And thus it begins. The final trip to help the Beavers become Ultimate Outsiders, visiting all 47 of the state parks in South Carolina. Originally, this was one of the parks that made me attuned to the wide variety that the state parks in South Carolina provided. Before we started this venture 20 months ago, I had no idea that we had a preserved Civil War battle site, much less all the other things we have experienced along the way.
Back when we visited nearby Barnwell State Park several months ago, we purchased a booklet that gave some of the history behind this battlefield. I recommend this guide, as it helped provide context for our visit.
It was February 3, 1865. Sherman had already fought at Kennesaw Mountain and burned Atlanta. He had ‘marched to the sea’ at Savannah and now turned northward. But standing in his way was the unforgiving Salkehatchie swamp.
The Confederates had dug their trenches right in front of the one causeway through the swamp. The Union soldiers had to brave the cold waters of the swamp, building some temporary ‘corduroy’ roads in order to pass through and avoid direct fire from the Confederates.
The Union soldiers eventually outflanked the Confederate soldiers. Soldiers on both sides lost their lives, but the Union won overall. Sherman’s army continued their march, arriving at Columbia and burning it a couple of weeks later, pillaging and burning along the way. (Needless to say, if you’re a white South Carolinian, Sherman is probably not your favorite person.)
During our visit today, we had the whole park to ourselves. It was overcast and a little cool for the last day of May. We saw the memorials they have there, which include a Confederate cemetery and graves of veterans of other wars (fitting for the day after Memorial Day). There is a little museum with details about the war. Reading the booklet and seeing these exhibits really humanized the experience. You really got a sense of what it was like to travel over land for miles, to experience getting wounded or watching your friend be killed.
Then, we drove down to the battlefield itself. It’s one thing to read about Union soldiers crossing the Salkehatchie swamp. It’s another thing to be looking at it. Though temps were definitely not warm today, I can only imagine what the temp of the air and water was like the first few days of February.
We also saw the knoll where the Confederate soldiers were stationed. We saw the trenches they had dug in order to hide and aim at any Union soldier daring enough to reveal himself from amongst the trees.
Reading about history is great, but seeing where it happened really makes it come alive. I hope these experiences inspire our girls to keep doing this as they get older.
We then hopped back on the road towards our penultimate (that’s a fancy word that means next-to-last…it’s one of my favorite words next to ‘antepenultimate’, meaning next-to-next-to-last) park, Lake Warren State Park.
P.S. A couple of days later, after our visit to the coast, we drove by the Old Sheldon Church Ruins, which is what’s left of a church first built in the 18th century, burned by the British, rebuilt, then burned again by Union troops on their way through before making it to Rivers Bridge.
Beavers in the Park 