We had a wonderful visit in Augusta, GA and totally loved the River Walk. As you can see, we sat in the shade and enjoyed the boats going up and down the river too. Then we got to drive on a series of non-freeway scenic highways to get to Charleston, SC where we stayed for two nights on the Air Force Base.
Today, we visited Fort Moultrie which has guarded the entrance to Charleston harbor since the Revolutionary War. The leaders in South Carolina vowed that if Abraham Lincoln and his new Republican party won the election they would secede from the Union. So, true to their word, they broke from the United States and within three weeks the Union Defenders at the indefensible Fort Moultrie abandoned the fort and moved over to Fort Sumter in the middle of the channel where they thought they might have a better chance of defending themselves and the harbor.
Ann is standing in roughly the same place where the Confederate Soldiers bombarded Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861. You can vaguely see Fort Sumter in the shot. This was the first engagement of the Civil War.
Inside the National Park building we saw a section about the reprehensible part of Charleston's past where between 200,000 and as many as 360,000 slaves entered the United States - roughly half of the total brought to this country. It was a little uncomfortable to be standing in the area where human beings were bought and sold as property. This was Ellis Island but without rights or hope in a future.