Fairfield County Genealogy Society
Saturday all-day, February 21st 9:00 - 5:00 PM
150th Observance Of The Carolina Campaign Through Fairfield County
These weekend events are presented and sponsored by the Fairfield County Genealogy Society, the Fairfield County Historical Society, Fairfield County Museum and the Town of Ridgeway and interested volunteers.
All day: FREE ADMISSION
Two historic sites, Ebenezer ARP (Old Brick) Church near Monticello and the Century House in Ridgeway staffed with historians and period musicians will be open for self-guided tours.
9:00 – 11:30 Old Brick (Ebenezer) Church open to the public, The Old Brick Church is near the location of where one corps of Sherman’s Federal army crossed the Broad River. On reaching the Little River, the troops found that Confederates had destroyed the bridge. Returning to the Old Brick Church, troops tore up pews and floorboards to make a temporary crossing. Graffiti on the church wall offers an apology to the congregation by an unidentified soldier for the damage done to the church.
9:00 – 11:30 The Century House (Beauregard’s Headquarters during his retreat from Charleston) in Ridgeway, SC, open to the public; Local musicians will be invited to perform Civil War era music.
Military and camp-site reenactment groups are planned to be set up on the Fairfield County Museum’s back campus at 231 South Congress Street in Winnsboro. The Museum’s new military exhibit will be available for touring the same time.
The afternoon events begin in the Christ Central Community Center with presentations with several noted authors and historians, followed by Q & A and book signings until the afternoon light fades.
1:00 – 1:30 Pat McNeely (mouse over), author of Sherman’s Flame & Blame Campaign (privately published, 2014) will speak on Sherman’s general plan for his march through Georgia and South Carolina.
Professor Emerita Pat McNeely, journalist, historian and professor taught writing and reporting in the USC School of Journalism for 33 years. Before joining the faculty at USC, she was a reporter and editor for "The Greenville News", "The State" and the" Columbia Record". She is the author of Sherman's Flame and Blame Campaign through Georgia and the Carolinas … and the burning of Columbia. She is co-author of Knights of the Quill: Confederate Correspondents and their Civil War Reporting and the author of Fighting Words: a Media History of South Carolina.
1:30 – 2:00 Chester DePratter (mouse over), USC Research Associate Professor and archaeologist at the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology will speak on his findings of the Camp Asylum archeological inspection.
Dr. Chester B. DePratter, USC Research Associate Professor and archaeologist at the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology earned his doctoral, master's and bachelor's degrees in anthropology from the University of Georgia. Specializing in the archaeology of the Spanish exploration, he has conducted extensive excavations at Santa Elena (1566-1587), discovered the location of the French Charlesfort established on Parris Island in 1562. His work work includes the identification of the routes of several sixteenth century Spanish expeditions to interior “La Florida” including those of Hernando de Soto, Tristan de Luna, and Juan Pardo; this work has helped redraw the map of the interior southeast and the locations of its Native American peoples in the sixteenth century. During several months during the spring of 2014, he conducted an important eleventh-hour archaeological survey of Camp Asylum, a prison camp for Union officers from October 1864 to February 1865 on the walled grounds of the SC Asylum for Lunatics. The project was hurried along by a developer’s plans to demolish buildings and build a baseball park, shops and houses on the campus of the old State Hospital property on Bull Street.
2:00 – 2:30 Brian McCreight (mouse over), Charleston author and storyteller will be reading from Googly Moogly! The Lowcountry Liar’s Tales of History & Mystery, (Pelican Publishing, 2013). www.lowcountry.com
Brian McCréight has been featured at every major annual storytelling festival in South Carolina, and is always invited back to tell some more. He is listed on the SC Arts Commission's Approved Artist Roster, and conducts workshops and school residencies on storytelling and puppetry throughout the state. Brian has been a Children's Librarian and was the Storyteller-in-residence for the Charleston County Public Library.. He is a musician, playwright, and the author of a collection of folktales, The Legend of the Lowcountry Liar and other Tales of a Tall Order. He is descended from one of Fairfield County’s founding families and will share stories on this family from his book Great Googly Moogly! The Lowcountry Liar's Tales of History and Mystery. http://lowcountryliar.com/book/index.html booking info: (843) 847 – 6179 or 571 – 4378 lowcountryliar@yahoo.com
2:30 – 3:00 Jim Kibler (mouse over), author, will speak on the destruction of Pomaria Nursery and eastern Newberry County by Sherman’s troops. Our Fathers’ Fields: A Southern Story, (Pelican Publishing).
James Everett (Jim) Kibler is author of fourteen books and numerous essays on Southern architecture, art, literature, historic gardening, and conservation. His Our Father’s Fields won the Fellowship of Southern Writers Award for Nonfiction in 1999. His poetry has won prizes from the Poetry Society of South Carolina and has appeared in publications across the country. He is currently restoring an early home in Newberry County, South Carolina, where he was born, and is replanting its acres with hardwoods indigenous to the Upcountry. He teaches at the University of Georgia.
3:00 – 3:30 Karen Stokes (mouse over), author of South Carolina Civilians in Sherman’s Path (The History Press, 2012), will speak on the historic accounts of Dr. Lord, Episcopal Rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Winnsboro, SC.
Karen Stokes is an archivist at the South Carolina Historical Society in Charleston, SC. Having worked with the wonderful manuscript collections of the South Carolina Historical Society for nearly 20 years, she developed a special interest in the Confederate period of the state’s history. Mrs. Stokes is the author of numerous articles on South Carolina history, one of which was recently reprinted in The Civil War in South Carolina: Selections from the South Carolina Historical Magazine. She is the co-editor of Faith, Valor, and Devotion: The Civil War Letters of William Porcher DuBose, and a new book published by USC Press, A Confederate Englishman: The Civil War Letters of Henry Wemyss Feilden. She is also the author of two non-fiction books published by the History Press, South Carolina Civilians in Sherman’s Path, and The Immortal 600: Surviving Civil War Charleston and Savannah. Her first historical novel, Belles: A Carolina Love Story, was released in November 2012. Another historical novella by Mrs. Stokes, The Soldier’s Ghost: A Tale of Charleston, was recently published by Ring of Fire Publishing.
3:30 – 5:00 Author book signings by guest speakers at Museum.
All speakers will be selling copies of their books and other publications.
The Fairfield County Genealogy Society will be selling its book, “Fairfield Remembers Sherman” and Fairfield County Historical Society’s map, “Sherman’s Carolina Campaign March Through Fairfield County, February 1865” and other relevant publications.
NOTE: Cash or Check only / Electronic payments may not always be available.