Pretty much. I went to a virtual talk on the Sultana last week, which got me wondering about other transportation disasters involving prisoners. So far I've got three shipwrecks (an explosion, a fire, and a collision that resulted in a sinking) involving returning prisoners, which made me curious about the possibility of railroad accidents, since I remembered reading the pension record of a sailor whose train car derailed, sending him crashing into a bench, and resulting in a hernia.
I'm sure you know about the Sultana. The Massachusetts collided with another ship while carrying some prisoners on the Potomac and 87 were killed (including 7 of the 13 members of the 16th Connecticut who were on board - I read the diary of one of them at the Connecticut Historical Society - the diary survived; the soldier didn't), and then there was the General Lyon that sank of Cape Hatteras with a bunch of returning prisoners from Wilmington (I think), with the loss of 500 souls, but only 27 survivors. I'm not sure yet, but it may be that the total number of transportation deaths among returning Andersonville prisoners is about 7 or 8% compared to the number of prisoners who died in the Andersonville stockade. I need to dig some more to find out.
This also doesn't take into account the number of men who died at Florence and Millen after leaving Andersonville. I guess the moral of the story is that no matter how happy you were when that train pulled out of Andersonville Station, you weren't home until you actually crossed your threshold.
Meanwhile, I have a talk to virtually give in Rhode Island on my NEXT book on Wednesday - I really did think I'd get more writing done during the pandemic. And I just gave a talk to the Albany, NY CWRT that went over so well that this week the Civil War Roundtable Congress contacted me and asked if I'd do my Raiders presentation for their group in July, so after a year of postponed talks, things are starting to wake up. (I went into lockdown on March 13th, 2020; the Raiders book was published two days later).
If anyone missed the talk I did here, the Albany presentation is online at
https://www.facebook.com/Capital-District-Civil-War-RoundTable-713698235457543/
And I just booked my plane tickets and room at a B&B for July when I'm leading a raiders-themed tour of the grounds at Andersonville Historic Site for the NPS. If anyone is in the Andersonville area on July 11th, I'd love to meet you!