Tag: Civil War
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Ocracoke Light Station
Ocracoke Island, North Carolina (March 2012) The primary reason we went through the trouble of riding the ferry to Ocracoke Island from Hatteras was to see the old lighthouse (map). Construction of this version occurred in 1823 although lighthouses watched over Ocracoke Inlet since 1795. The need had long been established. English explorers first wrecked…
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Morris Island Lighthouse
Charleston, South Carolina (September 2008) The Morris Island lighthouse (map) has the classic appearance of what a lighthouse “should” look like. I took this long-range photograph taken from several miles away at Fort Sumter. It doesn’t do it much justice, but you can just make out the alternating black and white horizontal bands painted onto…
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Currituck Beach Lighthouse
Corolla, North Carolina (March 2012) Our trip to Currituck Beach Light provided a nice opportunity for a drive-by sighting. Unfortunately that’s the best we could do during the winter. It’s open and free to the public between Easter and Thanksgiving (with a small fee to climb the lighthouse tower). However it’s closed during the winter,…
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Bodie Island Light Station
Cape Hatteras National SeashoreNags Head, North Carolina (March 2012) Bodie Island Light Station The lighthouse on Bodie Island (pronounced “Body” after an early family of the same name) doesn’t have quite the same level of fame or recognition as its cousin on Cape Hatteras but it’s certainly no less important. All of the lights along…
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Fort Zachary Taylor
Key West, Florida (April 2009) Fort Zachary Taylor (map) began its service to the country as one of the Third System coastal fortifications constructed in the wake of the War of 1812. The United States determined that it would be prudent and worthwhile to make their port cities less vulnerable to enemy invasion. This lesson…
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Fort Jefferson
Dry Tortugas National Park, Florida (April 2009) Identifying the Need A massive masonry fortress rose on Garden Key, one of the Dry Tortugas, seventy miles away from Key West in the Gulf of Mexico (map). It served as a link in the chain of coastal fortification built by the United States Army Corps of Engineers…
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Fort Sumter
Charleston Harbor, South Carolina (September 2008) The Civil War started at Fort Sumter (map) and its hallowed grounds take on mythic proportions in our collective memory. Perhaps most striking to us, therefore, was its size. It’s tiny. And the island it sits atop is barely larger. I had envisioned something much bolder, something perhaps matching…
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Fort Moultrie
Sullivan’s Island, South Carolina (September 2008) Sullivan’s Island brackets the northern entrance to Charleston Harbor. It seemed natural that a defensive fort should rise along the southwestern flank of the island to protect a vital port city further upstream. From this strategic spot, any ship entering the main shipping channel would pass less than a…
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Fort Pulaski National Monument
Tybee Island, Georgia, USA (July 2006) Fort Pulaski National Monument sits between Savannah and Tybee Island (map). There is no way to miss it while driving between the two — it is the only thing out there other than marshland. The fort has a long history but probably gained its greatest prominence during the Civil…
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Fort Delaware
Pea Patch Island, New Castle Co., Delaware (July 2000) The newly-minted United States government identified the need for a fort along the Delaware River. This would help protect the approaches to major port cities such as Wilmington, Delaware and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The military eyed Pea Patch Island, a swampy swath of river deposit that barely…