"Charleston, South Carolina " Topic

Will be one Charleston in January for a few days of relaxation. Can anyone recommend some good historical sites to see? I definitely would like to check out Fort Sumter, any good places dealing with AWI or earlier? Also, if there is any non-history related spots I will take them too! Thanks so much!

You'll definitely want to check out Ft. Moultrie, Battery Park (on the water front) along with some of the Mansions which are open to the public, Castle Pinckney, if the tour boats still go out to the island, and take a ride over to Sullivan's Island where you can see where Battery Wagner was located! (It's underwater by the way, but there's a marker in the water where it was located.) There was a small park in North Charleston which still had remnants of the AWI period works.

If you want some excellent dining cross the Cooper River Bridge over to Pleasanton (?) where you can find several outstanding seafood places! Also, check out Old Town Charleston for some historical sites and fine dining! Then there is the Museum of Charleston!

I just got back from a chaperoning an 8th grade SC History Field Trip to Charleston (my wife is a teacher, so I get recruited every year)

Here are my recommendations:

- Ft Sumter is worth the boat ride. Look for the unexploded union rifled artillery shells lodged in the brickwork to your left when you enter the fort.

- Ft. Moultrie is great, you can see the evolution of 150 years of coastal defense at one location. I like is almost better than Sumter.

- Charles Town Landing: We went last summer and I was rather surprised, good museum, reconstructed fort and a ship.

- Patriot's Point in Mt. Pleasant has the USS Yorktown CV-10, USS Laffy (WW2 / Cold War era destroyer) and the USS Clagamore (GUPPY III Sub in service 1946 – 1975)

The Yorktown exhibits need some updating I think (not as good as USS North Carolina) but is really neat and HUGE, Laffy was in Dry dock as of a couple of years ago and has new exhibits, including a really good one in the CiC) Clagamore needs some serious restoration work, but when do you get to go through a WW2 era sub?

- The CSS Hunley can be viewed with a small Museum at the old Navy Shipyard

- There are Plantations everywhere, some that I have enjoyed are Drayton Hall (House has no been fully restored, but somehow that makes it more interesting) and MIddleton place.

Here is a good link to get you started, enjoy your visit!

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