Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller
Date: November 23, 2025
We departed on a ferry boat from Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum, next to the USS Yorktown WWII aircraft carrier. We boated across Charleston Harbor past Castle Pinckney (formally Fort Pinckney) to Fort Sumter, the famous island fort. The boat rides each way were 35 minutes in length.
The historical fort was the site of the opening shots of the Civil War fired on April 12, 1861. Originally, the fort was built in 1829, one of a series of coastal fortifications built by the US after the War of 1812. A mortar shell fired from Fort Johnson in Charleston burst over Fort Sumter igniting the conflict. After a 34-hour fight with no fatalities, the Union troops agreed to terms of evacuation. The troops marched out of the fort and boarded a ship for transport to New York. The Civil War had begun. Fort Sumter was now in Confederate hands. During Union bombardment of the fort in 1864 & 1865, a total of 52 Confederate soldiers were killed in the fort.
Photos below show what the original fort looked like before the bombardment and destruction.
We toured the casements (gun rooms) on the first and second floor levels, the small museum and the parade ground. There were lots of cannons, mortars and war memorabilia. I talked to both park rangers about the Confederate submarine Hunley, the USS Ironclad Patapsco, and if they had any paranormal experiences to relate.
On the way back three dolphins swam parallel to our boat.
