30 September – Charleston

 Today we went out to Patriot Point to visit the USS Yorktown and Fort Sumter. The Yorktown is a WWII aircraft carrier and she served in the Pacific between the bombing of Pearl Harbour and the end of the war. She was modified in the 1950s to launch jets and was an anti sub patroller during the Cold War as well as serving in the Vietnam War. In December 1968 she recovered the capsule and astronauts from Apollo 8, before retiring in 1970. The Yorktown is now a floating museum. We had a very knowledgeable tour guide and we explored the hangar deck, with a number of aircraft, the lower decks to see how the sailors on board lived and worked, and the flight deck. We took a self-guided tour of the engine rooms and the upper levels, including the bridge.

We then took a harbour boat ride to Fort Sumter. The fort was where the first shot was fired which began the US Civil War. President Lincoln had been elected on a platform of abolishing slavery. This caused South Carolina to secede from the Union, followed by most of the Southern states. At that stage, the Union held Fort Sumter, in the middle of the harbour entrance, surrounded by Confederate forces in the other forts, and on land. On April 12, 1861, the first shot was a shell that burst over Fort Sumter, to signal the other forts to begin the attack. The bombardment lasted about 36 hours until the Union agreed to evacuate the fort. To that time, despite the barrage, there had been no casualties. On leaving the fort, Major Anderson decided to have a 100-gun salute to the Union Flag before lowering it. At shot 47, a misfire killed Private Daniel Hough, making him the first casualty of the war.

The fort remained in Confederate hands until close to the war's end when Confederate forces evacuated Charleston. An “end of the war” ceremony occurred at the Fort on April 14. 1865 (exactly 4 years to the day of the start of the war) when the now Major-General Anderson raised the original flag that he had lowered when he evacuated over the fort. The event was completely overshadowed by the assassination of Lincoln that evening.

Although the fort was pretty much reduced to rubble, an additional battery was constructed on the site in 1898.  This never saw action, and the fort was decommissioned in 1947.

29 September – Charleston

 Today we took a walking tour of the Charleston historic district. We learned about the establishment of Charleston as a walled city, and how it grew by reclaiming swamp land and the ocean. We saw the different eras of architecture, from the colonial styles through to Victorian. 

Charleston has its own house style, with porches and verandas (called piazzas) facing the prevailing breeze, and the houses are one room deep to get as much airflow as possible.

The City survived a major earthquake in 1886 that caused a lot of damage, and many hurricanes. They seem pretty used to being flooded as there had been a king tide this morning that flooded the streets around the seawall.

The walking tour was an excellent way to see the city. We went through parks and laneways that we wouldn’t have found if we’d wandered about on our own. We learned a lot of history – Charles Town was settled in 1670, was popular with pirates (including Blackbeard), and was the largest North American point of disembarkation for the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The first shots of the Civil War were fired in Charleston at Fort Sumter in 1861. South Carolina was also the first state to sign the Ordinance of Secession, which was the first step to the secession of the South and began the Civil War. In 2018, the Charleston City Council apologized for its role in the slave trade and condemned its history.

After the walking tour, and in need of a sit-down, we opted for an early dinner at Eli’s, It was well worth it.

28 September – Charleston

 Today we started with Magnolia Plantation. The plantation dates from 1676, and remains owned by the Drayton family some 13 generations later. The plantation produced rice in the early days and was known for its gardens featuring azaleas. The house is the third one on the property. The original was hit by lightening in 1800 and burned down. The second was razed by the Union soldiers at the close of the Civil War. As the owner was a minister and stayed neutral during the war, the soldiers left the crops and the store houses. The third house is quite modest compared to the early mansions, as the owner raised the money to build it by conducting tours of his historic gardens. His daughter married into money and extended the house a bit more.

There was a replica of a barge that was used to float the wares to Charleston. We learned the Ashley River is tidal and you could float down river, then back again when the tide turned.

We did the tour From Slavery to Freedom, which covered the slave quarters and talked about the life of the enslaved individuals. The cabins have been restored to various periods of occupation, through to the 1960’s when they had electric lighting.

We then went to Drayton Hall, next door. This was an interesting tour as Drayton Hall has not been restored, but preserved. There is no furniture in place, and the site is still be investigated by archaeologists. Drayton Hall was constructed from 1738-1752 and was one of the few plantation home to survive the scorched earth policy of the Union soldiers during the war. The reason is believed to be either as it was being used as a field hospital, or that it was a smallpox quarantine station. The plantation was based on rice and indigo, and later on phosphate. John Drayton owned more than 100 commercial plantations totalling approximately 76,000 acres of land. Following the Civil War he (and other plantation owners) moved to Mexico to take up land there. That was when the property was leased to phosphate mining companies.