(For you landlubbers, what we call a ladder is what you call a set of steps.) Anyway, we slept late and let our bodies try to catch up. It was close to noon before we headed out. First stop was the older part of Charleston south of the downtown area. This is an area of beautiful old homes and an area refe
rred to as "The Battery". This is on the very south end of the peninsula that makes up Old Charleston. We wondered along the sea wall and through the White Point Gardens. Most of this park, like about everywhere else in the deep south, is dedicated to the Confederacy, including a large statue in honor of the defenders of the south. It should be noted that South Carolina was the first state to secede from the Union and was the location where the first shots of the Civil War were fired. Later, we boar
ded the harbor tour boat for the ride out to Fort Sumter. The fort is located on an island at the opening of Charleston harbor and was very vital in defending the main shipping channels from the Revolutionary War forward. It was not decommissioned until 1947. When South Carolina seceded from the Union the fort was manned by Federal Troops. South Carolina immediately demanded the fort be turned over to the state since the U. S. government was no longer recognized. The Federal commander refused. The southern troops then started firing on the fort from four directions, thus becoming the first shots fired in the war. It did not take the commander of the outnumbered Federal troops to realize he was in a bad possition and he surrendered. Surprisingly, there was no loss of life during this initial battle of the war. During the last two years of the war the northern troops laid seige to the fort to take it back from the south. The fort originally was three stories tall but after two years of shelling it was pretty much turned into ru
bble. Even with that the southern troops did not surrender and did not give up the fort until after the surrender of the Confederacy in 1865. The fort was rebuilt by the United States but only as a single story site. There is still a lot of damage left. The barracks and officer's quarters were never rebuilt and only there foundations remain today.
ded the harbor tour boat for the ride out to Fort Sumter. The fort is located on an island at the opening of Charleston harbor and was very vital in defending the main shipping channels from the Revolutionary War forward. It was not decommissioned until 1947. When South Carolina seceded from the Union the fort was manned by Federal Troops. South Carolina immediately demanded the fort be turned over to the state since the U. S. government was no longer recognized. The Federal commander refused. The southern troops then started firing on the fort from four directions, thus becoming the first shots fired in the war. It did not take the commander of the outnumbered Federal troops to realize he was in a bad possition and he surrendered. Surprisingly, there was no loss of life during this initial battle of the war. During the last two years of the war the northern troops laid seige to the fort to take it back from the south. The fort originally was three stories tall but after two years of shelling it was pretty much turned into ru
bble. Even with that the southern troops did not surrender and did not give up the fort until after the surrender of the Confederacy in 1865. The fort was rebuilt by the United States but only as a single story site. There is still a lot of damage left. The barracks and officer's quarters were never rebuilt and only there foundations remain today.
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