Who knew the Civil War started in Charleston???

Just a little bit cooler here in Charleston, S.C. than we were used to in Frostproof. It was only in the high 50's here today, but the sun was out all day, so that helped.

We spent today touring around Charleston, and this afternoon, we toured Fort Sumter. It is located at the mouth of Charleston Harbour on your way out to the Atlantic Ocean, a very strategic location. It was built by the Federal Government to protect Charleston, which was one of the biggest Cities in the South, and a very important Sea Port, and Commercial Zone.

I rented the helicopter again, to take this bird's eye view for you all... no expense spared. This Fort was not built on an island... the built the island for the Fort! This is where all the problems begin... the island took 11 years to build, and slaves were used to help build it! Millions of bricks were made for the Fort and Slaves were used to make the bricks, although no slaves were used to build the actual Fort.

Years of strife in the Union, boiled over on April 12th, 1861, when Confederate Cannons started shooting at the Union Forces inside the Federal Fort. The first shot of the Civil War. The shells landed on the Fort for 36 hours...

...and guess what??? No one was killed on either side! Go figure.

The picture above shows the Fort with the men's barracks built... they all got ruined during the battles that came...

The walls are enormous, and the cannons used to sit in the openings you see in the picture above.... there were originally 3 levels of cannons, and the walls were 55 feet high! The current Fort was excavated and rebuilt over years...

You need to take a ferry boat out to the Monument...no roads or bridges here.

Yes, that is a cannon ball that was shot at the Fort and got stuck in the wall... this view is from the inside after they dug it out.

We are planning on visiting Charleston again tomorrow, and will post some more pictures of the City then... it is hard doing a blog as our internet service is very very slow here and uploading takes forever.

Till tomorrow...

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