Georgia & Carolinas

Savannah, Georgia

In February 1733, General James Oglethorpe and a party of 120 British subjects landed on a bluff overlooking the Savannah River. They came to the new world with a charter from England’s King George II to establish a new colony where debtors could work off their debt and to provide a buffer between the Carolina colonies and the Spanish in Florida. Oglethorpe named the thirteenth colony “Georgia” in honor of King George II and Savannah became its first city. Under the original charter, colonist were free to worship as they pleased while rum, lawyers, and slavery were forbidden: only freedom of worship survived!

Oglethorpe became friends with the local Yamacraw Indian chief, Tomochichi, and the two men pledged mutual goodwill and cooperation. As a result, the town flourished without warfare and accompanying hardship that burdened many of America’s early colonies. Tomochichi was held in such regards with the colonists that upon his death in 1739 he was buried in Savannah’s Wright Square. Savannah is known as America’s first planned city. Oglethorpe laid the city out in a series of grids that allowed for wide open streets intertwined with shady public squares and parks that served as town meeting places and centers of business. Today, the tree lined streets and 22 public squares are the characteristics that make may visitors call Savannah America’s most beautiful city.

Savannah remained in British control throughout the American Revolution. American forces along with their French ally attempted to retake Savannah twice in 1779, first by siege and then by land, but failed each attempt. Savannah did not become part of the new country until the 1783 Treaty of Paris ended the conflict. After independence was secured, Savannah flourished as a port for exporting cotton and importing slaves. With the wealth brought by cotton, residents built lavish homes and churches throughout the city. After the invention of the cotton gin on a plantation outside of Savannah, the city rivaled Charleston as a commercial port. Many of the world’s cotton prices were set on the steps of the Savannah Cotton Exchange.

Savannah was not spared from misfortune with two devasting fires in 1796 and 1820 leaving half the city in ashes but the residents re-built. A yellow fever outbreak in 1820 killed a tenth of Savannah’s residents. During the Civil War, the Union’s sea blockades destroyed the economy in Savannah. Although the “impregnable” Fort Pulaski at the mouth of the Savannah River was captured by Union forces in 1862, the city itself did not fall until Union General William Tecumseh Sherman entered Savannah in mid-December 1864 after he burned Atlanta to the ground and everything else in his path on his “March to the Sea”. Upon entering Savannah, Sherman was said to have been so impressed by its beauty that he didn’t have the heart to destroy it. Instead, he sent a telegram to President Lincoln on December 22, 1864 presenting the city of Savannah as a Christmas gift.

It wasn’t until after World War II that Savannah began to bounce back again, not just economically but also culturally and aesthetically. A group of women banded together in the 1950s to preserve historic structured from the wrecking ball by forming the Historic Savanah Foundation, which is credited with saving the beautiful architecture that is Savannah’s charm. Savannah’s Historic District was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1966 and is one of the largest historic landmarks in the nation. Founded in 1978, Savannah College of Art and Design is one of the most prestigious art schools in the nation which has led to numerous art museums and galleries in the city.

Savannah’s renaissance with tourism has been fueled by its role in popular literature and film. The 1994 non-fiction novel Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt follows the story of the sensation trial of Savannah antique dealer Jim Williams accused of killing a young man by the name of Danny Hansford in his Bull Street mansion. The novel was a world-wide phenomenon remaining on the New York Times Best-Seller list for a record 216 weeks. Clint Eastwood directed a film version in 1997 starring Kevin Spacey and John Cusack with filming on location in Savannah. One of the most beloved films in Hollywood history had an iconic scene in one of Savannah’s beautiful squares. Tom Hanks starring as Forest Gump sat on a bus stop bench having a conversation about his life with other patrons when he recited the iconic line “life is like a box of chocolates” on a bench in Savannah’s Chippewa Square.

Fort Sumter National Historic Park – Charleston Harbor

Following the War of 1812 with Britain, the United States set to building a series of coastal fortifications to strengthen its defense. One site for a fort was chosen on a small island in the middle of Charleston Harbor to protect the important maritime community of Charleston. Construction of a new fort named after South Carolina Revolutionary War patriot Thomas Sumter began in 1829. Like many Federal projects of the early 19^th century, many of the laborers and craftsmen building Fort Sumter where enslaved people.

On December 20, 1860, South Carolina delegates to a special secession convention convened to discuss the election of Abraham Lincoln. They felt that the North had united to elect a president who was outwardly hostile to slavery and their way of life. The Declaration that they drafted claimed that the Federal government had violated the compact with the states by failing to enforce the Federal Fugitive Slave Act or restrict the actions of antislavery organizations. The Declaration expressed South Carolina’s fears that “The slaveholding States will no longer have the power to self-government, or self-protect, and the Federal government will have become their enemy.” Before the convention adjourned, South Carolina voted to unanimously secede from the Federal Union. Within six weeks of South Carolina’s secession, five other states (Mississippi, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and Louisiana) joined it in secession.

When South Carolina seceded, there were four Federal installations around Charleston Harbor: Fort Moultrie on Sullivans Island, Castle Pickney on Shute’s Island near the city, Fort Johnson on James Island across from Moultrie, and Fort Sumter at the harbor entrance. The only post garrisoned with a nominal number of soldiers was Moultrie, where Maj. Robert Anderson commanded about two companies (85 men). Six days after South Carolina seceded, Anderson concluded that his position at Fort Moultrie was indefensible and secretly relocated the garrison a mile away to Fort Sumter. Following their withdraw from the other three forts, South Carolina volunteers quickly occupied them on December 27, 1860.

The presence of federal troops in the middle of Charleston Harbor was unacceptable to South Carolina, and they demanded their immediate withdraw. President James Buchanan refused and even tried to send a relief ship with supplies for Fort Sumter in January 1861 which was repealed by South Carolina shore batteries. Fort Sumter was now the focal point of the growing hostilities between the North and South. By March 1861, Brig. Gen. Pierre Beauregard had taken command of Confederate forces in Charleston and began strengthening fortifications including the number of cannons pointed at Fort Sumter.

On April 11, Beauregard demanded that Anderson surrender Fort Sumter. Anderson refused. At 3:20am on April 12, 1861, the Confederates informed Anderson that their batteries would open fire in one hour. At ten minutes past the allotted time, Edmund Ruffin of Virginia, a champion of the secessionist movement, lit a cannon at Cummings Point firing the first shot in hostility of the American Civil War. By daybreak, all the Confederate batteries were firing upon Fort Sumter. Inside the fort, Anderson had waited until 7 o’clock to return fire and by then most of his 60 guns were out of action. Only about six casement guns were able to effectively return fire. While the Confederates were inflicting heavy damage on Fort Sumter, the Union troops return fire had little effect. The cannonade continued throughout the night and in the morning the officers’ quarters were set afire, the flagstaff was shot away, and Sumter’s defenses had been essentially destroyed. Later that day, Anderson agreed to terms of evacuation. Miraculously, no one on either side was killed although five Federal soldiers were injured.

On Sunday, April 14, 1861, Major Anderson and his troops marched out of Fort Sumter and boarded a ship for transport to New York. The Confederates quickly occupied Fort Sumter where they repaired the damage and armed the fort with 95 cannons. Due to the defensive strength of Fort Sumter, the port of Charleston was a severe hole in the Union blockade of the South. Much needed war supplies continued to flow into Charleston while payment in for form of cotton left. President Lincoln and his military leaders knew that Fort Sumter had to be taken to effectively blockade the South. On the afternoon of April 7, 1863, nine Union ironclads steamed into Charleston Harbor and headed towards Fort Sumter. For 2 ½ hours, the ironclads exchanged fire with the Confederates in Fort Sumter and surrounding batteries in the city. The attack only scarred Fort Sumter’s walls while the Union flotilla suffered heavy losses.

Union leaders formulated a new plan of seizing nearby Morris Island and then putting Fort Sumter under bombardment and siege. While the Union prepared for the assault, Confederates inside Fort Sumter used enslaved laborers to strengthen the walls facing the Union guns with bales of cotton and sand. The bombardment began on August 17, 1863 with almost 1,000 shells fired upon Fort Sumter on the first day. Within a week, the fort’s walls were reduced to rubble, but the Confederates refused to surrender and went to work rebuilding the walls. This began a 20-month siege of Fort Sumter which essentially destroyed its defensive capabilities, but Confederate batteries around Charleston kept the fort from falling into Union hands. Despite seven million pounds of metal being hurled at it and 52 killed and 267 wounded, the Confederates never surrendered Fort Sumter. General Sherman’s advance northward from Savannah caused the Confederates to finally evacuate Fort Sumter on February 17, 1865,

On April 14, 1865, with Charleston in Union hands, the flag which had been lowered during the Union evacuation of 1861 was once again raised above Sumter’s battered remains. During the decade following the Civil War, the Army worked to put the fort back into shape as a military installation and armed the first-tier gun casemates with 100-pound Parrott guns. Between 1876 to 1897, Fort Sumter was not garrisoned and served primarily as a lighthouse station. During the Spanish-American War, a large re-enforced concrete structure known as Battery Isaac Huger was constructed and armed with two long-range 12-inch guns. For the duration of World War I, a small garrison manned the guns at the fort and then it sat idle until World War II when 90mm anti-aircraft guns were positioned there.

In 1948, the War Department transferred Fort Sumter to the National Park Service where it became a national monument. Today, roughly 400,000 visitors take a ferry from Charleston to visit Fort Sumter annually. Unfortunately, the fort was destroyed by war and is a shell of what it was prior to April 1861 with only the first-tier gun casements remaining. The 1898 Battery Isaac Huger dominates the modern site where it houses a small museum and bookstore. For anyone who loves history like myself, it is still a thrill to see the site of the first shot fired in the Civil War.

Patriots Point – Charleston Harbor

Launched in April 1936, the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown (CV-5) was named after the decisive Battle of Yorktown in the American Revolution. She was in Norfolk, Virginia following an Atlantic patrol when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. She immediately sailed for San Diego where she was incorporated into the Pacific fleet. On May 7, 1942, the Yorktown fought with her sister carrier, Lexington, at the Battle of the Corral Sea. During that engagement, the Lexington was mortally wounded and the Yorktown was severely damaged. Despite the damage, Yorktown made her way back to Hawaii where estimates where it would take two weeks for repairs. Incredibly, after only 72 hours in drydock, Yorktown was ready to put back to sea just in time for the next confrontation with the Japanese at a little island in the middle of the Pacific called Midway.

At the Battle of Midway, Yorktown joined American aircraft carriers Enterprise and Hornet in attacking the Japanese fleet. On June 4, 1942, her aircraft played a significant role in disabling two Japanese aircraft carriers, but during the battle Yorktown absorbed two waves of attacks by Japanese aircraft. She lost power and developed a 23-degree list to port but did not sink. Yorktown was being towed back to Hawaii when a Japanese submarine struck Yorktown with two torpedoes. With further salvage efforts deemed hopeless, the remaining repair crews abandoned ship and the Yorktown sank on June 7, 1942. The wreck of the Yorktown was discovered by oceanographer Robert Ballard in 1998 resting 3 miles below the surface of the Pacific.

As the Yorktown was sinking in the Pacific, a new Essex-class aircraft carrier designated CV-10 was under construction at the shipyard in Newport News, Virginia. Initially to have been named Bonhomme Richard, the new carrier was renamed USS Yorktown (CV-10) to commemorate the heroic ship lost at Midway. Launched on January 21, 1943, the new Yorktown, nicknamed “The Fighting Lady”, immediately joined the fight in the Pacific Theater of Operations where she fought at the Marshall Islands, Philippines campaign, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa earning 11 battle stars and the Presidential Unit Citation. During the Battle of Okinawa, a Japanese dive-bomber dropped a bomb on her signal bridge killing 5 sailors and wounding another 26. Despite two large holes in her side, the mighty Yorktown remained fully operational and stayed in the fight.

After sitting idle following World War II, the Yorktown was modernized and recommissioned in February 1953 as an attack carrier, and served with distinction during the Korean War. Following modifications for a second time, The Fighting Lady served as an anti-submarine carrier in the Pacific, including duty in the Vietnam War where she earned five battle stars. One of Yorktown’s final duties in the active Navy was serving as the recovery vessel for Apollo 8 which orbited the moon in December 1968. Decommissioned for the last time in 1970, Yorktown was moved to Mt, Pleasant, South Carolina in 1975 where she became a museum ship.

Today, the USS Yorktown (CV-10) is the centerpiece of the Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum located in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina on Charleston Bay. Visitors are welcomed aboard the ship to explore the vintage prop naval aircraft in her hanger deck and modern jet aircraft on her flight deck. There are numerous interpretive displays throughout the ship and self-guided tours let you explore various parts of the carrier. Just opposite the main entrance is a museum dedicated to Medal of Honor recipients and lets you explore their extraordinary stories of heroism.

Also moored at Patriots Point is the destroyer USS Laffey (DD-724) which served with distinction on D-Day and in the Pacific Theater. On April 16, 1945 during the Battle of Okinawa, Laffey fought 80 minutes against 22 Japanese kamikaze planes and conventional bombers. Although the ship’s gunners downed many incoming planes, seven suicide planes crashed into the ship, and two other planes dropped bombs that hit the ship. These attacks killed 32 and wounded 71, but Laffey survived despite fires, smashed and inoperable guns, and a jammed rudder. She earned her nickname that day of “The Ship That Would Not Die”. Patriots Point also recognizes the sacrifices made by Vietnam veterans with a fully immersive 2.5-acre exhibit. Set in a naval support base during the Tet Offensive in 1968, the exhibit includes combat-era helicopters, river patrol boat, observation tower, and support buildings

Charleston, South Carolina

Charleston is the oldest and largest city in South Carolina. Founded in 1670 on the west bank of the Ashley River, the city was the first settlement in the Carolina colony and originally named “Charles Town” in honor of King Charles II of England. By 1680, the city had grown significantly with new arrivals from England, Barbados, and Virginia. The city moved to its present location on Oyster Point and set its sights on becoming a major port.

The early settlement was often subject to attacks from sea by the French and Spanish who both challenged England’s claim to the region. In addition, raids by both Native Americans and pirates forced the settlement to build a fortification wall around the city to bolster its defense. Today, the only remaining structure left from the walled city is the Powder Magazine where residents stored their gun powder. While the earliest settlers primarily came from England, colonial Charleston was also home to a mixture of ethnic and religious groups. French, Scottish, Irish and Germans migrated to the developing seacoast town, representing numerous Protestant denominations, as well as Catholicism and Judaism. The numerous beautiful churches that sprung up in Charleston lead to its nickname as “The Holy City”.

By the mid-18th century Charleston had become a bustling trade center, and the wealthiest and largest city south of Philadelphia. As the relationship between the colonists and England deteriorated, Charleston became a focal point in the ensuing Revolution. In protest of the Tea Act of 1773, Charlestonians confiscated tea and stored it in the Exchange and Customs House. Once war had started, the church steeples of Charleston became frequent targets of British war ships. A siege on the city in 1776 was successfully defended by William Moultrie from Sullivan’s Island, but by 1780 Charleston came under British control for two and a half years. Following the American victory and British retreat in 1782, the city’s name was officially changed to Charleston.

By 1820 Charleston’s population had grown to 23,000, with a black majority. Charlestonians lived in constant fear of an uprising and severely restricted the activities of free and enslaved blacks. Many of those who planned uprisings were held in the Old City Jail on Franklin Street. Following South Carolina’s secession from the Union on December 20, 1861, cadets from Charleston’s Citadel college opened fire on an unarmed Union ship entering Charleston Harbor to bring relief supplies to Fort Sumter. As tension escalated between the North and South, the residents of Charleston strengthened their defenses and pointed gun batteries at Fort Sumter. On April 12, 1861, the Charleston shore batteries under the command of General Pierre Beauregard opened fire on the Union-held Fort Sumter starting the Civil War. Charleston Harbor is also the site of the first submarine warfare in 1863, when the H.L. Hunley successfully sank the USS Housatonic; the first submarine to sink an enemy vessel.

In 1886 Charleston was nearly destroyed by a major earthquake that was felt as far away as Boston and Bermuda. Few buildings escaped damage. Coupled with fires, hurricanes, tornados, and several wars, it is extraordinary how many of Charleston’s historic buildings remain. Today the city’s community buildings help to make Charleston one of the most complete historic districts in the country, with more than 1,400 historically significant buildings. The homes of Charleston are renowned for their beauty, especially those in the French Quarter and Battery areas. The old City Market was where Charlestonians would get their daily provisions and beautiful Hampton Park was where they could go to relax. The shopping district of Charleston has always been on Kings Street, and today it is one of the nation’s largest urban retail districts.

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

Up until the early 1900s, the coastline and beaches of northeastern South Carolina were rustic and practically uninhabited due to the area’s poor economy and inaccessibility. That all changed in 1901 when the Burroughs & Collins Company, a timber/turpentine firm that owned a large amount of beachfront property, built Myrtle Beach’s first hotel, the Seaside Inn. It was actually Mrs. F.E. Burroughs, wife of the founder of Burroughs & Collins, who named it “Myrtle Beach” because of the abundance of wax myrtle trees growing wild along the shore.

It wasn’t long before other hotels sprung up along the shoreline and in 1927 the first golf course opened at Pine Lakes International Country Club. The opening of the Intercoastal Waterway in 1936 significantly increases the pleasure boat and commercial shipping traffic coming through Myrtle Beach resulting in enormous growth. Unfortunately, in 1954 Hurricane Hazel, one of the deadliest, most destructive hurricanes, hit Myrtle Beach and destroyed 80 percent of the oceanfront property. Rebuilding was a slow process, but new construction in the decades to follow increased steadily followed by a massive development boom in the early 1990s. Today, Myrtle Beach is one of the top coastal vacation destinations on the East Coast.

Wright Brothers National Monument – North Carolina

Already respectable proprietors of a small business in their hometown of Dayton, Ohio, the Wright Brothers began their work in aeronautics in 1899 when they requested literature on the subject from the Smithsonian Institution. Dismayed that so many great minds had made so little progress, Orville and Wilbur Wright were exhilarated by the realization that they had as much chance as anyone of succeeding. They went to work tinkering in their bicycle store’s workshop and devoted themselves to the goal of human powered flight.

The Wright brothers first came to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina in the fall of 1900 to begin their flight experiments. The oceanside dunes of Kitty Hawk provided isolation, high dunes, strong winds, and soft sand for landings – perfect for their studies. That first season the Wrights experimented with different wing designs using kites. Following their testing, they returned to their workshop in Dayton with their results and began construction of a glider. They returned to Kitty Hawk the following year to experiment with flight controls on their glider they piloted when launched from 90-foot-tall Kill Devil Hill. Not satisfied with the results of the 1901 glider, the Wright brothers went back to Dayton, conducted additional experiments, and redesigned the flight controls on their glider. The Wrights had much more success with the controls on the 1902 glider and they gained valuable experience as pilots on the hundreds of unpowered flights they conducted that season from the top of Kill Devil Hill.

With problems of flight controls solved, the Wright brothers returned to Dayton to design the final component of their flying machine – an engine. Although the Wrights had little experience with gasoline engines, they worked with others to construct a gasoline powered engine that weighed only 180 pounds and generated 12 horsepower. The brothers also designed revolutionary new propellers for their flyer by departing from the conventional “air screw” theory, seeing it as a rotary wing. They packed up their new 1903 flyer and headed back to Kitty Hawk. The sands of the dunes were too soft for take-off so the Wrights constructed a catapult system by where the flyer rested on a carriage that rode on a rail and then fell away once airborne.

After winning a coin toss, Wilbur climbed aboard the flyer on the morning of December 14, 1903 but he lost his chance at being the first to fly when he oversteered with the controls and crashed into the sand upon leaving the launch rail. The first powered flight would have to wait for repairs. Three days later, the flyer was ready for a second attempt. This time it was Orville at the controls and he had learned from his brother’s error.

At 10:35am on December 17, 1903, Orville Wright released the restraining wire and began to race down the rail with Wilbur running alongside to steady the wings. As Orville left the ground, John Daniels from the lifesaving station snapped the shutter of a camera to capture the moment that humans achieved powered flight. That first flight lasted only 12 seconds, but Orville was aloft 120 feet before hitting the sand. The brothers took turns flying three more times that day, getting a feel for the controls and increasing their distance with every flight: second flight piloted by Wilbur lasted 12 seconds and traveled 175 feet, third flight was piloted by Orville lasted 15 seconds and flew 200 feet, and the fourth flight piloted by Wilbur lasted 59 seconds and traveled a whopping 852 feet! The 1903 flyer would not fly again as it was severely damaged when a wind burst flipped it over later in the day. The repaired 1903 flyer sits on display at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum in Washington, DC.

The Wright Brothers National Monument located on North Carolina’s Outer Banks celebrates the monumental achievement of the first powered flight. The Visitor Center has exhibits that tell the Wright brothers’ story and has a replica of the 1903 flyer on display. Outside near the flight line, there is a reconstruction of the 1903 hanger and quarters that the Wrights used during their historic flight. A boulder with a plaque marks the location of the lift-off point for each of those first four flights. Visitors are encouraged to walk along the path of those first four flights where granite markers document the landing site of each flight noting the elapse time, distance and pilot. The Wright Brothers Memorial is a 60-foot monument that sits atop Kill Devil Hill and makes the site of the hundreds of glider flights that the brothers performed to master flight.

Cape Hatteras National Seashore – North Carolina

For thousands of years a thin, broken strand of barrier islands known as North Carolina’s Outer Banks has sheltered the mainland from the onslaughts of wind and sea. The treacherous waters off the coast of the Outer Banks is home to over 600 shipwrecks giving the shallow shoals the nickname Graveyard of the Atlantic. As early as the 1870s, villagers served in the US Life-Saving Service while others staffed lighthouses built to guide mariners. Few ships wreck today, but storms still uncover the ruins of the old wrecks that lie along the beaches of the Outer Banks.

Cape Hatteras National Seashore is a 70-mile stretch of seashore which preserves portions of three barrier islands on the Outer Banks: Bodie Island, Hatteras Island, and Ocracoke Island. The National Park Service manages long stretches of beach, sand dunes, marshes, and woodlands as well as operates boat ramps, campgrounds, and trails for public recreation. Within the Cape Hatteras National Seashore are two historic lighthouses: Cape Hatteras and Bodie Island. Their distinctive white and black stripping helped mariners identify the lights. While I was visiting the Outer Banks, I stayed at Oregon Inlet Campground which sits right on the dunes overlooking the Atlantic Ocean on Bodie Island.

A narrow stretch of sandy barrier islands would be the last place you’d expect to see wild horses, but on the northern most point of the Outer Banks roams the wild horses of Corolla. Researches believe the horses first inhabited the Outer Banks in the 1500s when they were either abandoned by Spanish explorers or stranded when a ship ran aground. The horses are genetically different from modern domesticated horses and DNA testing has proven them to be Colonial Spanish Mustangs, a very ancient and rare breed of horses on the critically endangered list. In the 1920s, there were several thousands of these wild horses roaming free on the Outer Banks. Following almost a century of development on the Outer Banks, there are now only 115 wild horses that are restricted to the 7,500-acre Currituck Bay Preserve which is only accessible by the driving on the beach. The horses are protected under the law and basically have free-range of the preserve which might mean running in the surf or grazing on a homeowner’s lawn.