S.C. Preserves Part of Charleston's Fort Johnson-- Part 4

That spring and summer of 1865,  seven companies of the 21st USCT regiment, formed the garrison at Fort Johnson.  On July 31, , the men of the 54th Massachusetts dismounted the fort's guns and the fort was abandoned.

In 1872 a quarantine station was established there.  Thus began its association with public health.  In 1948, the station was closed and the 90 acre site was transferred to the state.  Six years later, the College of Charleston devised a plan to establish a marine biology research  center there, and the Medical  College set up an animal research facility.

The old quarantine officer's residence was occupied by the president  of the Medical College.

In 1970, much of the Fort Johnson  tract was transferred to the DNR's forerunner, the South Carolina Department of Wildlife and Marine Resources.  

In the years since,  the condition of the MUSC buildings has  deteriorated, posing safety hazards.

--Old B-Runner

Fort Anderson Prepares for Summer 2021-- Part 2: Was a Civil War Quarantine Fort

The Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson site  (Fort Anderson was built across the ruins of the Colonial town of Brunswick during the Civil War) will also will be debuting a few new exhibits to encourage locals and tourists to make the trek out to Brunswick County, including an inciteful 3-D model of what the ruins of St. Philips Church would have looked like before the American Revolution.

"We're going to have another new exhibit based on Fort Anderson highlighting it as a quarantine fort," Said Jim McKee.  "It is really the only thing that is completely born out of  COVID because  it allows us to tell how the fort's  primary purpose was as a quarantine station along the Cape Fear River.  So it is totally appropriate  for the time."

Blockade runners coming into Wilmington during the Civil War would have to stop at Fort Anderson to make sure they didn't also bring in diseases.

--Old B-R'er

When Smithville, N.C., Became Southport, N.C.-- Part 2: Snapshots and Postcards of Smithville/Southport

Photographs accompany the article.

**  One shows the Stuart House.  It was a boarding house and many blockade runner captains and pilots would stay there during the war.

**  Another one shows a large sign with the words:  "Welcome to Southport, a deep Water Natural  Harbor" from when the city was trying to become a major North Carolina seaport.  Wilmington, up the Cape Fear River, became that seaport.  Blockade runners would drop down to Smithville (now Southport) after taking on cargo in Wilmington, and wait to see which of the two exits was the best one for their voyage (least blockaded).

**  Another one showed Capt. John Harper's  steamer Wilmington which was the most popular way to get from Wilmington to Southport from 1896 to the 1910s.  Thus was also the ship you took to go to Carolina Beach and Fort Fisher.

**  A hospital which once stood at Fort Johnston.

**  Pirate Steed Bonnet, the "Gentleman's Pirate" who was captured near Southport.

**  The barracks that once stood at Fort Johnston.

**  Fort Johnston marker:  "Gov. Gabriel Johnston ordered  construction of the fort, 1745.  Burned by defiant colonists, 1775.  Rebuilt later..  Only the officers quarters remain."  Today it is the Southport welcome center and museum.

**  United States Quarantine Station  at Southport.  Too bad we didn't have more of these back in January and February this year.

--Old B-Runner

USS Bermuda-- Part 6: Supplying the Blockading Fleets

The USS Bermuda made sixteen round trip voyages to the Gulf of Mexico, most of the time resupplying the ships of Farragut's West Gulf Blockading squadron  Besides supplies, she also carried passengers, usually officers and enlisted men going to and from blockade duty, sick men returning north to recuperate and prisoners captured afloat

On return trips, the Bermuda often had captured cotton.or ashore.

Other spots the Bermuda visited on her first voyage were Key West, Tampa Bay, St. Mark's and Pensacola.  After that, she provisioned the ships of the Mobile blockade, entered the Mississippi River and spent a week in quarantine and to New Orleans.

Then, it was on to Farragut's fleet off Galveston.  It then returned home, stopping at many of the same places.

--Old B-Runner