Download or read book Disaster on the Mississippi written by Gene Eric Salecker and published by US Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2015 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reprint. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, A1996.

Download or read book Sultana written by Alan Huffman and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-03-24 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “One of the most riveting war stories I have ever read….Huffman’s smooth, intimate prose ushers you through this nightmare as if you were living it yourself.” —Sebastian Junger, author of The Perfect Storm The dramatic true story of the worst maritime disaster in U.S. history, Alan Huffman’s Sultana brings to breathtaking life a tragic, long forgotten event in America’s Civil War—the sinking of the steamship Sultana and the loss of 1,700 lives, mostly Union soldiers returning home from Confederate prison camps. A gripping account that reads like a nonfiction Cold Mountain, Sultana is powerful, moving, rich in irony and fascinating historical detail—a story no history aficionado or Civil War buff will want to miss.

Download or read book Loss of the Sultana and Reminiscences of Survivors written by Chester D. Berry and published by . This book was released on 1892 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book SULTANA TRAGEDY THE written by Jerry O. Potter and published by Pelican Publishing Company. This book was released on 1992-02-29 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lee Surrenders! "President Murdered!" "Booth Killed!" screamed the headlines of American newspapers in April 1865, leaving little room for mention of a maritime disaster that to this day is America's worst. On April 27, 1865, the Sultana, a 260-foot, wooden-hulled steamboat-smaller than the Titanic but carrying more passengers-exploded on the Mississippi River near Memphis, Tennessee. More than 1,800 men, mostly Union soldiers on their way home from Confederate prison camps, died. On board were over 2,400 passengers-six times the ship's legal capacity. Although jubilant about the war's end, most of the men were weakened by malnutrition and disease from their imprisonment at Andersonville and Cahaba. Hundreds who were not killed in the explosion drowned in the cold, swift waters of the muddy river. Because of the timing of the sinking, coverage of the Sultana's demise was scant, and the tragedy has passed almost unnoticed in the pages of American history. In this highly documented book, author Jerry Potter focuses on how greed, indifference, gross stupidity, and criminal misconduct reaching as far as the White House led to the overloading of the Sultana at Vicksburg. Such irresponsible conduct characterized the actions of President Lincoln, an entire chain of army command, and several profit-hungry civilians. This authoritative work contains abundant photographs and illustrations, as well as the most complete list of the ship's passengers available.

Download or read book Sinking the Sultana written by Sally M. Walker and published by Candlewick Press. This book was released on 2017-11-14 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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?

Download or read book Destruction of the Steamboat Sultana written by Gene E Salecker and published by Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2022-03-15 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Sultana was a sidewheel Mississippi steamboat carrying almost two thousand recently-released Union prisoners-of-war back north at the end of the Civil War. At 2:00 a.m. on April 27, 1865, when the boat was seven miles above Memphis, her boilers exploded. Almost 1,200 people perished in the worst maritime disaster in United States history. Gene Eric Salecker covers this disaster in detail and dispels the many myths that have been connected to the Sultana for too long. Almost every author who has written about the Sultana has relied on the words of a few survivors or referred to the works of previous authors to get their story. Advancing the scholarship, the author has visited the National Archives in Washington, DC, to comb through the handwritten transcripts of the three investigative bodies that looked into the disaster or poured over the handwritten testimony from the court-martial trial of Capt. Frederic Speed, the only person tried for the overcrowding of the vessel. In 1996, after extensive research and using the most current sources available at that time, Salecker wrote Disaster on the Mississippi: The Sultana Explosion, April 27, 1865. Still, there were inevitable omissions. After almost twenty-five years of continued research on the Sultana, and all those involved in the disaster, Salecker has gleaned unparalleled knowledge into every aspect of the disaster. His research, covering the National Archives, and thousands of pages of newspapers from around the world and government documents, including pension records and service records, has allowed Gene to tell the story of the Sultana as completely as possible. By bringing his research back to primary sources, Salecker dispels myths and adds to the story of the Sultana. In Destruction of the Steamboat Sultana: The Worst Maritime Disaster in American History paroled prisoners, civilian passengers, guards, crew members, rescuers, and eyewitnesses tell their stories in their own words. The true, and complete, story about the Sultana and the disaster has finally, and fully, been told.

Download or read book Cahaba Prison and the Sultana Disaster written by William O. Bryant and published by University Alabama Press. This book was released on 2018-05-23 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tells the dramatic story of the infamous Confederate prisoner-of-war camp where 5,000 Union soldiers were interned during the latter part of the Civil War and of the ensuing maritime disaster With a death rate of 5 percent, Alabama's Cahaba Federal Prison boasted a better survival rate than the notorious Confederate prisoner-of-war camps of Andersonville, Libby Prison, Elmira, Rock Island, Johnson's Island, and Camp Douglas. Yet it was a ghastly facility, a hastily converted agricultural warehouse so overcrowded that each man barely had space to lie down to sleep. At the war's conclusion in 1865, however, in a harrowing reversal of the inmates' fates, captured Union soldiers were sent on a grueling overland march to the Mississippi River. Held there in camps at Vicksburg along with other prisoners of war, the soldiers embarked on the steamship Sultana for transportation north. Traveling first to New Orleans and then heading north, the vessel held by some estimates six times more passengers than its safe limit, many of them ill, injured, or malnourished. The flow of the swollen Mississippi that April was wide, swift, and cold, and the Sultana struggled to make the journey. Then, on April 27, 1865, seven miles north of Memphis, a series of three boilers exploded within seconds of one another. The lucky passengers were flung into the water as chunks of the Sultana blasted apart. The remaining wooden structure caught fire and the upper deck collapsed. Only an estimated one third of the passengers survived, hundreds of whom later died from their wounds. First published in 1988, Bryant's account weaves together the many strands of the Cahaba story. Combining masterful storytelling and insightful analysis, he describes Civil War prisons, the history of the Cahaba Federal Prison and its construction, as well as the prison's commanders, prisoners, and local women who provided medical care and food to the prisoners. He tells of the violent struggles among Union inmates, a mutiny and flood that occurred during the final days of the camp, and the harrowing deaths of the liberated soldiers aboard the Sultana. Bryant's Cahaba Prison and the Sultana Disaster remains a vital part of any library of Civil War history.

Download or read book Destruction of the Steamboat Sultana written by Gene E. Salecker and published by . This book was released on 2022-03-15 with total page 528 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Sultana was a sidewheel Mississippi steamboat carrying almost two thousand recently-released Union prisoners-of-war back north at the end of the Civil War. At 2:00 a.m. on April 27, 1865, when the boat was seven miles above Memphis, her boilers exploded. Almost 1,200 people perished in the worst maritime disaster in United States history. Gene Eric Salecker covers this disaster in detail and dispels the many myths that have been connected to the Sultana for too long. Almost every author who has written about the Sultana has relied on the words of a few survivors or referred to the works of previous authors to get their story. Advancing the scholarship, the author has visited the National Archives in Washington, DC to comb through the handwritten transcripts of the three investigative bodies that looked into the disaster or poured over the handwritten testimony from the court-martial trial of Capt. Frederic Speed, the only person tried for the overcrowding of the vessel. In 1996, after extensive research and using the most current sources available at that time, Salecker wrote Disaster on the Mississippi: The Sultana Explosion, April 27, 1865. Still, there were inevitable omissions. After almost twenty-five years of continued research on the Sultana, and all those involved in the disaster, Salecker has gleaned unparalleled knowledge into every aspect of the disaster. His research, covering the National Archives, and thousands of pages of newspapers from around the world and government documents, including pension records and service records, has allowed Gene to tell the story of the Sultana as completely as possible. By bringing his research back to primary sources, Salecker dispels myths and adds to the story of the Sultana. In Destruction of the Steamboat Sultana: The Worst Maritime Disaster in American History paroled prisoners, civilian passengers, guards, crewmembers, rescuers, and eyewitnesses tell their stories in their own words. The true, and complete, story about the Sultana and the disaster has finally, and fully, been told.

Download or read book Disaster on the Mississippi written by Gene E Salecker and published by Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2015-04-15 with total page 377 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At two o’clock in the morning on 27 April 1865, seven miles north of Memphis on the Mississippi, the sidewheel steamboat Sultana’s boilers suddenly exploded. Legally registered to carry 376 people, the boat was packed with 2,100 recently released Union prisoners-of-war. Over 1,700 people died, making it the worst marine disaster in U.S. history. This book looks at the disaster through the eyes of the victims themselves. It offers a concise, minute-by-minute account on the cause of the explosion and its effect on different parts of the boat. To focus on the personal stories of the victims, both civilian and soldier, Gene Eric Salecker patiently collected material from hundreds of letters, period newspaper stories, and other sources. Readers are first introduced to victims while they are languishing in Confederate prisons and follow their release to an exchange camp outside of Vicksburg to their eventual crowding onto the Sultana. His knowledgeable narrative is interwoven with individual reminiscences, including those of the heroic rescuers. He offers unprecedented details about the captain’s handling of the steamboat and corrects some long-held myths about the placement of the soldiers on the Sultana and newspaper coverage of the disaster. A large portion of the book covers rescue attempts, both successful and failed, and the aftermath of the disaster as it affected those involved. With its emphasis on the human-interest aspect of the Sultana, this book brings to the literature a critical point of view and much new information.

Download or read book Yours written by Lila Jeanne Elliott Sybesma and published by Indiana Historical Society. This book was released on 2019-01-01 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sarah Sutton and the Elliott brothers, Gabe and Joseph, grew up together, and, as teenagers, the brothers vie for Sarah's attention. When the Civil War starts, Gabe and Joseph enlist in the Union army. Sarah accompanies her father, a surgeon, and serves as a nurse in battlefield hospitals. They reunite on the Sultana, a steamboat returning thousands of soldiers, many former prisoners of war, home. Tragedy strikes when the boilers explode and the ship sinks in the Mississippi River. What will happen next?

Download or read book The Explosion of the SS Sultana written by Charles River Charles River Editors and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2018-02-09 with total page 58 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *Includes pictures *Includes accounts of the explosion and sinking of the Sultana *Includes a bibliography for further reading There is a popular saying that declares "timing is everything," and in no other field of study is that truer than in history. For instance, under normal conditions, a ship that sank with more than 2,000 passengers aboard - most of whom died - would be big news, yet today the sinking of the SS Sultana is often overlooked if not entirely forgotten. While it might have generated the type of publicity and reaction of the Johnstown Flood of 1889 or the Galveston Hurricane of 1900 under normal circumstances, the explosion and sinking of the Sultana on April 27, 1865 has become something of a historical footnote. The irony is that the Sultana is a historical footnote because of the Civil War, but it was also intimately tied to the war. Although Robert E. Lee's surrender to Ulysses Grant at Appomattox was not technically the end of the Civil War, it took one of the last remaining Confederate armies out of the field. Furthermore, on the night of April 14, many of the Union's hopes for the future were dashed when President Abraham Lincoln was shot at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D. C. The people of the nation quickly became a volatile mix of grief and outrage, uninterested in anything that did not relate to the death of their beloved president. In fact, just the day before the disaster, as the Sultana was sailing up the Mississippi River to her rendezvous with destiny, Union Army soldiers cornered and killed Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth. The Sultana's chief engineer, N. Wintringer, tried to give his readers a sense of the context in which the accident took place when he wrote, "As I was chief engineer of that ill-fated steamer at the time of her explosion I thought that my recollections of that terrible calamity would be of some interest. I believe that George Oayton, one of the pilots and myself were the only officers of the boat that escaped with our lives. ... The 'Sultana' left Cairo on that fatal trip the 15th of April, 1865, the day after the death of President Lincoln, and as all wire communications with the south were cut off at that time, the 'Sultana' carried the news of his assassination and death to all points and military posts on the Mississippi river as far as New Orleans." In short, the entire nation was in a state of chaos and too exhausted from four years of war that culminated in the death of the president to give the disaster the attention and grief it deserved. Perhaps the cruelest irony of the disaster is that the Sultana was packed full of men who had survived every conceivable trial and tribulation of the war, from wounds and sicknesses to being prisoners. Having lost hundreds of thousands, America was almost numb to the loss of a couple of thousand more, especially when many of the dead were soldiers themselves, and in a sense, it was left for future generations to try to unravel what went wrong and to pay tribute to the men who died on that dark night. The Explosion of the SS Sultana chronicles the story of America's deadliest maritime disaster. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about the explosion and sinking of the Sultana like never before, in no time at all.

Download or read book Ship Ablaze written by Ed O'Donnell and published by Crown. This book was released on 2008-12-30 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The true story of one of the greatest tragedies in New York history On June 15, 1904, the steamship General Slocum was heading from Manhattan to Long Island Sound when a fire erupted in one of the storage rooms. Faced with an untrained crew, crumbling life jackets, and inaccessible lifeboats, hundreds of terrified passengers--few of which were experienced swimmers--fled into the water. By the time the captain found a safe shore for landing, more than 1000 people had perished. It was New York’s deadliest tragedy prior to September 11, 2001. The only book available on this compelling chapter in the city’s history, Ship Ablaze draws on firsthand accounts to examine why the death toll was so high, how the city responded, and why this event failed to achieve the infamy of the Titanic’s 1912 demise or the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. Masterfully capturing both the horror of the event and heroism of men, women, and children aboard the ship as the inferno spread, historian Edward T. O’Donnell brings to life a bygone community while honoring the victims of that forgotten day.

Download or read book Like a River written by Kathy Cannon Wiechman and published by Boyds Mills Press. This book was released on 2012-04-01 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the Grateful American Book Prize This moving story of two young Union soldiers “joins other great middle grade novels about the Civil War”—an “excellent” read “for all fans of historical fiction who enjoy a hint of romance.” (School Library Journal) Leander and Polly are two teenage Union soldiers who carry deep, dangerous secrets . . . Leander is underage when he enlists; Polly follows her father into war, disguised as his son. Soon, the war proves life changing for both as they survive incredible odds. Leander struggles to be accepted as a man and loses his arm. Polly mourns the death of her father, endures Andersonville Prison, and narrowly escapes the Sultana steamboat disaster. As the lives of these young, brave soldiers intersect, each finds a wealth of courage and learns about the importance of loyalty, family, and love. Like a River is a lyrical atmospheric first novel told in two voices. Readers will be transported to the homes, waterways, camps, hospitals, and prisons of the Civil–War era. They will also see themselves in the universal themes of dealing with parents, friendships, bullying, failure, and young love.

Download or read book Crossing the Deadline written by Michael Shoulders and published by Sleeping Bear Press. This book was released on 2016-02-25 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Stephen's father passes away in 1861, he and his mother and brother are left at the mercy of a cruel uncle. As the Civil War intensifies to the south, Stephen's brother enlists to fight for the Union and help support the family. The war drags on and Stephen, an accomplished bugler in the town band, is witness to the sad consequences of slavery. The opportunity to enlist as Colonel Eli Lilly's personal bugler arises and Stephen jumps at the chance. After surviving the Battle of Sulphur Trestle in Alabama, Stephen is sent to a Confederate prison camp to await the end of the war. The trials of prison camp are severe but at war's end Stephen is set to be sent home to Indiana aboard the steamboat Sultana. However, disaster strikes and the ship catches fire and capsizes in America's largest maritime disaster. Through luck and fortitude Stephen survives, but his Civil War journey is one that will engage readers of all ages. Based on historical facts and characters, Stephan's story truly captures the essence of the era.

Download or read book Burning Waters The Disaster of the SS Sultana written by Leo Owen and published by Leo Owen. This book was released on 2024-07-15 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the early hours of April 27, 1865, a catastrophic explosion tore through the SS Sultana, a Mississippi River steamboat packed with over 2,300 passengers, most of them Union soldiers recently released from Confederate prison camps. The boilers, overburdened and in poor repair, erupted with devastating force, transforming a night of hopeful passage into a nightmare of scalding steam and engulfing flames. "Burning Waters" chronicles the deadliest maritime disaster in United States history. Amidst the dark, frigid waters of the Mississippi, survivors fought for their lives against the inferno and treacherous currents, while rescue efforts were hampered by the river’s dangerous conditions. Largely overshadowed by the assassination of President Lincoln and the end of the Civil War, the Sultana disaster damaged over 1,800 lives and left an indelible mark on American history. This gripping account delves into the human stories of heroism, heartbreak, and survival, shedding light on a tragedy that should never be forgotten.

Download or read book The Sultana Disaster written by Joseph Taylor Elliott and published by . This book was released on 1913 with total page 50 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Can You Survive the 1865 Sultana Disaster written by Eric Braun and published by Capstone. This book was released on 2023 with total page 113 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The date is April 27, 1865. You are crammed onboard the steamboat Sultana with more than 2,000 passengers. Many of them are soldiers heading home after the Civil War. You're cruising on the Mississippi River when a massive explosion rips through the ship. Do you dive into the water to save yourself or stay onboard to help the survivors? Will you try to swim for shore or wait for help to arrive? Will you stay with your sick friend or try to find someone to help him? With dozens of possible choices, it's up to YOU to decide how you'll survive one of the worst river disasters ever seen.