{"product_id":"2940169939910","title":"Sinking the Sultana: A Civil War Story of Imprisonment, Greed, and a Doomed Journey Home","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe worst maritime disaster in American history wasn't the \u003ci\u003eTitanic\u003c\/i\u003e. It was the steamboat \u003ci\u003eSultana\u003c\/i\u003e on the Mississippi Riveramp;mdash;and it was completely preventable.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn 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 \u003ci\u003eSultana\u003c\/i\u003e. 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 \u003ci\u003eSultana\u003c\/i\u003e 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 dismalamp;mdash;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 \u003ci\u003eSultana's\u003c\/i\u003e disastrous fate?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Brilliance Audio","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47098130825456,"sku":"2940169939910","price":14.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940169939910_p0.jpg?v=1763697692","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940169939910","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}