A gripping account of the worst riverboat accidents in American history, "Sinking the Sultana" meticulously reconstructs the timeline of events leading up to the disaster, from the overcrowding of the ship with Union soldiers returning home from Confederate prison camps to the critical engineering flaws and negligence that contributed to its demise. Through vivid storytelling and rich historical detail, Walker brings to life the harrowing experiences of the passengers and crew aboard the Sultana as they struggled to survive the catastrophic explosion and subsequent sinking of the ship.

Slowly going but I can understand why because this is part of our history that never talked about and I can't understand why , it shows you how the soldiers where treated and how for people will go for money and power, and how because of that a great many people lost their lives when all they want was to go home and see their love ones again. This story brings to live the story of the Sultana and the soldiers who lived as well as lost their lives that night. With that said I want to say thinks to Netgalley as well as the publishers for letting read and review The Sinking the Sultana .

Get ready for a read that will make you sit back and shake your head...

The Sultana was a ship that should have had a long and glorious career on the Mississippi river. During the Civil War, shipping along the river was slow, but it could be done. Danger, excitement, and money drove the trade during the war years.
After the war, there was even more money to be made, and many boats made money by taking soldiers that had been POWs during the war home. They were to be mustered out of the Army and sent home. Many of them were sick, weakened during their time in camps such as Andersonville that housed thousands more than it was originally constructed for. But the needs outweighed the risks. Many, men like Colonel Hatch, found ways to make money during the war. It was these men that created more risks, and opened the door for later criticism from the public.
The Civil War was a defining time for the United States. The Sultana was something that should have never been relegated to the back pages of history, but time and circumstance conspired to bring this tragedy to an almost unknown portion of history. When the tragedy struck, President Lincoln had just been assassinated. The hunt for his killer was front page news. As the nation mourned the loss of its President, hundreds of families mourned their lost loved ones. Men, women, children were all victims of this explosion. Soldiers, families, lives and careers lost in the blinding explosion that ripped through the early morning hours.
Families along the Arkansas shores woke to the screams and cries of the wounded. Many sprang into action, saving hundreds from a watery grave. Others slipped from their reach and were lost to the murky waters of the river. The explosion on the Sultana claimed more lives than the sinking of the Titanic, but due to its placing in history, has been lost to the annals of time.

While the public cried out for someone to pay for the loss of life, investigations continued, but no one would pay for the loss in full measure. Few were blamed, and those who should have carried the cost were lost to the military tribunal, simply by having resigned from the army before the investigation was concluded.

This tragedy is something that should not be lost entirely. The sinking was a tragic wake up call to those who sailed the river, and those who traveled along its banks. While the Sultana has been found and mostly reclaimed from the depths, the mystery still remains as to what could have caused the explosion. Sound theories have been put forth, but none have permanently answered the question satisfactorily so far. While the Sultana is once again reclaiming its history and time is allowing us the chance to find and know the names of those who were on board, we may never know its full answer. We might never get the entire list of names of those were lost, and those who survived. To this day, there are families of those who were lost aboard the Sultana and those who survived who still meet yearly. They are determined to not allow history to swallow this tragedy. For as someone once said "as long as someone remembers my name, I am not entirely lost to time."

I enjoyed this book. It gave a rather interesting look into some of the lives of the men who survived the Civil War - living through the horrors of the prison camps, only to lose their lives while headed home. We get the before, the during and the after in this book. We see what could have caused the explosion, the overcrowding which brought the number of the dead to horrific highs. This is a pretty decent book, and one that allows for those who want to do more research a great jumping off point.
Happy Reading!

An interesting historical event... sort of well told. Its best features are the individual histories of several of the soldiers, but their threads get lost in the disaster. We remember the name from earlier, but was he the cavalryman from Ohio, or the one who survived Andersonville? A better structure would have been to follow each individual through his capture, imprisonment, transport to the Sultana, up to the explosion itself.. That way we would have a better sense of personalities and who was who. Then in the stories of survival and rescue, we would more likely remember the ones we saw as individuals.

My other main complaint would be the style--diction, syntax, and choice of detail--especially in the first half of the book. I kept thinking, "This reads like a high school American History book. Is it intended for a YA audience?"

I received this copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
In the early hours of April 27, 1865, the steamboat Sultana exploded. She held somewhere around 2,400 passengers, 2,200 of which were Union prisoners of war returning north. By the end of the day, over 1,500 of her passengers would be dead. Sally M. Walker's Sinking the Sultana tells the story of both the Sultana and her passengers.
The book begins not with the disaster itself, but with the history of steamboats on the Mississippi River. From here, background on the Civil War and prisoner of war camps is explored. This gives readers a nice foundation to build on as the book works its way to the disaster. Along the way, passengers and POWs are introduced. I thought this put a human face to the disaster since the reader learned the stories and hopes of those on board the steamboat. Contemporary pictures, illustrations, and news articles are included on many pages, which helps create a picture of the time and place in the reader's mind.
Sinking the Sultana is well researched and quite bit of detail is included in the book. In fact, there were times when I felt like I got lost in the details and had to flip back a few pages to get back on track. There were a lot of names mentioned in the book, especially at the docks in Vicksburg. I had a really hard time keeping everyone straight. There is a 'roll call' at the beginning of the book that lists some of the names of people involved in the incident, but it didn't seem complete to me and not much detail was given about the people who were on the list.
Sinking the Sultana ends with an epilogue, tying up the stories of the men and women on board the Sultana. A glossary helps readers understand words and terms associated with life on the Mississippi or in the army. The Civil War lasted from 1861 to 1864 and we tend to think that it all ended at Appomattox on April 9, 1865. In reality, the repercussions echoed well beyond surrender. Sinking the Sultana brings to light one such repercussion to young adult audiences in today's world.

Fascinating historical event. Ms. Walker's book is well worth a read if you are interested in U.S. history, the Civil War,or maritime history in the U.S. in general. Such a tragic story; so many senseless deaths due to greed. Sad tale and worth telling again. It's appalling that no one was ever held accountable for the many deaths and injuries caused by such blatant disregard of human life. Shameful. I'm glad to see a new book appear on the subject to keep the memory of it alive and to provide more food for thought.

This story had the feel of a book geared towards young adults. The Sultana disaster is little known outside Civil War historians and this gives great detail into the lives of those affected by it. It is a shame there is not further insight as to why the boiler exploded but that is presumably lost in the mists of time. This was not a bad read just not great.

I have long held a fascination with the Sultana disaster. When I was in elementary school every year the fifth graders did a project on the Mississippi River and its history. They would line the hallways of the school and younger students would go down the hall following a line of blue tape while being taught by the older students about the Mississippi from it's start in Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico. I remember being enthralled by the stop for the Sultana, captured by the story of disaster and heroism. Finally, when I reached the fifth grade, I used our brand new first computer to scour the nascent internet for the stories of those individuals who made that fateful voyage in the spring of 1865. Therefore, the Sultana and its destruction hold a special place in my mind.

When I heard about the release of this book, I was very eager to dig back into the history of the Sultana. I did not initially realize that this was probably intended for a younger audience until I started reading after acquiring an electronic copy through Netgalley.

The first quarter of the book was a bit of a slog as I read through a very basic description of the Civil War, its prison camps, and steamboat. I would have preferred a bit more detailed account of each of these subjects. However, I am very pleased that I kept on reading.

The book shines when it actually gets to the ill-fated voyage itself. I became invested in the interactions between individuals involved on the trip from Vicksburg back to the north, and appreciated the authors ability to compliment the various eyewitness accounts. The explosion and subsequent chaos was the best section of the book, followed by a solid description of the aftermath, from rescue efforts, to the hospitals that cared for the victims, the resumption of the soldiers' journey home, legal proceedings, and the birth of a veteran's association.

One minor caveat, the author has a bit of difficulty making the individuals who are soldiers stand out from one another. All were captured at some point, other than guards placed on the vessel, and held in prison camps in the South. When the story started picking up it became a bit difficult to remember who was who.

All in all, I enjoyed the book. It's a good little narrative of an overlooked disaster that so often gets swallowed up in the larger American Civil War. In spite of some flaws, I gave the book some leeway because I would certainly have loved it had I come across it in fifth grade. It is a good book for younger readers and adults may find many positive qualities in it as well.