After our time at the visitors center, we joined a bus tour of Charleston that included all of the districts, as well as well known homes. Let me tell you, it’s hard to remember the names of all that we see because we have to remember so much. Luckily I could find the buildings when I searched the internet for important homes/buildings in Charleston. Many of these homes are now museums. Climb aboard to see the houses we didn’t tour; next time.
the Aiken-Rhett House
What’s a double house? Here’s what I found: “Unlike the single house, the double house faces the street at full-length. It is a two-story design with an interior that features a central entrance hallway that runs through the middle of the home. There are four rooms total, two on either side downstairs and two additional rooms upstairs.”
In 1833, the newest owner, young William Aiken and his new bride decided to make the house their primary residence and began an extensive renovation of the property, creating one of the most impressive residences in early 19th-century Charleston. A successful businessman, rice planter, distinguished politician and governor of South Carolina, William Aiken Jr. was one of the state’s wealthiest citizens, and he and his bride were able to fill their new home with treasures they found abroad on their honeymoon.
The slave quarters, which feature original paint and flooring, have remained untouched over time and serve to illustrate the harsh living conditions for the 14 enslaved workers who lived and worked here.
Joseph Manigault house
One of Charleston’s most exquisite antebellum structures, the Joseph Manigault House was built in 1803.
Joseph Manigault’s first father-in-law, Arthur Middleton, was a signer of the Declaration of Independence.
change of pace: do you recognize this tree?
Cathedral of St. John the Baptist (we think)
The original church was built here as a temporary chapel on May 3, 1821, and was named in honor of St. Finbar, the patron saint of Cork, Ireland. The cornerstone was laid for the first cathedral to be called the Cathederal of St. John & St. Finbar at the present site on July 30, 1850. While it was consecrated on April 6, 1854, it was destroyed by fire in December 1861. After 45 years of fundraising, the cornerstone for the present Cathedral of St. John the Baptist was finally laid in January of 1890.
Francis Marion – the swamp fox (info from Wikipedia)
If you’ve seen the movie The Patriot with Mel Gibson, you know that Brigadier General Francis Marion, also known as the “Swamp Fox,” was an American military officer, planter, and politician who served during the French and Indian and the Revolutionary Wars.
How did he get that name? Colonel Tarleton of the British Army was sent to capture or kill Marion in November 1780. After pursuing Marion’s troops for over 26 miles through a swamp, Tarleton supposedly said “as for this old fox, the Devil himself could not catch him.” Based on this tale, Marion’s supporters began to call him “the Swamp Fox.”
Marion’s use of irregular warfare against the British has led him to be considered one of the fathers of guerilla and maneuver warfare, and his tactics form a part of the modern-day military doctrine of the U.S. Army’s 75th Ranger Regiment.
Wentworth Mansion
The Wentworth Mansion, among the most iconic structures in the Charleston Historic District, is now a popular National Historic Landmark hotel. Completed at the height of the Gilded Age (1877-1900, between the Reconstruction Era and the Progressive Era) the Wentworth Mansion was once the private residence for a wealthy cotton merchant named Francis Silas Rodgers.
the Citadel
Originally founded in 1842, the Citadel today has been at this location since 1922 when the school moved from Marion Square across the street from the Francis Marion Hotel that we just saw. The school offers a classic military college education for young men and women focused on leadership excellence and academic distinction. The approximately 2,300 members of the South Carolina Corps of Cadets, drawing students from about 45 states and a dozen countries, are not required to serve in the military, but about 1/3 of each class earn commissions to become officers in every branch of U.S. military service.
We were told on our boat trip to Fort Sumter that the first South Carolina soldiers to go to war were from the Citadel.
Edmondston-Alston house
This next house was built in the late Federal style by Scottish shipping merchant Charles Edmondston at the height of his commercial success. In 1825, it was one of the first substantial houses to be built along the city’s sea wall away from the noisy wharves and warehouses further up the Peninsula.
But a decade later, economic reversals during the Panic of 1837 forced Edmondston to sell his house. Charles Alston, a member of a well-established Low Country rice-planting dynasty, purchased it and updated the architecture in the Greek Revival style. Alston added the third story piazza with Corinthian columns, a cast-iron balcony across the front, and a rooftop railing bearing the Alston coat of arms. The house has remained in the Alston family since 1838.
Many pieces of the family’s 19th century furniture, books, and other personal belongings remain in the house–much as they have since the Alstons witnessed the dramatic events of the Civil War. The collection reflects the lives of all the people who lived in the house.
the Palmer home
Next door is the Palmer Home and is one of Charleston’s most iconic mansions, frequently photographed and often depicted in paintings of the grand homes along the Battery. Built between 1847 and 1849 by John Ravenel, a wealthy merchant and president of the South Carolina Railroad Company, the home remained in the Ravenel family until 1953.
Now just to prove that we were here:
City Market
City Market is an historic market complex in downtown Charleston. Established in the 1790s, the market stretches for 4 city blocks from the architecturally-significant Market Hall facing Meeting Street through a continuous series of 1-story market sheds. It is now a National Historic Landmark.
Throughout the 19th century, the market provided a convenient place for area farmers and plantation owners to sell beef and produce; it also acted as a place for locals to gather and socialize. Today, the City Market’s vendors sell souvenirs and other items ranging from jewelry to the Gullah sweetgrass baskets.
a Civil War submarine
As an effort to break the Union naval blockade of Charleston, the H.L. Hunley was the first submarine in history to sink an enemy ship. Using its spar-mounted torpedo, it sank the Federal vessel Housatonic on February 17, 1864. But then the submarine never returned to port and its location was unknown for more than a century.
The actual submarine was found in 1995 by an expedition funded by New York Times best selling author Clive Cussler and raised in 2000. The Hunley was not only an important relic in Naval history but was also a time capsule holding a wide array of fascinating artifacts from the 19th century.
It’s now owned by the U.S. government and is available to visit (next trip). It is thought that the crew was killed by massive lung and brain injuries caused indirectly by their own torpedo.
The Hunley was initially designed to dive completely below her target while towing behind a floating torpedo on a 200-foot tether. Once the submarine dove and passed under the keel of her target, the torpedo would impact its hull on the other side, in theory causing a devastating explosion that would sink the ship. To safely dive under a Union vessel, the Captain would need to carefully maneuver the 5-foot tall submarine between the ocean bottom and the keel of the target ship.
A July 1863 demonstration of what the submarine could do was successful on the Mobile River. The Hunley was then loaded onto 2 flat rail cars and sent to defend Charleston with the hopes she could help cripple the blockade strangling the city.
The Hunley arrived in Charleston on August 12 and taken over by the Confederate Navy. On August 29, it was moored at Fort Johnson, preparing to depart for its first attack on the blockade when it suddenly sank at the dock killing 5 crew members. It took weeks to retrieve the submarine.
A 2nd try happened that fall but wasn’t successful either and all 8 members of the crew were killed.
Rear Admiral John Dahlgren, the head of the Union blockading fleet, learned of the diving submarine from Confederate deserters. In response, Dahlgren ordered his blockading squadron to anchor in shallow water, hang ropes and chains over their sides as defensive measures, and deploy picket craft to keep torpedo-bearing boats away. These clever tactics were also the genesis of anti-submarine countermeasures.
General Beauregard was reluctant to let the Hunley try again, but finally agreed but only if the submarine operated at the surface and not dive.
On a moonlit night in February 1864, after months of wanting to attack, the crew of the Hunley had the calm sea they had waited for and embarked on their ambitious attack. The target was the USS Housatonic, one of the Union’s mightiest and newest sloops-of-war.
The Hunley’s approach was stealth and by the time they were spotted, it was too late. At about 8:45 p.m., several sailors on the deck of the USS Housatonic reported seeing something on the water just a few hundred feet away. The officer on the deck thought it might be a porpoise, coming up to blow. As the object approached the ship, the crew realized it was no porpoise. The alarm sounded and the sailors fired their guns, the bullets pinging off the metal hull of the Hunley. Below the surface, the spar torpedo detonated and the explosion blew a hole in the ship. The Housatonic sank in less than 5 minutes, causing the death of 5 of its 155 crewmen.
The Hunley wasn’t seen for 136 years until it was found by Clive Cussler. I wonder if he wrote a book about it.
A spar torpedo is a weapon consisting of a bomb placed at the end of a long pole, or spar, and attached to a boat. The weapon is used by running the end of the spar into the enemy ship. Spar torpedoes were often equipped with a barbed spear at the end, so it would stick to wooden hulls. A fuse could then be used to detonate it.
But we’re not done with war. Our next post takes us to Fort Sumter, my main reason for visiting Charleston.
