Sinking the Sultana - A Civil War Story of Imprisonment, Greed, and a Doomed Journey Home

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 . 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?

Détails du produit

• Auteurs: Sally M Walker, Sally M. Walker
• Edition: Candlewick Press
• Langues: Anglais
• Recommandation d'âge: à partir de 10 ans
• Format d'édition: Livre Relié
• Sortie: 31.10.2017
• EAN: 9780763677558
• ISBN: 978-0-7636-7755-8
• Pages: 208
• Dimensions: 197 mm x 236 mm x 19 mm
• Catégorie: Livres pour enfants et adolescents > Littérature spécialisée (texte ou images) > Histoire, politique