Day Five: Drizzly Charleston and the Club Calhoun

Here I was thinking that getting to Charleston would feel easy, after all the driving we've done. Sadly, one of the things I didn't take into account was the sheer volume of people around Myrtle Beach, and the fact that US 17, our trusty route for most of our time in the Carolinas, is stop-and-go traffic lights all long the beach. This was in some ways a good thing, since it allowed us to marvel at the number of independent waffle houses and minigolf places along the road (the winner of best minigolf place goes to the one with the animatronic T-Rex and half-size Pirates ship dueling), but after being blessed with the ability to travel continuously between 45 and 80 miles an hour, we were stuck between 20 and 30 for long stretches once we entered South Carolina. But we made it, and have been quite enamored with Charleston so far. First things first, we made the 4:00 ferry to Fort Sumter, and although it POURED while we were out there, it did let up in spurts long enough for us to look around a bit. The rangers were very nice (and complimented my Union Kepi!), and they have both the Palmetto flag that the Confederates raised over the fort when they captured it, as well as the US flag that Major Robert Anderson lowered in surrender. In a wonderful historical reversal, Anderson hung onto the flag through the war, and was able to raise it in triumph over the fort when the Union recaptured it in 1865. Later when he died they draped the same flag over his coffin (which is weird because the damn thing is like 10 feet by 30 feet). Fort Sumter was kind of a big deal for Anderson.

From the fort we were also afforded a wonderful view of Charleston harbor, as you would expect, including the other fortifications that were used to attack Sumter itself. Among these is Fort Wagner on Morris Island, off to the left of Sumter, which achieved fame for the assault on it in July 1863 by the 54^th Massachusetts, the first organized African-American regiment of the war. The attack failed and most of the 54^th was killed, but they were celebrated through the North and are remembered for their bravery. You might have seen the movie “Glory”, starring Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington and Morgan Freeman, about the 54^th. If you haven't I'd recommend it, it's quite good.

Anyway, from Fort Sumter we made our way our way to our hotel, right in the heart of the city. Once we dried off from the rain and settled our stuff, we walked around, taking in the sights of a city that, while quite charming, was much, much smaller than we thought it would be. Charleston is a city of 120,000 people, which, for reference, makes it smaller than Worcester, MA (175,000), Providence, RI (170,000), and about the same size as Hartford, CT (actually, Hartford has 125,000, says Wikipedia). There is no skyline to speak of visible from the Harbor, and while the downtown area is lovely, with all sorts of antebellum estates and gaslights everywhere, I didn't see any buildings taller than maybe 7-10 stories..

On the recommendation of my brother Scott, we ate at the East Bay Deli, where I got a turkey and pastrami club named for John C. Calhoun. There was a lot named for Calhoun around, though not as much as I was expecting, given how he was a secessionist hipster, wanting to leave the Union in 1832 before it was cool. Anyway, if you're ever in Charleston I'd recommend the East Bay Deli. Let's just say the Calhoun Club nullified my hunger.

From there we went to the South End Brewery for dessert and a sampler platter, though we had to brave a hoard of bats to get there. Amanda made the point that if they were out to eact cicadas we should be thankful, though I mean seriously there were like 10 of them, swooping and diving all over the place. Not cool. But the brewery was in a neat 3 story building with all the tanks right there, and they had a good selection of styles, from what I was able to gather from the sampler. After watching US women's beach volleyball advanced in the Olympics, we strolled around the gaslight back to our hotel, in time to watch some swimming events.

So all in all, a really neat city. Both of us would like to come back someday when we have more time to look around and get a better feel for the city as a whole, but a nice urban interlude. From here it's onto Andersonville POW camp tomorrow, and then across Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi te next day to get to Vicksburg. But should probably get to bed now, long day ahead.

Cheers!

-M