Charleston, SC is an incredible place with incredible history. It had a lot of Pirate and early maritime history before the Revolution. Many pirates met their doom in Charleston there is a monument with some names of pirates on the battery. Charleston a huge amount of fighting throughout the Revolutionary War. The Americans defeated an entire British fleet and landing forces in 1776. Fort Moultrie/Sullivan the (palmetto log and earthen fort) survived a bombardment of British 24 pounders almost point blank. Charleston had a liberty tree and a tea party like the one in Boston.

The entire Southern Continental army was surrounded and captured in Charleston after a very long siege-type battle. American General Benjamin Lincoln knew he would loose a battle fought inside the city of Charleston vs. maneuvering all-out in the SC backcountry. He was forced into defending the City from inside because the City leaders threatened to throw open the gates and surrender to the British if he didn't fight the British on their terms. He complied hoping for a miracle. He was vastly outnumbered, 5,000 American troops up against 18,000+ British and Hessian troops if you also count the crews on the ships. The battle lasted a month or more and Lincoln being totally surrounded, outnumbered, and cut off from food and water, he finally surrendered all 5,000 American troops. SC, NC, VA, GA Continentals as well as militia regiments. Many of you on this message board probably had an ancestor in this surrender. Lincoln was so shamed while surrendering his sword to the British that when Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown Washington picked him personally to be the American officer to take the sword from Cornwallis.

The Civil War in Charleston was mainly a Naval engagement and interestingly many of the wrecks of Union and Confederate ships still lie on the bottom of the Harbor and rivers. A few are ironclad wrecks and have even been mapped.

During World War 2, there was a huge Naval ship yard and German U-boats were even sighted coming into Charleston Harbor at night. The son of the head officer at the Navy Yard in Charleston didn't realize that his blonde girl friend was a German spy until the story broke later on. I believe the woman and her father were both captured.

It is a fun place to visit. In North Charleston near the location of the original WW2 Navy yard, I think the Hunley is on display and the WW2 Yorktown aircraft carrier and other ships at Patriots Point near the site of Revolutionary War Fort Sullivan.