A Real War Hero

I went to see the Hunley last week. I’ve always wanted to. It’s a really early version of a submarine that was actually used in combat during the Civil War. What interested me about it was the technology they thought of, using the understanding of science that they had at that time. In that light it was really interesting how they could convince eight people to go in this experimental vessel for several hours, knowing that two earlier attempts killed most of the people on board. But they found their eight people and they did it.

So, from a technology standpoint it was pretty cool. But as usual, for an old history lover like me, most of the history that is recorded deals with warfare and to me, warfare seems so illogical that I can’t believe we’re still trying to decide things using combat in the 21st century.

During the civil war, the people pretty much looked like us and talked like us. They lived in the areas we go to all the time. During a battle, if someone had looked around at all the dead and dying guys laying around, moaning and crying and missing their loved ones, did anyone look around and say ‘This is stupid-look what we’re doing to each other.’ To me, that would have been a real war hero.

Charleston South Carolina by the way was also very cool. The historic part of town is clean, popular and you can walk around safely late at night. The buildings are awesome as far as how well kept they are for their age and you can really get a feel of what it was a hundred years ago or more. I’d rather think about the parties people had though, and the music they played and listened to instead of the ‘glamorous’ words of war.