Saturday, October 4 - Day 17

Charleston, SC

It was only 100 miles from Savannah to Charleston so we were here by 10am. The boat tour left at 10:45 for Ft. Sumter, a place I have long wanted to see. South Carolina was the first State to secede from the Union soon after Lincoln was elected in November 1860. The Carolina government demanded the surrender of the four Union forts in Charleston but Major Anderson, Commander of the small garrison at the only manned fort suspected that would happen and during the night he got all his troops on boats and went to Ft. Sumter. They had limited supplies and little chance of resupply so the Carolinians decided to starve them out. On April 11, 1861, they got news of a resupply convoy coming from the North so on the morning of April 12, they opened fire on Sumter. The first shot fired from the fort was touched off by Lt. Abner Doubleday, the purported inventor of the baseball game. The Sumter garrison of 85 men could only fire about 9 cannon at a time while the South bombarded them with 3500 shells for 34 hours without letup. A large fire was started in the fort and Anderson realized they could not fight the fire and man the guns at the same time. They were also out of food. Anderson surrendered but was allowed to keep the huge American flag which is now on display at the fort. No Union soldier was lost in the fight. This really is the very short version of what happened so you have to come here to get the whole story.

 

We had a swim at the motel, went to Mass at an interesting church and then had grouper sandwiches at a restaurant on the waterfront in Mount Pleasant, where we are staying. We have not been in downtown Charleston so going to see it tomorrow morning.

Photos again didn't load so will send them later. 

Photos: 1 - Patriot's Point to catch ferry to Ft. Sumter; 2-10 - Ft. Sumter; 11 - coming back to mainland; 12-17 - Stella Maris (Star of the Sea) Roman Catholic Church