Fort Sumter

After our carriage ride, we wandered through town on the way down to the water. 

While in Charleston, we had to visit the site where the Civil War began: Fort Sumter...

Sitting out on the sand bar in the entrance to the harbor, we had to take a boat from the visitors' center to the fort...

The fort was built in 1829 out of 70 tons of New England granite to protect the harbor. The 5 walls were five feet thick and 50 feet high at low tide. When the war started in 1861, it was still unfinished and not at its full capacity of 650 men and 135 guns in three tiers. 

Some of the guns that were there still remain...

After 34 hours of constant bombardment, the North surrendered to the Confederate troops on April 13th. 

You can still see some of the shells in the ruins of the walls...

After the surrender, the Confederates hoisted this South Carolina flag...

The North tried to regain control of the fort and harbor, but were never successful. Now only rubble remains along with some museum exhibits...

One of the highlights was getting to watch dolphins jumping and swimming in the harbor. Unfortunately, we didn't get a picture... 

We also got to the see Union flag that flew over the fort...

Charleston by Carriage

The thing to do when in Charleston is to take a tour of the city in a horse-drawn carriage. There are so many that before you leave they randomly choose you a number of the sector of the city you will tour. This is so that all the carriages won't be in the same place at the same time clogging up the streets.

Everything in Charleston is old. Like pre-Civil War old. Some even pre-Declaration of Independence old.

A lot of the houses have some really awesome iron work!

This one has a really wicked looking fence out front

There are also a lot of churches in Charleston. It's also called The Holy City.

There was a big earthquake in Charleston in 1886 and after that people added earthquake bolts to their houses to keep the walls tight so they wouldn't fall. Some are real and have cables running through. Some are just "stick ups" in order to make their houses worth more.

There were also some cute old shop signs...

This was the building they stored all the gunpowder in. Probably not a good idea. But it's still there, so...

I wish I could remember all the cool stories about all the buildings and houses and streets we saw, but I can't.

So, this post was just be a whole bunch of pictures of the beautiful South Carolina town of Charleston. Hope you enjoyed it!

Oh, I almost forgot the picture of our fantastic horse! (we had a pretty great tour guide, too) ;)