BGuthrie Photos: SC -- Charleston -- Fort Sumter Natl Monument

SC -- Charleston -- Fort Sumter Natl Monument:

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. FTSUM_030825_016.JPG: This is a wonderful picture of how Charleston looked in 1860. And, amazingly enough, the downtown area is essentially unchanged from this illustration.
2. FTSUM_030825_030.JPG: The big black structure is a concrete fortification called Battery Huger that was added in 1899 when they were upgrading the fort in response to the Spanish-American War. If you look at the walls of the brick fort, they're missing an entire level. The fort was much taller than it is today.
3. FTSUM_030825_055.JPG: This is a wonderful sign. It shows a photo of the fort while it was under attack with a shell actually exploding. This is hard to imagine happening in those days of photography. The picture was taken in 1863, during the Confederate occupation of the fort.
4. FTSUM_030825_058.JPG: There was an entire level over this one. The reason the brick survived so well is that they decided to just bury the bottom level with rubble when the fort was fixed up later.
5. FTSUM_030825_114.JPG: This model of the 1861 bombardment of Fort Sumter is in the museum. I get a kick out of it because neither of the mortars are actually pointed toward Fort Sumter in the distance.
6. FTSUM_030825_126.JPG: At the base of the US flag pole is a picture of Robert Anderson, the Union defender of the fort.
7. FTSUM_030825_138.JPG: In the distance is Fort Moultrie
8. FTSUM_030825_190.JPG: Somewhere out there on Morris Island would have Battery Wagner. Morris Island was a required step on the path toward taking Fort Sumter so Union forces had to seize it. As a sign says: On July 18, 1863, a direct assault failed against Fort Wagner. a Confederate stronghold near Morris Island's north end. [This was the charge made famous by the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, a black regiment under Robert Shaw, which is depicted in the film "Glory."] The Union then changed tactics, subjecting Fort Wagner to a two-month siege. The Confederates finally evacuated, abandoning Morris Island on September 6, 1863. Union gunners then aimed powerful rifled cannon at Fort Sumter. In the next two years, bombardments reduced most of Sumter to rubble. In 1863-64, Confederates still held most of the strategic positions around Charleston Harbor. The Union Navy failed to take Fort Sumter by sea, and in June, 1862, the Army failed against Secessionville, south of Charleston. Controlling Morris Island in 1863 enabled the Union to bombard Fort Sumter and Charleston.
9. FTSUM_030825_200.JPG: We're just outside of the powder magazine. As the sign says: Fort Sumter's powder was stored in these specially constructed rooms in the corner (angle) of the gorge wall. Protecting gunpowder was critical; the gorge, at the rear of the fort, was considered a safe location. But Fort Sumter was designed to face the sea, and was vulnerable to attack from land. When Confederate batteries bombarded the fort in April 1861, the resulting fire threatened the magazine, causing Major Robert Anderson to surrender rather than endanger his men. Wood-lined masonry walls, five feet thick, kept powder dry and safe from sparks and flame. But on December 11, 1863, the inner magazine with its store of small arms and munitions mysteriously exploded, killing eleven Confederate soldiers. The leaning brick wall and archway, still visible today, show the force of the blast.
10. FTSUM_030825_210.JPG: This is an 1861 wartime photo of the Gorge Wall, where the fort's powder magazine was, after the Union surrender of the fort. The area that remains today is just the bottom level but you can see there used to be three levels to the fort.
11. FTSUM_030825_221.JPG: In front is a memorial to the Union defenders of the fort. It mentions that there was a woman stationed at the fort during the Confederate bombardment. Her role isn't well documented.
12. FTSUM_030825_222.JPG: The powder magazine area is in the corner of the fort (upper left)
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AAA "Gem": AAA considers this location to be a "must see" point of interest. To see pictures of other areas that AAA considers to be Gems, click here.
Wikipedia Description: Fort Sumter
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fort Sumter, a Third System masonry coastal fortification located in Charleston harbor, South Carolina, was named after General Thomas Sumter. The fort is best known as the site where the shots initiating the American Civil War were fired, at the Battle of Fort Sumter.

Construction:

Fort Sumter was built after the War of 1812 as one of a series of fortifications on the southern U.S. coast. Construction began in 1829, and the structure was still unfinished in 1860, when the conflict began. Seventy thousand tons of granite were imported from New England to build up a sand bar in the entrance to Charleston harbor, which the site dominates; The fort was a five-sided brick structure, 170 to 190 feet long, with walls five feet thick, standing 50 feet over the low tide mark. It was designed to house 650 men and 135 guns in three tiers of gun emplacements, although it was never filled near its full capacity.

The first shots of the war (1861):

On December 26, 1860, five days after South Carolina declared its secession, U.S. Army Major Robert Anderson abandoned the indefensible Fort Moultrie and secretly relocated his two companies (127 men, 13 of them musicians) of the 1st U.S. Artillery to Fort Sumter. He thought that providing a stronger defense would delay a Rebel attack. The Fort was not yet complete at the time and fewer than half of the cannons that should have been there were unavailable due to military downsizing by James Buchanan. Over the next few months, repeated calls for Union surrender from Confederate Brigadier General P.G.T. Beauregard were ignored, and Union attempts to resupply and reinforce the garrison were rebuffed.

On April 12, 1861, at 4:30 a.m., Confederate batteries opened fire, firing for 34 straight hours, on the fort. Edmund Ruffin, noted Virginian agronomist and secessionist, claimed that he fired the first shot on Fort Sumter. His story has been widely believed, but Lieutenant ...More...
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Same Subject: Click on this link to see coverage of items having the same subject: [Civil War] [Natural Beauty] [Park (National Park Service)]
2003 photos: Equipment this year: I decided my Epson digital camera wasn't quite enough for what I wanted. Since I already had Compact Flash chips for it, I had to find another camera which used CF chips. That brought me to buy the Fujifilm S602 Zoom in March 2003. A great digital camera, I used it exclusively for an entire year. Trips this year: Three-week trip this year out west, mostly in Utah. Number of photos taken this year: 68,000.
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