We arrived in Charleston on Saturday morning and the weather was amazing.  For the day before New Years Eve it was mild, t-shirt and jeans weather.  We headed into the town centre and hopped on a tour-bus for 1 1/2 hours.  The bus driver was very informative about all the Civil War, historic houses and the history of the area.  We saw many old houses that were built way before any of our time or before Australia's time for that matter.

After the tour, the bus driver dropped us off at the harbour where we had some lunch and the travelled by ferry to Fort Sumter.  The weather was coming in overcast and looked like it was going to rain but we were fortunate enough to escape that.  We spent 45 minutes on the island having a look around.

Typical Charleston houses			The grounds where the Patriot was filmed
Where the Patriot and Cold Mountain were filmed	Fort Sumter or what is left of it		Looking back at Charleston from Fort Sumter

Fort Sumter is where the American Civil War began.  Decades of growing strife between North and South erupted in civil war on April 12, 1861, when Confederate artillery opened fire on this Federal fort in Charleston Harbour.  Fort Sumter surrendered 34 hours later.  Union forces would try for nearly four years to take it back.

Did You Know?
The first human death of the Civil War occurred on April 14, 1861, the day after the battle of Fort Sumter ended. Private Daniel Hough died when the cannon he was loading (for the Union's 100-gun salute to the U.S. flag) discharged prematurely.

Carol near a cannon	Adam near a cannon