Fort Sumter

This last weekend we took a little trip out into Charleston Harbor to see Fort Sumter. This is where the North had some soldiers stationed during all of the heated talks about slavery and secession (btw- South Carolina was the first state to secede from the nation before the Civil War). This is where the first shots of the Civil War were fired. Several Confederate forts surrounding the harbor all opened fire on this fort- around 1.5 miles away. They wanted the Union's soldiers out of Charleston! There are a lot more details than that (numbers, names, dates, times, etc.)- but I'm not enough of a history buff to remember all of it (and spend time writing a detailed post about it). =)

Here's the entrance. Apparently, the walls used to be 50 feet tall. You can see the hole in the wall to the left in this pic where a cannon is posted.

Here's what the fort looks like from the boat.

Here's the walkway from the boat to the Fort.

This is inside the fort. All of the bricks you see here are originals from the original fort. There were a lot of informative plaques that listed historical facts about the fort, as well as the numerous historical sights that you can see around the island. One cool thing I learned was that Morris Island, visible from the fort, was where the first all-black Union militia led the attack on a big confederate fort; many of them died. This was the last big scene in the movie "Glory." I watched that movie in junior high- it was fascinating. The ranger at the fort said that the anniversary of that battle was this weekend, and that volunteers were doing battle reenactments that afternoon. It's something I'm going to put on my list to see next year!

This is a Civil War era cannon.

This was kind of cool- there were a bunch of different flags- one was South Carolina's flag, and then there were other flags- for the confederacy, and different flags of the U.S.'s history. The original flag that flew over the fort when the first shots were fired is in a museum where you embark from the mainland to get to the fort.

Overall, a great experience! It was a fast tour- we only had an hour at the fort, but the ride out was pretty- it was nice to get a different view of Charleston (from the water)- and we saw a bunch of dolphins swimming out in the harbor. It was a good way to spend a Saturday afternoon!