Our state legislators have provided that the remains of the CSS Pee Dee, a Confederate naval vessel that sank in the Great Pee Dee River, along with its artifacts, etc., are preserved. And we salute all the efforts that have converged to reclaim the cannons from whatever vessel is under the waters of the Great Pee Dee at the Confederate Navy Yard at Pee Dee.
Shells, glass, tools, instruments and other artifacts are being raised to the surface and plans are being made for their display. To date, it appears it is Florence County that is benefitting the most from reclaiming, not Marion County, though Marion is the site of the historic Confederate Navy Yard and it was Marion’s men and women who funded the projects there along the river and Marion’s people who worked in the 14 buildings on the site.
The CSS Pee Dee was constructed here, not on the present-day Florence side of the Great Pee Dee, though it appears items, such as the long-ago reclaimed gunboat propellers, are to be displayed in the Florence County Museum, it is hoped, some items come home to the Marion County Museum.
The Great Pee Dee River has been an important waterway through the area and provided life for the humans inhabiting the area for thousands of years. The people who lived in the Marion County area of South Carolina played a tremendous part in history, from the earliest prehistory through the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. It is Marion that should benefit the most from the findings, especially when balanced with the money and prestige archaeological finds bring to a place.
For its claim to fame, it was the local people, and their money, that constructed the Confederate vessel. History has said the CSS Pee Dee was “the finest wooden vessel built by the Confederate Navy…” It was scuttled to keep it out of Union soldiers’ hands in 1865.
Because heritage and history are being marketed in the chase for money, i.e. tourism dollars, it would be a shame for Marion County to once again lose in its competition with Florence and Horry counties for “the spoils of political warfare.”
Who will gain from what is Marion County's history and what could be crucial to its future?
Those who know their state history know Florence was not conceived as a county until legislators created it from portions of Williamsburg, Clarendon, Marion and Darlington counties in 1888, 23 years after the CSS Pee Dee was scuttled.
The state’s citizens and the U.S. Navy “own” these important remains and artifacts. In their recovery, conserving and displaying, the people of South Carolina will better understanding their history.
Preserve this county's, region’s, state’s, nation’s tremendous Revolutionary War and Civil War heritage, but somehow help protect Marion County’s future at the same time.
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