After the weekend in North Carolina we headed south toward Columbia. On the way, we stopped in at Rock Hill to see Mickey Beckham our fund raising consultant. Micky took us over to Clinton Junior College to look at their library and other buildings that were built through the capital fund he helped them raise. Clinton is not a much bigger school than we are and Steve and I were impressed with their development. Their beautiful campus gives us a bit of encouragement about what is possible for a small school. This is their library pictured to the left. We would like to incorporate some of their ideas into the library we would like to build. After our tour of Clinton JC we went to lunch at the Front Porch Restaurant which is built in the style of a Revolutionary War period inn and we enjoyed some good traditional Southern-American food.
After lunch we went on a tour of some Revolutionary war battlefields. South Carolina is the site of several very important battles in that war. We walked on the site of the battle of Beckhamville in which the colonials attacked and defeated a British group that was forcing the colonials to make a vow of loyalty to the king and oppressing those that refused. The battle was a victory for the Americans during a dark period of the war. We also toured the battle of Cow Pens site which was another American victory. I also went to battle on this field- with a nest of red ants which took me a while to get off my skin and clothes.
Mickey is a Revolutionary War historian and one of his works is a historical novel about this period called "Colonial Spy." I read the book while flying around this last week and enjoyed it very much. I also learned a lot about the Revolutionary War period in history (Mel Gibson didn't get it quite right in The Patriot). We toured a church that was in existence during the War and looked at the monument and graveyard where many of the Revolutionary war soldiers from the area are buried. It was very cool to read the "Colonial Spy" and read about the very people whose names I saw on the monument and on their gravestones. Besides being educational the novel is fun read and a good adventure story. War certainly had its ambiguities even 200+ years ago. I would love to be there to see the annual re-enactment of the battle that Mickey organizes.
After the tour we headed down to Columbia to recruit some teachers at Columbia International University. We had a great time meeting with the seminary students there and speaking in the TESOL classes. Thanks to Don and Melissa Howell for their hospitality and help in setting things up there. We made several good contacts there that will bear fruit as soon as this summer. We also enjoyed breakfast with Steve Bradley. We are very happy that he will be teaching on our Guam campus next semester.
Mickey is a Revolutionary War historian and one of his works is a historical novel about this period called "Colonial Spy." I read the book while flying around this last week and enjoyed it very much. I also learned a lot about the Revolutionary War period in history (Mel Gibson didn't get it quite right in The Patriot). We toured a church that was in existence during the War and looked at the monument and graveyard where many of the Revolutionary war soldiers from the area are buried. It was very cool to read the "Colonial Spy" and read about the very people whose names I saw on the monument and on their gravestones. Besides being educational the novel is fun read and a good adventure story. War certainly had its ambiguities even 200+ years ago. I would love to be there to see the annual re-enactment of the battle that Mickey organizes.
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