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?

Author: Sally M. Walker
Publisher: Candlewick Press (MA)
Published: 10/10/2017
Pages: 208
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.58lbs
Size: 9.10h x 7.80w x 0.80d
ISBN: 9780763677558

Accelerated Reader:
Reading Level: 7.7
Point Value: 6
Interest Level: Middle Grade Plus
Quiz #/Name: 191876 / Sinking the Sultana: A Civil War Story of Imprisonment, Greed, and a Doomed Journey Home


Review Citation(s):
Voice of Youth Advocates 08/01/2017 - Recommended - Readable
Kirkus Reviews 09/01/2017
School Library Journal 09/01/2017
Booklist 09/01/2017 pg. 84
Bulletin of Ctr for Child Bks 10/01/2017
Publishers Weekly 10/09/2017
Hornbook Guide to Children 01/01/2018 - Below Average, With Minor Flaw

About the Author
Sally M. Walker is the author of the Sibert Medal winner Secrets of a Civil War Submarine as well as many other nonfiction books, including Boundaries: How the Mason-Dixon Line Settled a Family Feud and Divided a Nation. Sally M. Walker lives in Illinois.