Just before daybreak on April 12, 2011, mortar fire arced through the sky in Charleston Harbor as re-enactors fired a cannon shot to mark the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War. It was in Charleston that the first shots of the Civil War were fired in 1861 by Confederate soldiers from Fort Johnson, the beginning of a 34-hour bombardment of Fort Sumter, where Union troops were holed up waiting for supplies and reinforcements. Amazingly, no lives on either side were lost in that first battle that marked the start of a bloody conflict that tore the Union apart for four years and cost hundreds of thousands of lives. Charleston has many permanent Civil War attractions, as well as commemoration events and exhibitions planned through 2015 for visitors and locals to reflect upon one of the most trying times in this nation’s history.
Don’t miss:
Fort Sumter
Fort Sumter National Monument is located on an island at the mouth of Charleston Harbor and only reachable by private boat or the authorized National Park Service ferry. The ferry departs from Liberty Square next to the South Carolina Aquarium in downtown Charleston, and from Patriots Point — where visitors can also tour the USS Yorktown aircraft carrier and the Congressional Medal of Honor Museum — in Mount Pleasant across the Cooper River bridge. The tour lasts two hours and 15 minutes. Tours of the fort itself are self-guided, but park rangers are on hand to give a history talk and answer questions. The narrated ferry ride passes by other historic sites in the harbor, including the fortifications that fired on Fort Sumter, and is one of the best sightseeing opportunities in the Charleston area with its city skyline views from the water.
The H.L. Hunley
The first submarine to sink an enemy warship in combat was the Confederate sub H.L. Hunley in Charleston Harbor on Feb. 17, 1864. After sinking the USS Housatonic, the Hunley and its crew also went down. The sub was rediscovered on the sea floor in the late 20th century and raised to the surface on Aug. 8, 2000. Today the Hunley is part of an ongoing research and preservation project at the Warren Lasch Conservation Center in North Charleston, but tours are allowed on the weekends when the scientists aren’t working. Tours include seeing the 40-foot-long Hunley in its conservation tank and an exhibition of artifacts excavated from the submarine. Visit the “Friends of the Hunley” website (www.hunley.org) for more info on tours and conservation efforts.
Exhibits, re-enactments
Museum Mile stretching along Meeting Street downtown contains many historic homes and museums. Some Civil War-themed exhibitions include “A Soldier’s View of Civil War Charleston” at the Gibbes Museum of Art, on display until July 10. The exhibit features paintings by a Confederate soldier that depict Charleston and the surrounding forts and batteries during the war.
Nearby, the Charleston Museum will feature the “Threads of War” exhibit, with clothing and textiles from the Civil War, through October. The museum also houses the permanent “City Under Siege” exhibit detailing life in the city from secession through the war’s end. At the Edmondston-Alston House, “Secessionists, Soldiers and Slaves: The Alston Family’s Civil War” will be on display throughout the sesquicentennial commemoration, changing on a year-by-year basis through 2015; the Middleton Place House Museum at Middleton Place — a historic rice plantation outside of town — will feature a concurrent exhibit titled “The Middleton Family’s Civil War.”
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