The Grandeur Of Cthulhu

Columbia, South Carolina (2019)

From FB:

“Yes, I had to visit the statute to Hootie & the Blowfish, who exploded out of the Five Points neghborhood in Columbia in the early to mid-90s.

They’ve sold 25 million records.

I remembered they played a Phi Sigma Kappa party at Virginia Tech around ’89.

Columbia, South Carolina (2019)

From FB:

“Grave of Wade Hampton, Confederate cavalry commander under JEB Stuart, Governor of South Carolina, and U.S. Senator.

Sherman claimed Columbia was burned because of Hampton’s irresponsibility in leaving cotton bales in the streets on a gusty night after his troops had retreated from the capital, but later wrote he deliberately blamed Hampton because he was so popular in South Carolina and wanted to besmirch his reputation.

One of only three men, including Nathan Bedford Forest, who rose from the rank of Private to Lieutenant General during the Civil War.”

Columbia, South Carolina (2019)

Equestrian statue of Confederate Cavalry General Wade Hampton.

Columbia, South Carolina (2019)

Molon Labe.

Columbia, South Carolina (2019)

From FB:

“The final Confederate Battle Flag that flew over the South Carolina state house grounds. It was taken down as a result of the outcry that followed the mass murder that occurred at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston in 2015.”

Colleton County, South Carolina (2019)

Grave of paratrooper killed at Anzio.

Ebeneezer Creek, Georgia (2019)

From FB:

“I never heard of this ugly episode until I read E.L. Doctorow’s “The March” where it is described in horrific detail.

In December 1864, General William Tecumseh Sherman was leading an army of 60,000 Union soldiers rapidly descending on Savannah, GA. Nothing could stand in its way. It was literally eating the countryside alive.

Attached to this mammoth living, breathing snake-like creature were an estimated 25,000 blacks of both sexes and all ages following behind it. These were the recently freed slaves of Georgia who were following Sherman’s Army on the way to what they believed was freedom.

Sherman felt he was going to be attacked at any time and did not want to be burdened with the responsibility of feeding and taking care of these additional non-combatants.

Ebenezer Creek lay between the Ogeechee River and the Savannah River. As the Corps of Major General Jefferson C. Davis (no relation) finished crossing a pontoon bridge they had constructed to ford the creek, his engineers huridly pulled up the bridge behind them, leaving the refugees trailing the column stranded on the opposite bank.

Fearing Confederate cavalry (which was constantly nipping on the heels of the Union column) and re-enslavement, hundreds of former slave were either pushed by the surge of pressure from the rear of their formation, or panicked and jumped into the icy water of the creek.

“Women holding their babies over their heads tried to breast the current. Somehow the men tied a raft together out of some logs and strips of tarpaulin, and women’s skirts and blankets. The pioneers threw a line over, and a semblance of order set in as people were pulled across four and five at a time on the raft. But those huddled on the bank looked behind them with fear. They thought they heard Rebs coming down the causeway and couldn’t wait their turn. Holding their bundles and satchels, they jumped into the river.” (“The March”)

Several hundred, including women and children, either drowned or were recaptured by Confederate cavalry. As one federal observer wrote, “The loss of life was still great enough to prove that there were many ignorant, simple souls to whom it was literally preferable to die freemen rather than to live as slaves.”