| Sinking the Sultana: A Civil War Story of Imprisonment, Greed, and a Doomed Journey Home Contributor(s): Walker, Sally M. (Author) |
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ISBN: 0763677558 ISBN-13: 9780763677558 Publisher: Candlewick Press (MA) OUR PRICE: $22.49 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: October 2017 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Juvenile Nonfiction | History - United States - Civil War Period (1850-1877) - Juvenile Nonfiction | Transportation - Boats, Ships & Underwater Craft - Juvenile Nonfiction | Science & Nature - Disasters |
| Dewey: 973.771 |
| Lexile Measure: 1090 |
| Physical Information: 0.8" H x 7.8" W x 9.1" (1.58 lbs) 208 pages |
| Accelerated Reader Info |
| Quiz #: 191876 Reading Level: 7.7 Interest Level: Middle Grades Point Value: 6.0 |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: 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? |