Ferry boat to Fort Sumter.
These children were busy working on their Junior Ranger Badge on the way over. I think they are home schooled.
This school group from the Oaks Christian School, was on a school outing and got to raise the flags on Fort Sumter with a Park Ranger. One of the chaperon mothers had seven or eight Alex & Ani bracelets.
First thing we did when we disembarked was listen to a presentation by an intern working with the Student Conservation Organization. The interns provide interpretive services on Fort Sumpter and Fort Moultrie. Intern Chris talked about South Carolina seceding and the Four Federal installations around Charleston Harbor: Fort Moultrie on Sullivans Island; Castle Pinckney on Shute's Folly Island near the city; Fort Johnson on James Island across from Moultrie; and, Fort Sumter at the harbor entrance. The only post garrisoned by more than a nominal number of soldiers was Fort Moultrie, where Major Robert Anderson commanded two companies, 85 men. Six days after South Carolina seceded, Anderson concluded that Fort Moultrie was indefensible and transferred his command to Fort Sumter, a mile away. South Carolina volunteers almost immediately occupied Forts Moultrie and Johnson and Castle Pinckney leaving only Fort Sumpter under Federal command and a source of tension between North and South. When Abraham Lincoln assumed office and tried to resupply Fort Sumpter, Brig. Gen. Pierre G. T. Beauregard, commander of the Confederate troops at Charleston, demanded that Anderson surrender Sumter. Anderson refused and at 3:30 a.m. on April 12, the first shot was fired by Confederate troops. By daybreak batteries at Forts Johnson and Moultrie, and elsewhere were firing on Fort Sumter. The attack continued through the day and night and the next morning a hot shot from Fort Moultrie set fire to the officers' quarters, and in the early afternoon the flagstaff was shot away. Anderson agreed to a truce and that evening he surrendered his garrison after fighting for 34 hours. The Civil War had begun.
SCA intern Chris giving a very informative history of the Confederate capture of Fort Sumter.
A wall leaning in from the force of a blast.
A plaque listing all the names of the Federal soldiers who defended the Fort, including eight band members.
After the presentation, we had about 40 minutes to tour the Fort.
A portion of the parade ground with Charleston in the background.
After the Civil War the entire Fort was filled with earth and later half was uncovered by the national Park Service and restored.
Fort Sumter today bears only a superficial resemblance to its original appearance. The multi-tiered work of 1861 was reduced largely to rubble during the Civil War as the Federal troops bombarded it for almost two years. Battery Huger, built across the parade ground at the time of the Spanish-America War, dominates the interior of the Fort today.
We met up with the NPS volunteer, Rich, who talked on the boat coming over. He is retired from Connecticut.
Five flags over Fort Sumter: First and Second Confederate Flags; Flag of South Carolina; and, the U.S. flags in 1861 and 1865. The tall one is, of course, the U.S. flag.
One interesting thing, among many that we learned today, the land Fort Sumter sits on was open water in 1842 when the US government decided to build a fort to protect Charleston. Granite from New England was brought in to build the island.
On the way back to Charleston we learned some more interesting facts about Charleston. It is, of course, a city of many firsts. The Charleston Museum was the first museum in the country and the largest cable bridge in the U.S. carries traffic between Charleston and Mount Pleasant.
I sat next to this very pleasant woman, Linda, from Madison, Wisconsin, on the way back.
Longest cable bridge in the U.S.
A life size replica of the flag that Major Anderson took down when he left Fort Sumter. The original flag in that black rectangle at the bottom of the flag. To preserve it, only a small portion is exposed each day. Visitors are asked not to take pictures of the original.
Leaving the ferry, we decided that we would also visit Fort Moultrie, across the river on Sullivans Island. I am so glad that we did because Fort Moultrie is just as interesting as Fort Sumter, but in a different way.
Traveling across the Arthur Ravenel, Jr. Bridge, the longest cable bridge in the U.S., on our way to Sullivans Island and Fort Moultrie.
When we arrived at the Fort Moultrie Visitor's Center it was time for lunch and we noticed group of picnic tables behind the Visitor's Center on the shore of a river.
Group of tables at the Visitor's Center.
Instead of a picnic table, we chose the bench that you can see in the picture above, sitting closer to the water.
Bench where we sat for our lunch.
It turns out that this is not just any bench, but a bench with a message. You might notice in the picture above that there is a plaque in front of the bench. This is what it says.
A Bench by the Road
There is no place you or I can go to think about or not think about, to summon the presence of, or recollect the absence of slaves; nothing that reminds us of the ones who made the journey and of those who did not make it. There is no suitable memorial or plaque or wreath or wall or park or sky scraper lobby. There's no 300 foot tower. There's no small bench by the road.
Toni Morrison 1989
Bench By the Side of the Road Project was founded by the Toni Morison Society in honor of Noble Laureate Toni Morrison. This first bench is placed in memory of the enslaved Africans who perished during the Middle Passage ad those who arrived on Sullivan's Island, a major point of entry for Africans who entered the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Nearly half of all African Americans have ancestors who passed through Sullivan's Island.
The forced exodus of West Africans to the New World often ended on Sullivan's Island, the entry point for nearly half of the captive Africans shipped to North America. The island had quarantine stations to protect the colony from deadly diseases. Between 1707 and 1799, when arriving ships carried infectious diseases, their free or enslaved passengers were quarantined either aboard ship or in island "pest houses."
A few feet from "the bench" is the burial spot of Osceola. He led the Seminole resistance to their forced removal from Florida. He was captured in 1837 and was imprisoned at Fort Moultrie where he died. He was greatly respected. That is also the original South Carolina flag with just the crescent (without the Palmetto tree).
What is so interesting about Fort Moultrie is its 171 year history as an active fort. On June 28, 1776, the British were defeated when nine warships attacked the Fort which was under the command of William Moultrie. Since the Revolutionary War, Fort Moultrie was fortified to protect Charleston in the War of 1812, the Civil War, the Spanish American War, the First World War and World War II.
Entrance to Fort Moultrie.
Replica of the command center at Fort Moultrie during WWII.
View of the interior of the Fort.
Frederick by one of the signal lights that were used for communication with ships in the Charleston harbor during WWII.
Rebecca, another SCA intern, who was very helpful in answering our questions. She graduated from a liberal arts college in Pennsylvania with a major in History and Political Science. She is in this internship program to gain more experience before joining the National Park Service.
Sand blasting that was going on during our visit under the watchful eye of a Park Ranger.
It was a long day, but a good day.
That was a full day! Who would have guessed that a simple bench could carry such a message and "food for thought" during your lunch break.
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