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This article begins ….”For nearly 150 years, the story of the Hunley’s attack on the USS Housatonic has been Civil War legend. And it has been wrong.” Oops. Well, correcting myths, legends and poor history has been habit around here, so let’s dive in. In this case it isn’t so much intentionally reporting incorrect history or revising history to make it more interesting –it’s just that we didn’t have all the pieces of the puzzle.   As new pieces are scrutinized from the wreckage we have to adjust the story.... even if it’s been part of the story for over a hundred years. In this case eyewitness accounts at the time of the attack have been debunked because a piece of the Confederate submarine’s torpedo was found to be attached to its spar. This means the Hunley was much closer to the blast –within 20 feet.   You can read the whole thing here .   So far, the part of the romantic part of the story regarding Queenie’s coin has NOT been debunked, and for that I’m very glad.    You can rea

Over the last couple of years I’ve immersed myself into a personal local history project involving researching and writing about the history of my home…..Douglas County, Georgia.   What started as a weekly column here at Douglasville Patch morphed into a blog called Every Now and Then located here .   I’ve learned several interesting things along the way, met some great people, and kept myself rather busy meeting a self-imposed Monday deadline each and every week……something I’m trying to get back to doing around here at History Is Elementary as well. One of the things I’ve tried to do in many of my postings is to connect local history to the larger picture of what was happening in Georgia   and in the United States at the same time. For example, recently I wrote about a couple who moved to Douglasville, Georgia in 1887.   Now in and of itself that’s NOT so remarkable, but the fact that the couple was from Chicago, Illinois caught my interest. Later as I began to get more involved

Pursuing one’s goals…..a worthy pursuit, right? Hard work and determination….giving each and every move careful consideration…..making a plan……following the steps….changing course when necessary…… Yes, all of these are strategies to pursue one’s goals, but all too often we get tired of the time it takes to reach our goals.   That’s when short-cuts come into play. Take the following words. They represent a short cut…… “The most direct path would be to leave the Oregon route, about two hundred miles east of Fort Hall; thence bearing west south-west, to the Salt Lake; and thence continuing down to the bay of San Francisco.” It was with those few words the George Donner party made the fateful decision to take a short-cut they found highlighted in the book The Emigrants’ Guide to Oregon and California.   The book was written by Lansford Hastings and even though he never met any member of the Donner party, and even though Hastings didn’t exactly promote the short-cut he is forever link