Ft Sumter, Heyward-Washington House, The Citadel

30 Oct 09—We started today at the Fort Sumter National Monument Visitor Center, and after reading everything there, we decided we were not going to take the 2 ½ hour round-trip boat ride out to the fort. From what we read and saw, it appears the fort no longer looks anything like it did back during the Civil War…they provide a handout to take with you if you want to go so you can compare what you are seeing to the original fort, but with that in mind we really didn’t see much point in it.

They had a lot of info at the Center explaining some of what led up to the Civil War, from the Founders not dealing with the slavery issue head-on, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the Missouri Compromise, to the Dred Scott Decision in the Supreme Court. They also went in-depth as to how the first shot of the Civil War came to be, and it is interesting that any time they talked about the Federal forces being in control of the Fort, they referred to them as “occupying” it. This was done at The Citadel later in the day also…so I guess “The War Between the States” isn’t quite over yet! Haha

After reading this posting below, I decided I would have to challenge my friend Donna, from South Carolina, to a duel to restore the honor of Senator Sumner.

From The Visitor Center we took a bicycle taxi over to the Heyward-Washington House, one of a few houses on the “Museum Mile” for tourists to see. This house is the oldest house in America still being shown to tourists. It was built in the 1770s, by a guy (Heyward) who was one of the richest men in America at the time. This was his summer house. The “Washington” part of the house’s name is just a nod of the head to the fact that George Washington once stayed at this house for a week after being elected President.

Anyway, the Hayward’s were quite wealthy, as was most of Charleston back in that time. Charleston was pretty much run by 28 wealthy families, who were basically “rice barons”. rice being the big crop here before cotton. The lady giving the tour gave us a few tidbits that I think are worth passing on:

1. We have all heard the saying “he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth”…well, that comes from the fact that both silver, and eating utensils, were hard to come by back in the day. Less than 1% of people back then had a silver spoon, and as a matter of fact individuals had to carry their own eating utensils when they traveled. So if you visited a home that had eating utensils for the guests, you knew that family was quite wealthy.

2. Because all food was in short supply back then, if a family was able to bake pies and the like, again you knew they were well off. And if they baked pies with an “Upper crust”, they were very well off…so that is where we get the references to the “Upper crust” of society.

She also told us that the children and slaves always occupied the top floor in this house (he brought 12 slaves with him to this house for the summer), that tea and sugar in those days were extremely expensive and therefore always under lock and key in the house, and that by law the kitchen had to built separate from the main house due to all the fires in those days.

This is the kitchen building and stables. The kitchen is the big building on the right.

Here is the Dining Room...only the rich had them.



Here is the Drawing Room, for entertainment.

Here is the Card Room, for the men. See the bookcase? One just like it was recently auctioned and went for $11 million.

These chairs are in all the bedrooms, and are called a "necessity chair"...lift up the seat and there is the potty.

Finally, she told us that after the Civil War Charleston as a whole was quite poor, and this state lasted well into the 1970s…so it is only recently that Charleston is making a comeback. You can really tell how poor this city has been when you ride around. Like I said yesterday, there are some really beautiful homes and buildings right alongside a dilapidated mess…it is really weird to see.

And then we headed out to The Citadel.



This college was established back in 1829 and grew right up to the time of the Civil War…it actually boasts in its museum of taking shots at Union troops a few months before war broke out.


During the War it was “occupied” by Union forces, and it seems to be still holding a grudge—haha. When you enter the museum, the 1st thing you see is the Confederate flag,



and the 2nd thing you see is “The Stars and Bars”, the official flag of the Confederacy.



For those of you who are young, the most recent time the Citadel was national news was back in the 1990s, when the Supreme Court ordered it to admit females for the 1st time in its history. (It had allowed the 1st African American man back in 1966.) The Citadel had always produced the movers and shakers of South Carolina’s political and business class, so it was sued on the theory that women were being shut out by virtue of not being able to attend this school. The 1st girl who went there only lasted 5-6 days (Shannon Faulkner), but after that at least a few made it, so I guess it is not as big a deal now. It is run by a retired 3-star Air Force General today.



These were the 1st women to graduate....top left was the 1st.



These are old and new uniforms for the bagpipers.

Every Friday afternoon they have a big Cadet parade…there must have been about 1000 of the students out there today. I loved it…reminded me of our parades at Lackland, except here they even have a bagpipe section…they sounded great!

Here they are taking the field, shooting the cannons, folding the flag, and passing in review. Love it!