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 Was Completely Preventable. 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 Ship 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 Ship’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?