November 8

A common theme has appeared once again… it is very late. I will add comments tomorrow.

November 9 is now “yesterday”, but yesterday it was “tomorrow.” A short pause to rewind the memory tapes, and here we go.

If you have to drive into a metropolitan area during the morning on a weekday, add extra time to your schedule. I did that, but thanks to Charleston traffic and two accidents, it was almost not enough. I arrived at Charles Pinckney’s home right at 9 AM, when the parking lot gate was to open. But it was already open and other cars were in the lot. I needed every minute today, and had hoped someone would have the gate open by 8:45 AM, but the traffic issues took care of that. The park is only 28 acres, from the thousands Pinckney originally owned. The house which dominates the grounds was built by an owner after Pinckney died, though it is on the original foundation. Since the house is not open on Wednesdays, there was basically nothing else to see. I plugged in “Fort Moultrie” to my iPhone and up popped the map for an 18-minute route.

Jim, a staff volunteer, and a NPTC (National Park Travelers Club) member, was waiting for me outside the fort’s VC. In the past this fort had not been part of the Fort Sumter NMon, but in recent years the two units were merged into Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie NHP. One hope is that more people will make it over to Fort Moultrie instead of just taking the ferry ride to Fort Sumter. And visit they should. This is an excellent point of interest. We walked across the street, entered, and walked up to the top of the fort. A walkway takes one around most of the fort’s circumference. If you go to the right the first gun to view is from the 1830s. As you continue the tour the guns get newer and newer. The newest guns are from WW2. Yes, the Eastern seaboard had many scares during WW2 from German U-boats. The history of Sullivan’s Island, on which the fort is built, goes back to 1671 when the British. And the fort repulsed a British attack during the Revolutionary War. But its main fame is from the bombardment of Fort Sumter at the start of the Civil War.

Outside the fort’s walls is the grave of Osceola, the great Seminole war chief. He had been captured, then imprisoned at Fort Moultrie, where he died a few months later. A marker next to Osceola’s grave is for the men of the ironclad U.S.S. Patapsco which sank in 1865 as it was clearing mines in Charleston harbor. I know I did not spend enough time at Fort Moultrie, but my ticket for the Fort Sumter ferry was 10:30 AM and I had to make that. I thanked Jim and in 15 minutes was parking at Patriots Point. This is a military museum, including the U.S.S. Yorktown. Not the ship which sank at the battle of Midway in WW2, but its replacement. This ship saw plenty of action against the Japanese. Planes are lined up on the deck for visitors to view. But the parking lot is also available for those who want to take the ferry to Fort Sumter. The other departure point is Liberty Square in downtown Charleston. Why drive all the way over there? A NPS staff volunteer narrated during the short boat trip, explaining the history of the fort as well as the sights we were seeing on either side. Upon deboarding, most visitors stopped in the parade ground to listen to a short presentation by one of the park rangers. Then we were left to tour the fortification by ourselves. There is a little over an hour given for a visitor to be in the fort, before reboarding the ferry.

The guns and cannon in the fort are original, though not all from the fort’s beginning in 1829 (built to fortify the country’s coastline after the War of 1812). My favorite section is the right face. This is the wall which had the least damage during the bombardment in April-1861, which began the Civil War. Some of the rifled shells fired upon the fort are sticking out of the walls. The center section of the fort is much newer than the Civil War. This is Battery Huger, built in 1899, an upgrade to the fort’s defensive capabilities. It is completely black. One can climb to its roof to overlook the interior of the fort. A museum occupies a section of the Battery. The bookstore is around the corner.

Reconstruction Era NHP is in Beaufort, SC. Be sure to pronounce the “Beau” like the “ew” in dew. This is counter to Beaufort, NC where “beau” sounds like “bow” in bowtie. The residents of each state do not like their city to be sounded like their rival state’s city.

Directions are easy if you type in “706 Craven Street” on your phone. The park’s VC is in the historic Beaufort Fire House. With this being within the park boundaries, I pulled out my GPS device and logged my presence. There are three sections to this park, the other two being Camp Saxton, and Darrah Hall and Brick Baptist Church. I had not been to Camp Saxton before, so thanked the staff volunteer at the VC and drove to the shore of the Beaufort River. Much of the camp is currently on a U.S. Navy base, so the general public has only the ruins of old Fort Frederick on the shore bank to visit. The British built this fort in the 1730s. But the foundation of this fort was used to create the dock for Camp Saxton. The camp is famous for being the home of the 1st South Carolina Volunteer Infantry, an all-black regiment. The staff volunteer had mentioned with the park being relatively new (established in 2017), there are not too many visitor activities at this time.

I arrived at Fort Pulaski in the nick of time. I had thought the last entry to the fort was 4:30 PM, but as a ranger mentioned, and confirmed later that night off the park’s website, that 4:30 PM mark is for the park. The fort closes at 4:30 PM, while the VC/Museum and park closes at 5 PM. I walked through the fort’s gates at 4:23 PM. I was able to snap a few photos and read some of the placards near guns. A ranger and park staff member talked to me about some of the details (like the demilune which protected the entrance to the fort), and they inquired about my Quest. They locked the gate, and I began a walk around the exterior of the fort. Now, this is not along the walls of the fort. This fort has a pretty major moat. So, I walked around the moat. This is one impressive fortification. Like Fort Sumter, construction of Pulaski started in 1829, to protect Savannah from river assault, but took 18 years to complete. Pulaski has the distinction of the being the first fort to suffer from rifled artillery. The Confederates in the fort, even with 7.5-foot thick brick walls and piers of masonry in front of them, had no hope against this new invention being used by the Union. Federal forces again controlled the fort, and now the shipping lanes into and out of Savannah. One of the primary reasons for the Union victory in the war was the blockade of the South’s ports. If you are ever visiting the beautiful city of Savannah, be sure to add a side trip out to Fort Pulaski.