MID-AMBLE
At the two-hour layover in Memphis, some of the soldiers joined the roustabouts in unloading the hogsheads of sugar.  They pocketed a nice bit of change for their efforts. Many others took the opportunity to find their way in to town and indulge in a heavy bit of spirits with some of the locals. By midnight the brass bell atop the steamer called to regroup the packets more than generous payload.  She crossed the swollen river to re-coal in Arkansas.  

Now one theory has this last stop as the point of entry for a large dose of confederate the revenge in the form of a coal torpedo, but more than likely it was just more fuel for the fire so to speak.  The fire in a faulty boiler. 

Here in the middle of a new country, in the middle of the night could be found the proverbial calm before the storm. 

A light rain began to fall as the paddlewheel beat out a steady rhythm to lull those aboard into a dream-like state.  Little did they know that would soon become a clouded nightmare.

It was around 2 a.m. several miles north of the city.  Old Man River had grown over 4 miles wide.  It was Islands 42, 43 and 44.  For those who travel the river, this area was called Paddy’s Hen and Chickens - 80 acres of mud and marsh - a location that would live in infamy.  The site of America’s worst maritime disaster and for a few hours that cold, rainy April night it would become a hell on earth.