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America's Greatest Maritime Disaster
Pelican
March 1992
On Sale: February 29, 1992
312 pages
ISBN: 0882898612
EAN: 9780882898612
Kindle: B00K7KHO3E
Hardcover / e-Book
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Non-Fiction History
On the night of April 27, 1865, a wooden-hulled steamer
overloaded with war-weary Union soldiers exploded and sank
on the Mississippi River near Memphis, Tennessee. More than
1,800 soldiers, veterans of some of the bloodiest battles of
the Civil War and survivors of the Andersonville and Cahaba
prison camps, died en route to their homes and families in
the North. The magnitude of the catastrophe was overshadowed by the
turbulent events that shook our nation and filled the
newspaper headlines in April of 1865-namely the end of the
Civil War, the assassination of President Lincoln, and the
capture of John Wilkes Booth. As a result, the explosion of
the Sultana has been all but passed over in the pages of
history. In this first ever comprehensive study of the disaster,
author Jerry O. Potter brings to light the cause of the
explosion, and the investigation and cover-up which
followed. Emphasizing the needlessness of the tragedy,
Potter reveals the greed, indifference, criminal misconduct,
and gross stupidity which led to the loading at Vicksburg of
2,300 men onto a boat designed for 376. This authoritative work contains abundant photographs and
illustrations, as well as the most complete list of the
ship's passengers available. Potter, a Memphis lawyer, first became interested in the
Sultana over a decade ago when he saw a painting of the
burning ship. Determined that the Sultana should not be
forgotten, Potter researched newspaper accounts, the three
existing books on the subject, and previously unused
original military and government documents. Through these sources, he has created the truly definitive
study of this great tragedy which even today stands as the
worst maritime disaster in American history.
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