Revisit to Liberty Square, the Visitor Information Center for Fort Sumter National Monument, Charleston SC

Finished up the trio of Charleston National Park visits with a quick stop at Liberty Square, which is the embarkation point for the ferry to Fort Sumter.  Had some missing stamps here, but I managed to still miss one of the bonus stamps.  I did get the new Civil War 150th stamp.

Date of revisit was April 24, 2014.  

Liberty Square is shown as the Visitor Education Center on the map.

Revisit to Fort Moultrie, a part of Fort Sumter National Park, Sullivan's Island SC April 24, 2014

Tina and I ran over to Fort Moultrie next to pick up a couple of missing stamps from my last visit in 2010-  

Fort Moultrie is a fort that protected the entrance to Charleston Harbor and is part of the Fort Sumter National Monument.

Fort Moultrie

The first fort on Sullivan's Island was still incomplete when Commodore Sir Peter Parker and nine warships attacked it on June 28, 1776. After a nine-hour battle, the ships were forced to retire. Charleston was saved from British occupation, and the fort was named in honor of its commander, Colonel. William Moultrie. In 1780 the British finally captured Charleston, abandoning it only on the advent of peace. After the Revolution, Fort Moultrie was neglected, and by 1791 little of it remained. Then, in 1793, war broke out between England and France. The next year Congress, seeking to safeguard American shores, authorized the first system of nationwide coastal fortifications. A second Fort Moultrie, one of 20 new forts along the Atlantic coast, was completed in 1798. It too suffered from neglect and was finally destroyed by a hurricane in 1804. By 1807 many of the other First System fortifications were in need of extensive repair. Congress responded by authorizing funds for a Second System, which included a third Fort Moultrie. By 1809 a new brick fort stood on Sullivan's Island.  Between 1809 and 1860 Fort Moultrie changed little. The parapet was altered and the armament modernized, but the big improvement in Charleston's defenses during this period was the construction of Fort Sumter at the entrance of the harbor. The forts ringing Charleston Harbor - Moultrie, Sumter, Johnson, and Castle Pinckney - were meant to complement each other, but ironically received their baptism of fire as opponents. For more information about the Fort Moultrie of 1860, including 3D models and animation, visit Battlefields in Motion. In December 1860 South Carolina seceded from the Union, and the Federal garrison abandoned Fort Moultrie for the stronger Sumter. Three and a half months later, Confederate troops shelled Sumter into submission, plunging the nation into civil war. In April 1863, Federal iron-clads and shore batteries began a 20-month bombardment of Sumter and Moultrie, yet Charleston's defenses held. When the Confederate army evacuated the city in February 1865, Fort Sumter was little more than a pile of rubble and Fort Moultrie lay hidden under the band of sand that protected its walls from Federal shells. The new rifled cannon used during the Civil War had demolished the brick-walled fortifications. Fort Moultrie was modernized in the 1870s, employing concepts developed during the war. Huge new cannon were installed, and magazines and bombproofs were built of thick concrete, then buried under tons of earth to absorb the explosion of heavy shells. In 1885, President Grover Cleveland appointed Secretary of War William C. Endicott to head a board to review the coastal defenses in light of newly developing weapons technology. The system that emerged, named for Endicott, again modernized the nation's fortifications. New batteries of concrete and steel were constructed in Fort Moultrie. Larger weapons were emplaced elsewhere on Sullivan's Island, and the old fort became just a small part of the Fort Moultrie Military Reservation that covered much of the island.As technology changed, harbor defense became more complex. The world wars brought new threats of submarine and aerial attack and required new means of defense at Moultrie. Yet these armaments also became obsolete as nuclear weapons and guided missiles altered the entire concept of national defense. Today Fort Moultrie has been restored to portray the major periods of its history. A visitor to the fort moves steadily backwards in time from the World War II Harbor Entrance Control Post to the site of the Palmetto-log fort of 1776.  The fort is also the final resting place of General William Moultrie, for whom the fort is named:                                      William Moultrie Birth:  Nov. 23, 1730 Charleston South Carolina, USA Death:  Sept. 27, 1805 Major General William Moultrie. Born in Charleston, S.C., November 23, 1730. Second in command of Charleston's defenses during the American Revolution. He was taken prisoner when Charleston fell to the British in 1780. Member of the South Carolina House of Representatives 1783-1784. Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina in 1784 and Governor in 1785. He was elected to the South Carolina Senate in 1787 and was again elected Governor in 1792. Moultrie published in 1802 Memoirs of the American Revolution. He died in Charleston on September 27, 1805, and is buried on the grounds of Fort Moultrie, which is named after him.

Revisit to Charles Pinckney National Historical Site - Mt Pleasant, South Carolina

Last time I was here was in 2008, when we were on a trip with the Kingston's-  Wow!  They had added a couple of stamps, so that was a reason to visit.  

It's stop number 2 on the map.  About 13 miles from our hotel.  

The location is on the old Snee Plantation, and is the last remaining parcel of land that belonged to Charles Pinckney, who was an early and noted public servant of South Carolina.  

Charles Pinckney National Historic Site

Location	Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, USA
Nearest city	Charleston, South Carolina
Area	28.45 acres (12 ha)
Established	September 8, 1988
Visitors	45,254 (in 2011)
Built	1824
Added to NRHP	April 13, 1973
Designated NHL	November 7, 1973

Charles Pinckney National Historic Site preserves a portion of Charles Pinckney's Snee Farm. The site is located at 1254 Long Point Road, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.
Pinckney fought in the American Revolutionary War and became one of the principal framers of the United States Constitution. He served as Governor of South Carolina, and as a member of the United States Senate and the House of Representatives. He was President Thomas Jefferson's minister to Spain.The main house on the farm was constructed in 1828, after Pickney's death.

Park Revisit- May 15, 2013 Congaree National Park, South Carolina

This was a revisit to this park on our way up to Greenwood to visit the grandsons before our big trip for 2013.  My last visit to this park was on September 5, 2010, when I visited with Grandson Cooper on our way to a Charleston SC weekend. 

Today was frankly a stamp and run visit, since I had as my goal to get impressions of the "new" to me stamps since my last visit. 

It went as planned, as I got all 5 of the stamps I had been missing for this park. 

As you can see from the map, the Park is roughly in the center of the state.  It is actually an example of a "living swamp" indigineous to South Carolina. 

The last time we were here, Cooper and I walked the entire length of the 2.6 mile nature walk!

Being in a swamp, they provide you with a "Mosquito Meter" at the Visitor's Center before you head out, which is handy. 

I got a new for me pin and also a new for me hiking staff medallion here today- 

Also got some postcards for my nephews and for the collection.

Here's the stamps for the day:

Mission accomplished!

Park Revisit, Cowpens National Battlefield Chesnee, SC

This was one of the first parks we visited with our Grandsons.  I originally visited this park back in 1990 as a part of a summer school course as a history major in College when I went back to school- 

My original visit to this park was October 22, 2009.  The park is located outside of the town of Chesnee, about 10 miles off I-85.

Cowpens was the site of a major battle during the Revolutionary War, and part of the "Southern Campaign" of the British strategy to win the war. 

That strategy faile at Yorktown, which we will visit.  We'll also see Kings Mountain on this trip. 

As it turns out, the Americans won decisively here at Cowpens:

The Only Double Envelopment in the American Revolution

“…our success was complete…”
  -- Daniel Morgan to Nathanael Greene, January 19, 1781

A pasturing area at the time of the battle, this Revolutionary War site commemorates the place where Daniel Morgan and his army turned the flanks of Banastre Tarleton's British army. This classic military tactic, known as a double envelopment, was one of only a few in history.

Here is the website for the NPS for Cowpens:
http://www.nps.gov/cowp/index.htm

And here is a Wiki Page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cowpens

Daniel Morgan was one of the big heros of the War- 

Tarleton, the looser, on the other hand, was out of place here, according to the movie.

Here are some other related photos of the park: 

Must have been a heck of a fight!

This is the Visitors Center from the air

This was an example of rank and file fighting, a silly way to fight a war. 

The Congressional delegation from SC does a good job, there have been two ships named the USS Cowpens, the latest is a guided missle frigate:

I was able to get a nice new pin from the park, a hiking medallion as well, and the three stamps for this site, including the 25th and the Overmountain Victory Trail stamp as well. 

Park Revisit- 96 National Historical Site

Date of visit: Wednesday, April 3, 2012

Just outside of the town of 96, South Carolina

Walk Where Battles Were Fought and Heroes Were Forged

Here settlers struggled against the harsh backcountry to survive. Cherokee Indians hunted and fought to keep their land, two towns and a trading post were formed and abandoned to the elements. Two Revolutionary War battles that claimed over 100 lives took place at this location.

Since this site is only about 15 miles or so from Greenwood, and I hadn't been there since 2010, I decided to run over and see if anything was new.  I did get to see the excellent movie, which I hadn't seen before, which ran about 20 minutes and has Trace Atkins as the narrator- 

There was no new pin, nor did they have a walking stick medallion-  so no purchases were made. 

I did pay more attention to the layout after watching the movie, and it was interesting to learn that the traces of the original roads are still in place from the late 1700's.  This was in the heart of Cherokee Indian land, then it became a key battle point for the Southern Campaign in the Revolutionary War. 

The walking tour takes about an hour or so, and you can still see the outline of the berms of the original "Star Fort".  There are also a couple of reconstructed buildings of the era- 

Wonder how long it will be before they tear down this perfectly good sign and put up a new uniform one like the ones I have seen being put into place around at the parks.......

Addendum visit:  May 25, 2012

Based on the Data Base, there was in fact a 25th anniversary stamp located here, even though I had asked about it on the April visit, and today, I went back, and sure enough, it was there!  Score.