{"product_id":"9780763697631","title":"Sinking the Sultana: A Civil War Story of Imprisonment, Greed, and a Doomed Journey Home","description":"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?","brand":"Candlewick Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47115996758256,"sku":"9780763697631","price":16.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780763697631_p0.jpg?v=1763655470","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780763697631","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}