Sinking the Sultana
A Civil War Story of Imprisonment, Greed, and a Doomed Journey Home
Candlewick Press · Print & ebook · October 10, 2017
The worst maritime disaster in American history wasn’t the Titanic.
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- Who it’s for
- A harrowing maritime catastrophe becomes a sustained inquiry into how preventable failure turned deadly.
- Themes
- Maritime disaster, Civil War imprisonment, Greed and responsibility
- Genres
- Civil War Era (U.S.), Boats & Ships, Military & Wars
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For older readers: Vicksburg, 1863, Sultana, Indianapolis
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The worst maritime disaster in American history wasn’t the Titanic. It was the steamboat Sultana on the Mississippi River — and it could have been prevented. In 1865, the Civil War was winding down and the country was reeling from Lincoln’s assassination. Thousands of Union soldiers, released from Confederate prisoner-of-war camps, were to be transported home on the steamboat Sultana.
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With a profit to be made, the captain rushed repairs to the boat so the soldiers wouldn’t find transportation elsewhere. More than 2,000 passengers boarded in Vicksburg, Mississippi . . . on a boat with a capacity of 376. The journey was violently interrupted when the boat’s boilers exploded, plunging the Sultana into mayhem; passengers were bombarded with red-hot iron fragments, burned by scalding steam, and flung overboard into the churning Mississippi. Although rescue efforts were launched, the survival rate was dismal — more than 1,500 lives were lost. In a compelling, exhaustively researched account, renowned author Sally M. Walker joins the ranks of historians who have been asking the same question for 150 years: who (or what) was responsible for the Sultana’s disastrous fate?
A Disaster Reconsidered
A harrowing maritime catastrophe becomes a sustained inquiry into how preventable failure turned deadly.
Come here for
- Civil War history told through a crowded, ill-fated voyage
- The question of who—or what—was responsible
Expect
- An account of catastrophe and its aftermath
- A grave, investigative reading experience
Where it sits
| Civil War Era (U.S.) | 94% |
|---|---|
| Boats & Ships | 47% |
| Military & Wars | 44% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Civil War Era (U.S.)
- Natural Disasters
- Boats & Ships
- Authors
- Sally M. Walker
- Publisher
- Candlewick Press
- Published
- October 10, 2017
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Theme
- Maritime disaster · Civil War imprisonment · Greed and responsibility
- Reading lane
- Civil War Era (U.S.)