Free previewStop 8 of Charleston Walking Tour: Rainbow Row to the Battery
Major Anderson's Midnight Move
You're standing on the Battery, at the southern tip of the Charleston peninsula, where the Ashley and Cooper rivers meet to form Charleston Harbor. If you're up on the High Battery, the raised walk along East Battery, look out toward the mouth of the harbor. That low, flat shape sitting right on the water is Fort Sumter. Off to the side is Sullivan's Island, where Fort Moultrie stands. A short stretch of water separates the two forts, and one man's decision to cross it began a war's first chapter.
December 1860. South Carolina has seceded from the Union, and slavery sits at the center of that decision. Holding the harbor for the United States falls to Major Robert Anderson, an army officer commanding the garrison at Fort Moultrie. Moultrie sits on Sullivan's Island, exposed to anyone who comes against it.
That's the opening. The rest plays at stop 8 of Charleston Walking Tour: Rainbow Row to the Battery (3 min in all). Unlock the tour to hear it all, or try stop 1 free first.
