Fort Sumter National Monument and Charles Pinckney National Historic Site

I'm still catching up on my posts and its taking me a little (ok a lot) longer than I had anticipated.  I still have one more after this one and at least I will be done with our Charleston trip that was in Easter!!!  Easter people.  I'm so far behind.  *sigh* I'm going to try to do better.

I have mentioned before that we are collecting National Park Passport Stamps for Kellan back when I blogged about our trip to Crater Lake.  We are always on the lookout for National Parks when we are on trips and there were two located in the Charleston area.  The whole family visited the first one, Fort Sumter, with us and Michael, Kellan, and I visited the second one, the Charles Pinckney House, on our last day before we headed home.  Here are a few pictures from our visits.

This was our ferry that took us over to Fort Sumter.

You can also tour the USS Yorktown and it sits in the same harbor as the ferry.  We didn't tour it this time.

Riding the ferry :) It was chilly and a little rainy.

Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge

The battle at Fort Sumter was an important one to our nation's history because it is the battle that began the Civil War.  On April 12, 1961 Confederate forces opened fire on this Union fort causing Union troops to surrender 34 hours later.  They tried to reclaim it for 4 years but never succeeded.  If you are interested in learning more you can visit the Fort Sumter National Monument page on the National Park Service website.

Approaching Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor...

It was REALLY windy!

Front entrance with a cannon hole to the left.

Overlooking the cannons and a side wall of the fort's remains.

These are the remains of the officers quarters and if I remember correctly it is where extra artillery and black powder were stored.

6 flags flying over Fort Sumter.  Two of them are the flags of the Confederacy during the Civil War, one is the U.S. flag from 1865, the South Carolina state flag and of course, our current American flag.

The family minus my sister who was taking the picture.

Here are a few pictures from our trip to the Charles Pinckney House.  He was a signer of the United States Constitution and is considered to be a "forgotten founder" which means his contributions to the building of our nation's early government often goes unrecognized.  This site was once one of his family's country properties known as Snee Farm.  George Washington visited the plantation in 1791.  

Inside the house is a museum that gives more details about Charles Pinckney, his family, and the signing of the United States Constitution.  There are also several exhibits sharing artifacts from the slaves that lived on the property including information about their Gullah culture and their influence on the Pinckney family.

Kellan was fascinated by the informational video that we watched inside the house.

Kellan's favorite part was exploring the grounds around the plantation.  We took a walk down to the wetlands and a boardwalk over a tiny creek.  The trail also leads you to an archeological site of what was once a Slave Community.

Kellan's Passport Book stamps from 2 South Carolina locations :)