On a cold February night in 1864\, eight m en squeezed through the tiny hatches of the H.L. Hunley\, a stra nge new warship tied up at a dock in the harbor of Charleston\, South Car olina. They crawled or duck walked through the 4-foot-tall (1.2-meter-tal l) passageway to their places on a long\, low bench. Each of them sat dow n at a hand crank attached to the Hunley’s propeller? s.< /div>\n

These eigh t men were the living power plant for a revolutionary machine?a submarine that could attack an enemy ship from underwater. Led by Confederate Lt. George Dixon\, these men would literally dive into the pages of history w hen the submerged Hunley attached a torpedo to the U.S.S. Ho usatonic and blew it up. The Union warship was helping to enforce th e maritime blockade of Charleston that was slowly strangling the rebellio us Confederate States of America’s ability to fight the Civil War.

But the ca ntankerous Hunley was as dangerous to its crew as it was to the Housatonic\, and not long after the Union warship sank\, the sub marine slipped to the bottom of the bay and never came up.

The name of the first submar ine to sink an enemy vessel became the stuff of legend. With the exceptio n of Dixon\, however\, the names of most of the crewmen who propelled the Hunley to glory were obscured by the mists of time.

That’s now changed\, wit h the discovery and finally the raising of the H. L. Hunley in 2000. Afte r years of painstaking work\, a team of archaeologists\, forensic experts \, and researchers at the Warren Lasch Conservation Center in Charleston has dug up some interesting information?and more than a few surprises?abo ut the submarine and the crewmen who had rested 30 feet (10 meters) below the surface of the ocean since 1864.

Everyone is invited to come and listen to Mr. & M rs. Rogers show and tell many things about the H. L. Hunley\, especially about the crew and their funeral.

Our meeting will start at 7 PM at the historic Courth ouse in downtown Manchester\, TN.

DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20121120T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20121120T200000 SUMMARY:Coffee County Historial Society Meeting URL:http://www.thunder1320.com/?ai1ec_event=coffee-county-historial-society -meeting&instance_id= END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR