For immediate release
Smoky Mountain Resorts to host the Hunley Submarine
Pigeon Forge, Tenn. – Relics from America’s most tumultuous time — the war between the states — are
the focus of a collectibles show set for August 29th – 30th at the Smoky Mountain Convention Center in
Pigeon Forge, organized by Smoky Mountain Resorts.
Show organizer Pete Smith anticipates approximately 100 tables of all things Civil War will be offered.
Items on display and for sale will include authentic war-era muskets, rifles, pistols, photographs,
uniforms, and other artifacts from the lives of soldiers and their families.
Re-enactors and history buffs with a keen eye for detail will participate in historically-accurate portrayals
of U.S. and Confederate military units. An encampment that will show how soldiers lived and fought
during the four-year conflict is expected as well.
Smith said a special exhibition, a replica of the confederate submarine H.L. Hunley, should attract
significant attention. The Hunley was the first submarine to sink an enemy ship, the Housatonic, in
Charleston Harbor in February 1864.
“Shows and special events of this nature are a perfect fit for Pigeon Forge,” said David Chaltas Author
and portrayer of General Robert E Lee. “They add a new element to vacation time while illuminating
part of our nation’s history.”
On the clear but chilly night of February 17, 1864, John Crosby stood on the deck of USS Housatonic a little
less than six miles and three years removed from the launching point of the Civil War, Fort Sumter. The
moonlight shimmered on Charleston Harbor’s still surface as Housatonic patrolled the South Carolina waters as
part of the Union naval blockade that was slowly strangling the Confederacy.
When the hand- cranked Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley torpedoed the mighty USS Housatonic in
Charleston Harbor on February 17, 1864, it didn’t change the course of the Civil War, but by becoming the first
combat submarine to sink an enemy warship, it altered naval warfare forever. (Christopher Klein History in the
Headlines)
Most of Housatonic’s 155 crewmembers saved themselves by launching lifeboats or climbing the rigging, which
remained above the harbor’s shallow 27-foot depth in time for rescue boats from a nearby Union warship to
arrive. Five Union sailors died, but the outcome was even more devastating for the Confederacy as Hunley
never returned to port. For the third time, Hunley slipped to the bottom of Charleston Harbor, but exactly why
remains a mystery. The undersea vessel could have been fatally damaged in the torpedo explosion, hit by a
shot from Housatonic or sucked into the vortex of the sinking warship.
In 1995, the submarine was located beneath sand and shells by novelist Clive Cussler’s National Underwater
and Marine Agency. Five years later, the well-preserved wreck of Hunley, with its eight crew still at their
stations and Dixon still with his lucky coin, was raised from its murky grave and brought to the Warren Lasch
Conservation Center in North Charleston where it was placed in a 90,000-gallon freshwater conservation tank.
The crew of Hunley were given a proper burial in 2004, and an international team of scientists studying the
wreck believe they are close to solving the mystery of what happened to them in the final moments of their
daring mission.
The H.L. Hunley in conservsation lab in North Charleston, South Carolina.
To find out more visit www.smokymountainheroes.com. Show tickets can be purchased at the Ramada
Inn next to Kentucky Fried Chicken and Krispy Kreme in Pigeon Forge or by calling 1-800-309-0816.