Following Robert Gould Shaw to the Very End

I tried to make the most of my last day in the low country so I woke up early and drove up to James Island to see how far I could follow Shaw’s trail. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to walk the ground of the battle on James Island that the 54th Massachusetts took part in on July 16, 1863.

This is another moment that I think the movie Glory does a pretty good job depicting.

Instead I decided to take a tour of McLeod Plantation. They do a wonderful job of focusing specifically on the lives of the enslaved. I will have more to say about this tour and the incredibly disappointing tour that I took yesterday at Hofwyl-Broadfield Plantation, just south of Darien, in a future post.

After the tour I headed over to Fort Johnson. Of course, many of you know that Confederates lobbed the first shell at Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861 from this location.

While reading this marker I was reminded that the first meeting of the Civil War Centennial Commission was forced to relocate to a military base in 1961 because Black delegates from northern states were not allowed to stay in Charleston’s Francis Marion Hotel.

From this location I could look out onto Fort Sumter as well as Fort Moultrie and nearby Sullivan’s Island on the opposite shore, where roughly 40% of enslaved Africans entered colonial British America and the new United States up until 1808.

A short walk offered a wonderful view across the harbor toward Charleston, where the rebellion began.

The assaults on Fort Wagner were an attempt to capture the city in the summer of 1863. Those assaults failed, but on February 21, 1865 the 55th Massachusetts Regiment marched into Charleston singing “John Brown’s March.”

If I turned east I could catch a glimpse of the very tip of Morris Island off in the distance.

This last view proved to be disappointing so with the little time I had left I decided to take a chance and head over to Folly Island, just south of Morris Island, to see if I could get a better view.

(Source: Battlefield Trust)

I am glad I did. I drove to the northern tip of the island and walked out onto the beach overlooking the Morris Island lighthouse. It was low tide so I was able to walk further out to catch an even better view.

It would have been nice to be able to get out on Morris Island, but I was content where I was. It was the perfect final stop.

I took my shoes off and waded into the warm water and enjoyed a few minutes of quiet reflection before heading back to my car.

Next stop: Boston.