These reports of the tragic events such as the shipwreck and fires are very in detailed and descriptive aren't they? 150 years ago or today, the loss of life is still sad. One seminar at our Genealogical Society a few years back was given by John Phillip Colletta. His journey to find answers to questions on his ancestors led him to a steamboat that had exploded and/or was also caught in some very bad weather. He had little to go on but he reconstructed what he had and used the old almanacs and the newsreports on the weather in the area to figure it out and he was able to at last find out who, of his family, were on that ill fated boat. Hard detective work for a long ago event but he did it. Very interestng speaker if anyone is interested. His book Only a Few Bones outlines his journey through time.

Is this the same 'insurrection' that was written of at Holly Springs a few days or week back? This type of information, while one may even discount part of it, is enough to have cause considerable alarm once they were discovered. Of course these things were not in our lesson, for those of us who even had any, on the Civil War. Between the political bombardment and these reports, it does make a stronger case for the states belief they may need to step in to protect their interest since it seemed the Federal government wasn't about to try. Even if the seceeding states were not really ready to make that final break, circumstance brought about by events off Charleston Harbor sure did get that ball rolling. What a mixed up mess of obscure bits and pieces that when placed in a timeline and in the area they occurred, it's a no brainer.

Pam