The Civil War started in Charleston

When I planned this trip I really had no idea what I was signing up for but I loved every single second of it. We found a Civil War walking tour on GroupOn so we grabbed that and I assumed that it would be kinda interesting and to be honest I didn't really know what to expect. So our Sunday morning started early with the Walking Tour. As the group met it was a hodgepodge of people from all over the country and then the leader showed up... he was a mix of a strange high school teacher and a creepy old man.

It was so interesting to hear the story of how slavery was a vital part of the south and how much a part of both the society and the way of life. I don't know that I thought much about how slavery was a part of the culture and that it was an investment to purchase a slave. As the guy talked it about it brought a new perspective to how much the citizens of south carolina were terrified of the changes to the laws. After South Carolina seceded from the US the very first cannon shot was fired from Charleston onto Fort Sumpter, interesting I don't know that I ever really thought about where it started but it all started here.

Part of Rainbow Row

Did you know that Charleston was bombed for over 2 years and people would walk on different sides of the street to avoid the bombs? They also moved much of the city into the "safe zone" which is interesting to me since the bombs mainly hit in the old historic district. In many ways the historic homes are still present today since after the war they were too poor to rebuild so they made do with that they had.

This type of cannon probably fired on the city

Three frozen Malcolms... it was rough

After spending the morning walking around and learning about the civil war we grabbed a little lunch and headed out to Fort Sumpter. The very first bomb in the Civil War was fired upon the Fort, from them on different groups occupied the fort and either fired on Charleston or protected Charleston. There were several different forts in and around the city.

All of the different flags that have flown over the fort

Aren't they cute... cold but still cute

Once we got out to the Fort there were a few different things that I noticed: 1- the tour guide was super cute (sorry I couldn't figure out how to get a pic of him in his ranger outfit), 2- the rebel flag was different than I knew, 3- it was stinking cold that day and we were freezing. It was fun out at the fort to see so much of the history and it was fun to see the dolphins playing out in the bay on the way.

I loved getting a chance to see so much of the history of the city and hearing about the civil war. I don't know that I ever thought much about how it started but I loved hearing about it from a position I had never thought about it before. There was so much history in everything that I saw and it almost seemed as if someone neat had lived in many of the buildings around the city. The old history architecture is so much more interesting since it is all preserved.


Come back tomorrow (hopefully) for the tour of the homes

PS. Sorry these are all taking a million years but I seem to be having a bit of writers agony, I have a million things to say and no words, but hopefully this week will be better.

xoxoxo
H