Anniversary Trip: Fort Moultrie 3 ' 14

We had planned on taking a carriage tour of Charleston on the morning of our anniversary, but we woke up to a cold rain.  The rain let up soon enough, but the cold  biting wind continued. We decided to trade the open air carriage ride for a visit to some local historic sites where we could duck out of the weather if need be.

First stop Fort Moultrie, which is a series of  citadels on on Sulllivan's Island, SC, built to protect the city of  Charleston.. Fort Moultrie is the only Monument in the National Park System where the entire 190-year history of American seacoast defense (1776–1947) can be traced.

BJ in front of one of the entrances to the underground fortifications

The first fort, built of local palmetto logs, inspired the South Carolina flag and nickname of  South Carolina "The Palmetto State". In 1776, before the beginning of the American Revolution,  South Carolina patriots began to build a fort to protect Charleston's harbor . On June 28, 1776, while the fort was still unmanned and unarmed, British Admiral Sir Peter Parker  attacked used nine British warships to attack the fort.   The soft local palmetto logs did not crack under bombardment but rather absorbed the shot; cannonballs reportedly even bounced off the walls of the structure.  William Moultrie commander of the 2nd South Carolina Regiment, and his four hundred men fought a day-long battle that ended with the heavily damaged British ships being driven from the area. This victory galvanized the Patriots' cause for independence. 

During the years following the American Revolution ,the original fort was replaced by a newer work in 1798, but that Fort Moultrie was destroyed by a hurricane in 1804. Work on
the present structure was completed in 1809

^{Bruce in one of the many underground chambers of Fort Moultrie}

 During the Civil War, Confederate troops barricaded deep within the bunkers in Fort Moultrie, held off Union Advancement into Charleston for over twenty months. In February 1865, the Confederate Army finally abandoned the rubble of Fort Moultrie and evacuated the city of Charleston.

BJ viewing the WWII  electronic communication  systems at Fort Moultie

The US Army modernized Fort Moultrie in the 1870s with huge rifled cannon and deep concrete bunkers. Further modernization in the 1880s turned all of Sullivan's Island surrounding the old fort into a military complex. The fort continued to evolve with the times through and beyond WWII. On August 15, 1947, the Army lowered Fort Moultrie's flag for the last time and ended 171 years of service. After the war, seacoast defense of the United States ceased to be a viable strategy.

Today, Fort Moultrie is managed by the National Park Service as a National Monument which preserves an array of fortifications ranging from the original brick walls of the 1809 fort to concrete batteries and observation posts used through World War II.