In his recently published book Sultana: Surviving the Civil War, Prison, and the Worst Maritime Disaster in American History, author Alan Huffman gives a stunning wartime account of human endurance and adventure and an exploration of just how much the human body and mind can take. Huffman will discuss his book in a lecture at the National Archives at Atlanta on Saturday, June 27, 2009, at 1:00 p.m.

The period from 1861 to 1865 was America’s most intense national experience. The brutal war between the Confederate States of America and the United States of America continues to be one of the most researched, analyzed, and studied topics in American history.

Huffman’s book has received widespread acclaim. In a powerfully written account, he follows three Union soldiers as they journey through the ravages of war, are wounded, imprisoned, and finally released, only to face the greatest challenge of their lives just when they thought their troubles were behind them. The Sultana, the steamboat that was taking them home, sank. An estimated seventeen hundred lives were list. Miraculously, the soldiers made it home alive. Huffman’s book is an account of their ordeals.

Alan Huffman is a freelance journalist and the author of the highly acclaimed Mississippi in Africa: the Saga of the Slaves of Prospect Hill Plantation and their Legacy in Liberia Today. He lives in Bolton, Mississippi

Huffman’s lecture is a highlight of a program on the Civil War offered by The National Archives at Atlanta, in partnership with the Friends of the National Archives Southeast Region. In addition to Dr. Hatfield’s lecture, there will be workshops on resources for the study of the Civil War, and a lecture by Dr. Eugene Hatfield on The Atlanta Campaign and the Battle of Jonesboro. Workshops are from 10:00 – 12:00; Huffman’s lecture is at 1:00; and Hatfield’s lecture is at 2:00.

For more details and to register, please call 770-968-2100

www.nara.gov