We have often had opportunity to spend a day, but no more, in an interesting place. We had to move on, planning maybe to come back sometime.
I’ve found that when we have visitors who don’t know Pea Ridge or Benton County, we are hard put to show them more than a few significant places, and we end up doing drive-by talks. One can’t see Pea Ridge in a day, at least not very thoroughly, and a day spent in Savannah, Ga., or a day in Charleston, S.C., is like that. We’ll have to go back sometime.
Savannah is a fascinating Southern city. It is Georgia’s fourth largest city and its first state capital. Savannah was the colonial capital in the beginning. Georgia, the 13th of the original 13 colonies, was established in 1732, and Savannah came to be in 1733. That is pretty old when compared to thetowns around us in Benton County, Ark. Benton County didn’t appear on our planet until more than 100 years later, so Savannah has several generations more history to discover than our “young” area of northwest Arkansas. Pea Ridge is almost 120 years younger than Savannah, and Rogers showed up almost 150 years after Savannah. Our 1800s history is “just the other day” when compared to the history of Georgia. Amazingly, some people think of the 1950s or even the 1980s as a long time ago!
Savannah was a planned city in the beginning.
That’s very different from a city that just comes together haphazardly. One of the interesting features of the city to me is how it is laid out in 22 squares, each with its own distinctive, park-like atmosphere. Our Bentonville has done pretty well with its one square.
The Savannah folks, way back then, decided that they needed 22 squares.
Every one of them is well worth seeing.
We decided that rather than wandering around Savannah on our own, we would take one of the bus tours there. There was also opportunity to hire a horse and buggy for a tour of the city’s downtown.
That would have been very interesting too, but for this time, we took the bus. The streets and traffic are tight for a bus, but we had a good driver, apparently. As it happened, we got a singing bus driver. He knew his songs almost as well as he knew Savannah history and all his stories. He could probably make it as an entertainer if he wanted. I think we made it around to all 22 of the city squares, saw many fascinating houses, business places, churches and synagogues, monuments and memorials, and even the cemetery that the Union Army occupied during the Civil War. Savannah was spared the destruction that many southern cities suffered during the Civil War, but that cemetery was never the same thereafter.
After a day in Savannah, we made our way up the coast into South Carolina and to Charleston. We had primarily a single aim in Charleston, so, we’ll need to go back there again sometime to seemore of the city. Our aim in Charleston was to visit the old naval yard where the recovered Confederate submarine, The Hunley, is being cleaned and studied.We had seen a TV documentary about the Hunley a year or so ago, and we got caught up in the story.
These days, we take submarines for granted as part of the U.S. Navy’s arsenal.
The story of the Hunley is a reminder that technological advancements and inventions sometimes come at great cost and sacrifice to those who lead the way.
Like the Hunley itself, the prototypes leading to the construction of the Hunley were efforts to produce a man-powered stealth attack vessel, capable of traveling silently under water to attach explosives to the sides of enemy ships. A number of crews in earlier subs died in the effort to perfecttheir craft.
On Feb. 17, 1864, the Hunley became the first submarine to actually sink a warship. Equipped with a long spear-like torpedo holder, the Hunley approached theUnion warship Housatonic, a 16-gun, 1240 ton sloop of war, stabbed its torpedo into the ship’s side, backed away and detonated the torpedo with a rope. The sub’s crew may also have been injured by the explosion, resulting in the loss of the Hunley and all aboard;
although the exact cause of the loss is still unknown.
The sunken Hunley lay hidden for 131 years before being located in 1995 after a 14-year search. It was brought to the surface in August 2000, and is at home and under study at the old Charleston Naval Yard.
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Editor’s note: Jerry Nichols, a native of Pea Ridge, is a retired Methodist minister with a passion for history.
He is vice president of the Pea Ridge Historical Society. He can be contacted by e-mail at [email protected], or call 621-1621.
News, Pages 5 on 06/29/2011