War Along the South Carolina Coast

From the August 25, 2012, WIS TV 10 "Poor Fort Sumter: Museum curator describes destruction" by Renee Standera.

The head South Carolina State Museum Curator of History, JoAnn Zeise, described the destruction of Fort Sumter.  It was bombarded at the beginning of the war, then on a regular basis starting in 1863 until those tall brick walls were reduced to rubble.

The museum's newest exhibit "Naval War on the Coast" tells of the fort's woes and is one of six planned in the future.

Other items of interest:

**  At Port Royal in 1861, it was brother versus brother.  Captain Percival Drayron commanded the USS Pochahontas battling his brother Confederate General Thomas Drayton in the forts.  Port Royal then became a major Union base for the duration of the war.

**  Then, there were the blockade-runners, a very specifically designed ship (especially toward the end of the war).  Sleek, fast and hard to see to run through the Union blockade.

**  South Carolina ladies learned that their New Orleans counterparts had raised money to build ironclads.  They held balls and other things to raise money to help finance the four ironclads built at Charleston: Palmetto State, Chicora, Columbia and  Charleston.

Old B-Runner