Memphis, TN

Place Unit Type
City or Town
Containing Unit
Date Type
A Mississippi steamboat burns to the waterline at its dock in New Orleans, Louisiana Crime/Disasters
- A Southern Soldier's Convention of Confederate veterans is meeting in Memphis. Campaigns/Elections
Election Day in Memphis, Tennessee Campaigns/Elections
Five newspaper offices burn in Memphis, Tennessee fire Crime/Disasters
In Franklin, Tennessee, a fatal confrontation between Confederate veterans and discharged black soldiers results in gunfire. Campaigns/Elections
In Louisiana, a Mississippi steamboat's boiler ruptures and scalds forty-five people aboard to death Crime/Disasters
- In Memphis, serious riots break out as whites kill, rape, and burn in African-American sections of the city Crime/Disasters
In Memphis, U.S. Senator Andrew Johnson of Tennessee is hanged in effigy Lawmaking/Litigating
In Tennessee, Confederate General Forrest's cavalry makes a daring raid into the streets of Union-held Memphis Battles/Soldiers
Near Donaldsonville, Louisiana, a Mississippi steamboat burns and six people are killed. Crime/Disasters
Official figures state cholera epidemic raging across the country has killed more than 10,000. Crime/Disasters
On the Mississippi, near Memphis, the Steamboat "Sultana" explodes and up to 1,800 passengers and crew die Crime/Disasters
Scores die when a Mississippi steamboat explodes and burns near Cairo, Illinois Crime/Disasters
Slave-mart collapses in Memphis, Tennessee and four "valuable negro men" die Crime/Disasters
Steamboat founders on the Mississippi Crime/Disasters
- Stephen Douglas makes his final campaign tour, through the Deep South Campaigns/Elections
Two steamboats collide on the Mississippi River above Memphis, one sinks in minutes Crime/Disasters
Name Type
Elmwood Cemetery, Memphis, TN Location or Site
Date Title
Washington (DC) National Era, “Lynching an Abolitionist in Mississippi,” October 8, 1857
(St. Louis) Missouri Republican, “The Great Overland Mail,” October 3, 1858
San Francisco (CA) Evening Bulletin, “Time Table by the Butterfield Overland Mail Route,” October 11, 1858
(St. Louis) Missouri Republican, “Judge Douglas,” November 25, 1858
New Orleans (LA) Picayune, “Quick,” January 2, 1859
Charleston (SC) Mercury, “Insurrectionists in West Tennessee,” November 15, 1859
Chicago (IL) Press and Tribune, “Is It True or False?,” November 16, 1859
Fayetteville (NC) Observer, “The South for Bell and Everett,” August 20, 1860
New York Times, “Mr. Yancey's Speech,” August 21, 1860
Fayetteville (NC) Observer, "A Hoax," April 4, 1861
Entry by Kate Stone, July 4, 1861
Memphis (TN) Appeal, “Clothing For Our Army,” August 8, 1861
New York Herald, “The Pen and the Sword,” May 17, 1863
Chief Engineer Nathan Witringer, Reminiscences of the Sultana Disaster, April 27, 1865, written on April 14, 1886.
Charles F. Jackson and T.W. Gilbreth, Report of an investigation of the cause, origin, and results of the late riots in the city of Memphis, submitted May 22, 1866
Nathan Bedford Forrest, et al, to the Soldiers' and Sailors' Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, September 17, 1866, Memphis, Tennessee.
Gordon Granger, et al, to Nathan Bedford Forrest, et al., September 18, 1866, Cleveland, Ohio.
Resolutions, The Convention of Southern Soldiers, Memphis, Tennessee, September 19, 1866.
How to Cite This Page: "Memphis, TN," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/index.php/node/14279.