Iwo Jima's Legacy by Caleb Miller

On February 19th, 1945, Americans landed on an island named Iwo Jima that would become one of the largest battles in the Pacific. It lasted from that day until March 16th in the same year. This island is quite close to Japan and was thus a promising base. Iwo Jima has an area of 21 square kilometers (approximately 8 square miles) total. A dormant volcano named Mount Suribachi is the highest feature, rising 161 meters into the air. Fierce fighting ensued between the two forces for days. Casualties were huge: the Americans had 6,822 killed/missing and 19,217 wounded while the Japanese had between 17,845 and 18,375 killed /missing and 216 captured. This battle is perhaps best known for the famous "Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima" photograph taken there. The photograph has inspired a statue, book and movie in its image. This battle gave the Allies a place to launch and refuel B-29 bombers that would bomb Japan. Notably, this is the only battle were US casualties exceeded Japanese casualties. It was one of the biggest battles in the Pacific campaigns of World War II and should be remembered well. There are still people alive who fought on that ash covered island so remember Iwo Jima and the great victory. Their service, and the continued service of our armed forces, is an inspiration.


Blogger's Note:

Parris Island Marine Corp. Recruit Depot near Beaufort, SC has been in training recruits since 1915. The Depot has trained enlisted marines (male and female) for every major conflict in the 20th and 21st centuries including over 200,000 during WWII. The base is open to the public. They have a vistor's center, museum, and an Iwo Jima monument commemorating the raising of the flag on Mount Suribachi. The statue, sculpted by Felix del Weldon, was actually the prototype he created for the world famous Iwo Jima Memorial in Washington D.C. For more information on the MCRD Parris Island click here http://www.mcrdpi.usmc.mil/index.asp

Danger from the Air

The popular Historical Marker program sees all kinds of interesting tidbits and facts about South Carolina history. Two recent historical markers tell stories that may make you look to the sky to avoid more unexpected falling objects.

The first details an 1861 balloon landing (yes, that’s right, a balloon!) in Union County just days after the Civil War began. Can you imagine the surprise felt by both local residents and the pilot? Here’s the text:

On April 20, 1861, only days after the Civil War began at Fort Sumter, scientist and aeronaut T.S.C. Lowe (1832-1913) landed the Enterprise, a large gas balloon, on a nearby farm. Lowe was on a test flight in preparation for a trans-Atlantic attempt. Southeasterly currents had carried him 800-900 miles by air from Cincinnati to Union District in less than nine hours. Many locals assumed that Lowe was a Yankee spy, and it was difficult for him to convince them that he was not. He was taken to Union and spent the night there under guard. Taken to Columbia, he was allowed to return north by train after several gentlemen vouched for his reputation as a scientist. Lowe later founded and directed a balloon corps in the U.S. Army in Virginia 1861-1863.

Erected by the Union County Historical Society, the marker is located at 657 Pea Ridge Hwy. (S.C. Sec. Rd. 44-13), Kelton vicinity in Union County.

The second records another falling object with potentially much more deadly consequences (thankfully avoided) nearly 100 years later at Mars Bluff in Florence County. Here’s the text:

In 1958, in the midst of the Cold War, the U.S. Air Force accidentally dropped an atomic bomb near here. The unarmed 7,600-lb., 10’8”-long bomb was aboard a B-47E bomber on a training mission headed for England. Its high-explosive trigger detonated on impact, making a crater as large as 35 feet deep and 70 feet wide./ (Reverse) The bomb landed in the woods behind the asbestos-shingle-sided home of railroad conductor Walter “Bill” Gregg (d. 1921). Gregg, his wife, their three children, and a niece were injured by the concussion, which destroyed the house and outbuildings and did slight damage to buildings within a 5 mile radius.

Erected by the Florence City and County Historical Commission, the marker is located at E. Marion Hwy. (U.S. Hwy. 301/76) near the Francis Marion University Campus, Mars Bluff. A nearby trail leads to the crater site.

These stories are now recorded in durable cast aluminum for travelers to see, and in digital bytes for anyone in the world to read via the South Carolina Historical Markers database http://www.scaet.org/markers/.

Historical Markers are like Animal Crackers!

Work with me here.

So there you are, driving along, idly wondering if driving a more obnoxious car would get your more (or less?) notice from the police - and you don’t even realize you whiz past one of these:



Welcome to Historical Markers, where history is made not by scholars opining in an Ivory Tower, or politicians fussing in committee, but from the ground up, with all the stories, particulars, idiosyncrasies, and cultural uniqueness that comes with it.

State money doesn’t pay for historical markers, people do. Real people, raising money for real organizations, who think their piece of the world deserves a marker for being significant.


They raise the money, they write the text, and our own Tracy Power, Story Teller Emeritus, vets them. (That’s Emeritus by volume of stories, people, not by age.)

Think of markers like animal crackers – history for the modern age served up in bite-sized stories. And now the markers are all online in the newly launched Historical Marker Database, which is insanely addicting (just like animal crackers). Pick a town – any town! Pick a building – any building! You may get the horse or the elephant, you never know!

Make mine a llama. With pink icing.

We insist that you watch TV.

The Archives & History Center and our very own darling of the archives, Patrick McCawley, will be featured on the PBS series History Detectives on Monday September 7th at 9:00pm. For the fourth time in as many years, PBS' national series "The History Detectives" has found a mystery to solve in South Carolina. And this one might just redraw the maps of the Civil War!

We'll give you a teaser - it's about the true historical location of the Broad River Bridge, the same one that General Sherman would have used to march on Columbia, had the Confederates not burned it to the ground.

David Brinkman, also a featured speaker at our upcoming Civil War Symposium, will show his evidence that the current historical marker is in the wrong location and ought to be moved upstream of the current bridge. If he's correct, the maps will have to be redrawn, so pull out your encyclopedia, and stock up on Sharpies in advance. (We like the pen-style that don't bleed through pages.)

Look for more information about the Civil War Symposium coming soon!