This was my favorite part of our Charleston vacation on Spring Break. It’s been over 20 years since I’ve been, and my wife and children have never been.

It’s an island fortress off the coast of Charleston, South Carolina, so you have to take a ferry boat to get there. Unfortunately we arrived very late and got stuck upstairs. It was too cold for my son so I had to go downstairs and stand. And no decent person was sitting downstairs, because out of all them seats, I had zero empathy despite having a baby.

Fort Sumter was actually the site of the very first Civil War battle. South Carolina was the very first state to secede from the Union and they wasted no time by attacking the Union-controlled Fort Sumter before Abraham Lincoln took office. It was a losing battle for the Union despite no soldiers actually dying during combat. Being completely surrounded by water in 1861, I can see why this battle would essentially be an automatic Confederate victory.

This was the flag they placed in the fort when they took down the American flag. It was least a more beautiful design than the later flags of the treasonous Confederacy.

Fort Sumter isn’t quite large of an area. While the tour is technically two and a half hours, it doesn’t feel like you have that much time to tour the island.

And much of it is modernized to a point, but they try to make it as it was back in the day.

If you come on a day of good weather, you can see some absolutely gorgeous views.

We got back on the boat early so, so we could actually get a seat inside with a table. There’s a lot of boats and even dolphins to see, if you get a good view.