Stopping at the State Capitol of South Carolina

Linda and I found the capitol grounds in Columbia, South Carolina, richly decorated with markers commemorating various aspects of their history. The capitol building itself is a fine looking building. There's a very nice monument to the "Thin Blue Line," their law enforcement. The South Carolina State House also claims to be the only state capitol in the nation to have a monument dedicated to the contributions and history of African-Americans on its grounds.

There are no less than three markers reminding South Carolinians what the Union army under William Tecumseh Sherman did there; a statue of George Washington with a broken scabard bears a plaque identifying Sherman's men as those responsible. A marker shows the location of the old state house burned down by Sherman's men. There are six bronze stars on the unrepaired exterior of the current state house highlighting where cannon fire struck the building.

One of the more moving monuments stands to the north of the capital and depicts a confederate soldier. The inscription reads

This monument perpetuates the memory of those who true to the instincts of their birth, faithful to the teachings of their fathers, constant in their love for the state, died in the performance of their duty; who having glorified a fallen cause by the simple manhood of their lives, the patient endurance of suffering, and the heroism of death, and who, in the dark hours of imprisonment, in the hopelessness of the hospital, in the short, sharp agony of the field, found support and consolation in the belief that at home they would not be forgotten.

-----------------------------------------
Actual date of these events: 2009-03-12