Friday April 8th 2016

Today I drove about an hour and a half into the center of Charleston South Carolina. The objective was to tour Fort Sumter. Next week on April 11th is the One Hundred and Fifty Fifth anniversary of the start of the Civil War with the artillery assault on Fort Sumter by Southern Forces.

Welcome sign at the boat dock to Fort Sumter

The National Park Visitors center is at Liberty Square in downtown Charleston. From that location you can take a boat tour to the Fort 3.5 miles out in the mouth of the harbor. The displays in the visitors center and the narration on the boat ride provide a good background on the fort and the civil war battles in which it played a role.

Fort Sumter 3.5 miles from the visitors center in downtown Charleston SC.

Fort Sumter close up as the boat docks at the pier.

It is interesting to note that Fort Sumter was never really finished. It was part of the coastal defenses built after the War of 1812. It is the largest of four fortifications protecting the Charleston harbor. It was nearing completion at the start of the Civil War. Major Robert Anderson commander of an 85 man artillery unit moved into the incomplete fort from the less defensible Fort Moultrie when South Carolina seceded in December 1860. This move inflamed the people of the area setting the stage for the seizing the fort by force in April of 1861.

Example of one of the cannon that were used at Fort Sumter

One of the openings in the Fort wall for cannon. At the opening the wall is about 3 feet thick. Between the openings the walls are much thicker.

The Fort was three stories high at the start of the war. All of the artillery attacks by the Union to try and retake the Fort brought the walls down to 1 story at best. After the Civil war it was cleaned up and re-armed with a big coastal artillery piece used to defend the coast from the time of the Spanish American War until World War II. The Fort was turned over to the National Parks service in 1947.

There are four boat trips from the visitor center and three or four from Patriots Point across the river. The three trips I observed, the one before mine, mine and the one after, were all full. The boat I was on had two or three school trips on board. Each boat full of people get about an hour to tour the fort.

The aircraft carrier USS Yorktown CV10 is part of a museum complex across the river at Patriots Point.

Tomorrow I plan to go back to Charleston to visit Patriots Point an area that has a number of retired navel vessels including the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown.