis, Tenn., is near the spot where the 260-foot side-wheeler came to rest. "We feel like we're a part of this Civil War story, but we're the conclusion that no one heard," says Lisa O'Neal, a Marion resident and member of the Sultana Historic Preservation Society.
The Sultana was on its way from Vicksburg, Miss., to St. Louis when the explosion occurred, says Jerry Potter, a Memphis lawyer and author of The Sultana Tragedy. It was just weeks after the Civil War ended, Potter explains, and the vessel was packed with Union soldiers who'd been released from Confederate prison camps.
"The boat had a legal carrying capacity of 376 passengers," he says, "and on its up-river trip it had over 2,500 aboard," in part because the government had agreed to pay $5 for each enlisted man and $10 for each officer who made the trip.
Today, Potter describes the scene from a park along the banks of the Mississippi, just north of Memphis. "The river is at flood stage," he says as we watch a barge struggle to move up river, "very similar to what it was on April 27, 1865." That day, he says, the water was moving very quickly and contained a lot of trees and other debris. And it was very cold.
The Sultana made it only a few miles north of Memphis.
"At 2 a.m., one of the boilers exploded, resulting in two other boilers exploding," Potter says. "And the entire center of the boat erupted like a volcano."
Soldiers from Kentucky and Tennessee were among the first to die, he says, "because they'd been packed in next to the boilers.
"It was like a tremendous bomb going off in the middle of where these men were," Potter says. "And the shrapnel, the steam and the boiling water killed hundreds."
Fire, drowning and exposure would kill many hundreds more. But the story of the Sultana is about more than lost lives. It is also about a rescue effort that brought together people who had been at war just weeks earlier.
Many Sultana survivors ended up on the Arkansas side of the river, which was under Confederate control during the war. And many of them were saved by local residents, like John Fogelman — an ancestor of the city of Marion's current mayor, Frank Fogelman.
Newspaper accounts suggest John Fogelman and his sons spotted the burning Sultana as the remains of the paddle-wheeler drifted downriver.
"The wind blew the fire to the rear, burned that out," Frank Fogelman says. "The paddle wheel fell off of one side, caused the boat to turn sideways; the other paddle wheel fell off."
Eventually the Sultana turned so that the wind was pushing the flames toward the bow, where 25 soldiers remained. Fogelman's ancestors didn't have any boats to reach the trapped soldiers, so they improvised.
"I understand that the Fogelmans were able to put together some logs to make a raft and go out and take people off the boat as it drifted back this way," Fogelman says. "In order to save time, they would set the people off in treetops, and go back to the boat to take more off."
All 25 soldiers were rescued, historians say, and the Fogelman home became a refuge for Sultana survivors.
Passing boats and bystanders on both sides of the Mississippi helped pull survivors from the muddy water. But some of the most poignant stories involve Confederate soldiers rescuing their Union counterparts.
Frank Barton is the descendant of one of those Confederate soldiers, a man named Franklin Hardin Barton.
"He served in the 23rd Arkansas Cavalry, and he was tasked with, among other things, raiding ships going up and down the river," Frank Barton says. "A few weeks earlier, he might have been attacking the Sultana if it had come in."
Instead, newspaper accounts say Franklin Barton saved several Union soldiers.
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D++ Thursday, April 27, 1865: Carrying former prisoners-of-war the Sultana explodes on the Mississippi River near Memphis.
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Ed Bearss on Grierson's Raid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WG6D97xsYpw

FYI MAJ (Join to see) LTC Stephen C. SGT Tiffanie G. CMDCM John F. "Doc" Bradshaw SPC Maurice Evans SGT Mark Anderson SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth COL Randall C. SFC Ralph E Kelley SSG (Join to see) Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D.LTC Thomas Tennant Maj Kim Patterson LTC (Join to see) Maj John BellCPT Kevin McComas SFC George Smith SSG William Jones SPC Michael Terrell

Another Outstanding Historical Post!!! Thank You Sir!!! Doc

Very nice read in Civil War history; I am choosing all events were important back on April 27th LTC Stephen F.