Fort Moultrie is a lesser known fort that is just across the water to the North of Fort Sumter. The Park Service's website gives an excellent description of its history. And the Wikipedia page states "Fort Moultrie is the only area of the National Park System where the entire 171-year history of American seacoast defense (1776–1947) can be traced." Visiting this fort provides windows into various eras of seacoast defense.
Open and enter through the dark doors, if you dare ...
(We got there slightly before the park opened, so the doors were still closed. It was more inviting after they were opened, but it was still pretty dark.)
The fort has different sections showing what it looked like at different times through history. Anne's favorite was the World War II command headquarters; it was air-conditioned! But it was also very interesting. It was underground, and had various rooms for communication with ships. Flags on top of the signaling station:
From the signaling station, looking towards the older section of the fort:
'Canon Row' displays various types of canons that were used during the Civil War. The are, left to right: 7-inch Triple Banded Brooke, 10-inch Parrot Rifle, 8-inch Parrot Rifle, 10-inch Confederate Columbaid, Modified Confederate Columbaid, two 10-inch Rodman, and a 13-inch Mortar. In case you are wondering, 'banded' means that bands of iron were put around the canon to increase the its strength. And no, we didn't remember all the names. We took a picture of the informational sign.
A canon on wheels, an upgrade after the War of 1812:
How to move a gun: manpower and ingenuity. This tripod and pulley configuration could help lift the canon so it could be put on a cart for transport.
As mentioned above, Fort Sumter is just across the water from Fort Moultrie. Here is a picture before Sumter's first ferry has arrived, and one after the flags have been raised there.
On the way to & from Fort Moultrie is Patriots Point, a floating museum. We could see it in the distance on the ferry ride to and from Sumter.
And the impressive bridge to get from Charleston to both Fort Moultrie and Patriot Point:
This museum needs its own page ...
Updated July 2020