Fort Sumter

Having had a relaxing lie-in on Sunday morning, followed by a leisurely stroll to the nearby Hominy Grill for something of a traditional Southern Sunday Brunch, it was decided that we would head out to Fort Sumter for the afternoon. Heading North across Calhoun as far as possible, you get to the Charleston Aquarium and the Fort Sumter Museum. For free, you can just go round the museum or for the reasonable sum of $14, you can hop in a boat and have a tour of the harbour including a stop off at the Fort which is located pretty much in the middle of the estuary where the Ashley and Cooper Rivers join. In American terms, this is a very historic place given that they first started building it way back in the 1800s. It is also quite a place of historic importance as it was a focus point for the start of the American Civil War.

Y'see, whilst i knew that Charleston was important as it was the place where the Declaration of Secession from the Union was signed, i was unaware that the first shot of the Civil War was fired in Charleston. When the declaration was signed, a Union regiment took over the then almost complete Fort as it was the best point of defence. For a couple of days, Charleston was unaware of this until the then Union flag was raised. After some heated negotiations, ultimately a shot was fired over the fort which was the signal for the Conferderate troops to start bombaring Fort Sumter from all sides. Miraculously, no-one in the Fort was killed in the bombardment. However, the first death of the Civil war did occur there (by accident) when the Union troops - being allowed to leave by the Conferderates, were in the middle of a 100-gun salute and the cannon accidentally discharged killing a person and injuring a couple of others. Suffice to say, after the battle of Fort Sumter, things were not going to be the same again in the US for some time.