Confederate Naval Museum

Today, Monday the 12th, we all drove to Columbus, GA to visit the Confederate Naval Museum. This was a real eye opener. We had no idea the Civil War was so involved with ships! There were the old sailing ships, steam ships, a combination of sail and steam, iron clads, submarines, and boats that were mostly under water with only the stack showing. Also, their size was a huge surprise. Two hundred fifty feet long and 50 feet wide for the iron clads. HUGE. Confederate ships were built here, unknown to the Union.

Our first guide was very knowledgable, dressed in a uniform typical of the day which would have been used by either side. Differentiation of your side was not important because of the separation of navy personnel, so uniform was not too important. Blue and white seems to be the colors of all navies during the era.

Later we had a female guide also very knowledgeable with a southern accent, who kept referring to the Union as us and we, so we gathered that her sympathies lay with the Union side. Common then and now too.

Fort Benning is here too, so this town has a history of military activity. Our next tour was to be the Infantry Museum of the Civil War, but being Monday, it was closed, so we took comfort in some southern cooked food at a near by diner. Fried chicken, mashed potatoes, black eyed peas, and biscuit. This along with sweet tea and P-can pie made us feel so much better.

The entrance shows the weather we were about to have.

Ahoy!

This boat was raised from the river using the material of the day, dynamite.

Hard to photograph, this was the "Chattahoochee" the boat was burned and you can still smell smoke after almost 150 years. The super structure shows how huge it was, over 225 feet long!   

Where's the ice machine?

I asked the captain to smile.

Part sailing, part steam powered.

This was on the river walk, we called the fish ladder.

After lunch (dinner) we drove through the old mansion area and took their river walk which goes along the area where the iron clads were built. Then home to a GAM and drivers meeting. It rained a little and we all went to bed, 'cause Tuesday is another travel day.

See Ya! Barry and Shirley