Tours

When you're in a city for the first time, I think it always helps to take a tour.  It helps you get oriented and make a mental list of things you want to come back and see.  And where else can you hear all the stories that apparently only tour guides know and tell.

Example -- did you know that the only deaths in connection with the bombardment and surrender of Fort Sumter occurred after the surrender.  It seems that the officer who commanded the Fort and the General to whom he surrendered knew each other quite well and carried out the whole thing like the gentlemen they were.  The problem was that when a cannon salute was fired, one of the cannon exploded and two gunners at that station were killed.  The only casualties of the battle.

And speaking of exploding cannons, brings us to the Civil War.  The battery in Charleston was indeed a battery in those days.  A battery of cannons.  When Sherman was on his way, the Southern powers that be decided that they could not let these cannon fall into Sherman's hands, so they decided to blow them up.  Needless to say (see above), all did not go as planned.  Apparently they saved the biggest for last and when they set off the destruction of the last and largest cannon, it not only destroyed the cannon.  It also sent pieces flying in all directions and a number of them into nearby houses.  The largest piece -- several hundred pounds -- landed about four houses over in the attic of the house.  How it failed to crash through, I don't understand.  But it did.  It stayed in the attic and is still there to this day.  It seems that no one could figure out a way to get the thing out without pretty much demolishing the house in the process.  Talk about the perfect souvenir.