Charleston III

The homes of Charleston are spectacular and very expensive. This is an example of a particular style in most of the homes in the historic district. The end of the house faces the street and the entry door opens not to the interior of the house but to the porch or piazza as they call it. The homes were placed this way to catch the breeze from the water surrounding the penninsula that is Charleston. If the entry door was open, the family was available to receive visitors. If not, they were not to be disturbed, even if they were in plain sight on the porch. In fact, in the genteel world that was Charleston, passersby who looked into the yard and porches of those whose door was closed were considered to have committed a grave social error.

This statue commemorates the Confederate soldiers of South Carolina. It stands on the grounds called the Battery where cannoneers shot at Fort Sumter and were shot at by the Union troops there.

Fort Sumter lies at the mouth of the harbor nearly connected to land on the south side. A Revolutionary War fort, Fort Moultrie lies on the northern side of the entrance. It is from that fort that South Carolina derives the symbols on its flag. The palmetto tree represents the use of its logs in the construction of this fort, which, along with the sand put between the logs absorbed the cannon balls of the British fleet without apparent damage. The other symbol looks like a crescent moon, but is actually representative of the metal crescent worn by military officers of the time about their necks, a gourget.