An overnight work trip took me to Charleston last week. I wasn’t left with a lot of free time, due to the short nature of the visit, but I was able to grab some local barbecue and beer, and visit one historical artifact I’ve wanted to see for decades. This is one of the 11 inch Dahlgren guns salvaged from the Union ironclad USS Keokuk during the American Civil War. After the ship sunk following an attack on Fort Sumter, the Confederates salvaged both of her valuable guns and used them in the defense of Charleston for the rest of the war. This gun still sits on the battery in the south of Charleston. I wrote a piece about the salvage operation some years back, for the New York Times’ “Disunion” series that ran during the sesquicentennial of the war, which you can find linked on my WRITING page. I also built a model of Keokuk herself, which you can find HERE.