Early on April 12, 1861, a mortar shell fired by Confederate forces from nearby Fort Johnson burst over Fort Sumter - igniting the Civil War. Two years later, Fort Sumter, then in Confederate hands, became the focus of a gallant defense in which Confederate soldiers kept Federal land and naval forces at bay for 587 days. Today Fort Sumter is a symbol of the war that redefined the nation and a monument to the soldiers, both North and South, who defended it.
The Fort Sumter today bears only a superficial resemblance to it original appearance. The multi-tiered work of 1861 was reduced largely to rubble during the Civil War. Battery Huger, built across the parade ground at the time of the Spanish American War, dominates the interior.
Fort Sumter Today
Fort Sumter 1861 - 65
The flags flying from the five shorter flagpoles that surround the American flag represent the flags flown over Fort Sumter during the Civil War.
Out boat trip back to Liberty Square was interesting. We had a couple of Dolphins leading the boat just under and ahead of the bow. They were having a grand time and we watched them for nearly the whole trip back.
Our next stop was to historic Wadmalaw Island to visit the Charleston Tea Plantation. There are many Tea Farms in the world but this is America's only commercial tea farm.
A tour bus took us through the fields and explained their operation. It was quite interesting, I knew nothing about tea farms.
There are hundreds of thousands of tea plants (camellia sinensis) in the many fields which stretch almost as far as your eyes can see.
Only the top 3 inches of the bushes, which is the new growth, are harvested as you can see by the flat top the bushes have. The tea is constantly harvested about every 3 weeks or so from May thru October. At the end of October the tea bushes go into hibernation until the next spring.
Around the world many places use hand labor to pick the tea leaves but here they invented a harvester. This is the only one in the country and was made from many different machines. They call it the green giant. It cuts the top 3 inches or so of the bushes and blowers blow the tea leaves into a container in the back of the machine. From there they hall the leaves into the factory for processing.
We also toured the factory to see up close the process of tea making. After the factory tour we visited the Tea Shoppe where we tasted the American Classic Tea and of course purchased some.
From there we headed back to the camper with a stop for my favorite supper at McDonalds. It was a very interesting and enjoyable day but we were glad to get home and put our feet up.
Today we recuperated from yesterdays touring. We rode our bikes around the area for a while then relaxed on our patio.
Tonight we will go to a barbecue at the campground and then finish off the evening with Bingo. Life is good on the road.
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