The fort is on a man made island, created shortly after the war of 1812, when the country realized that they need better defenses for the harbors along the coast. The fort wasn't quite finished when South Carolina seceded from the Union - prompted by the election of Abraham Lincoln - and the one small federal brigade that was stationed in Charleston found themselves isolated on this island fort, surrounded by 4 other forts well staffed with new confederate soldiers. The fort was bombed by all of the surrounding forts and withstood the attack for 2 days untill they finally surrendered and left for NY.
Over the next year the Union forces launched several attacks to regain the fort but failed, and they finally set up batteries on the surrounding shoreline and over the next 2 years simply bombed the fort into rubble. The Union army also set iup cannons aimed at Charlestoln and began bombing the city, causing considerable damage.
The city was rebuilt, the fort...not so much...some of the structures remain, especially the base of the fort, but it is1/3 as tall as it was, and piles of rubble remain...
it is not at all as nice in any respect as Fort McHenry in Baltimore...curiously, they still fly the confederate flag on this and some of the surrounding forts.
the fort is reached by a ferry which does afford a nice, if cold, ride over
I spent the rest of the day on minor plumbing matters..somehow air is getting into the line, causing occasional bursts and splashes from the faucet, the kind you get after work is done on the water line. I replaced the filtr housing that I installed before the pump, on the theory that it might be leaking and tightened all connections on every hose from the water tank to the sink..but the problem - which is minor - remains...I'm suspecting that the particular type of filter h ousing, which is designed for ousehjold use where the pressure forces air out is the probllem...in my application the pump is after the filter and is sucking air in through a relief valve..I'll try again after I get to miami
Today I fly home to Baltimore and will rerturn on Tuesday to continue the voyage
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