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TRANSPORT TO DISASTER by James W. Elliott

TRANSPORT TO DISASTER

By

Publisher: Holt, Rinehart & Winston

An intensely interesting book, rescuing from obscurity what many consider the worst maritime of all time, the explosion of the loaded Sultana. The time was bays after Appomatox, is days after the assassination of Lincoln, when the steamboat carrying an estimated passengers and crew, exploded and burned in the Mississippi River, sending at least to their deaths. A vast majority of those aboard were newly released prisoners from the Confederate bells of Andersonville and Cahaba, homeward bound. Mr. Elliott has surrounded the hard facts of the disaster with a wealth of human interest is thumbnail biographies, and statements from survivors, he brings the full horror of those predawn hours long ago vividly into the present. The "" of the military and civilian personnel responsible for the overloading the ill fated craft are given in their sordid and sorry detail. The disaster buff of whom there are many will not be alone in finding this a contribution to the classic shelf of records of maritime disaster. Here is yet another sidelight on the Civil War.