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Two disclaimers given:
1. I am not a professional trainer…. and
2. I am not a licensed tour guide in the City of Charleston (please don’t report me!).
And with that the history tour began. Trigger Warning for Millennials: Very lengthy Civil War discussion follows…
Warm Up:
SSH x 30 IC
Grass Getters x 15 IC
Merkins x 15 IC
The Thang:
[All history lessons were accompanied with some combination of LBCs, squats, lunges or flutter kicks unless otherwise specified.]
[Mosey over to the Parrot Creek neighborhood.]
Discussion of the 25 Summer Homes that were on this side of the island pre-civil war. Homes were used as a get-away for the plantation owners to beat the summer “fever” by catching the best breeze in town. Owners would pass the time watching slaves compete in canoe regattas.
(Freedom Twist regatta)
Boom #1 (Burpee Count: 5)
1861-62 The Anaconda Plan
[Mosey to the first cul-de-sac and circle up to discuss…]
After the war broke out at Fort Sumter, the Union set out to blockade the southern states and swing around to the mouth of the Mississippi River and split the Confederacy in two and choke them into submission
Confederacy chose to defend three Atlantic cities: Wilmington, Savannah and Charleston.
Boom #2 (10)
[Cut through into the Parrot Bluff neighborhood for another COP and COH (Circle of History)]
Brig. Gen PGT Beauregard asked for help knocking down the houses to build breastworks. The JI plantation owners sent their slaves in their stead to do the work.
Boom #3 (15)
Final sneaky cut-through to the cemetary for a couple blockade runs around the loop…
Battle of James Island 1862
The Union navy was joined by an amphibious assault that was successful in Edisto, Seabrook, Sol Legere. They Pushed in from Folly and Morris. They were halted on Johns and James.
(battle of bloody creek sprints)
Boom #4 (20)
500 soldiers manning guns along the line from the wappoo cut hooking around to Secessionville and curling back to Fort Johnson held the Union at bay.
Boom #5 (25)
– 1863 –
[Elbow plank for all prayers]
March 27
A Prayer for the Times – Mercury News Charleston
Father of Infinite Wisdom and Love, do Thou Thyself regulate for us Thy own institution of slavery; set Thou the bounds of our habitations, and cause us and our slaves to grow up within them into “a chosen generation, a royal priesthood; a holy nation, a peculiar people;”
[Translation, the prayer in the spring of ’63 was for God to help them get this slavery thing right.]
Boom #6 (30)
[Squats]
Union Navy assaulted Ft Wagner on Morris Island while Union land forces tried to push further in across the marshes and beach. They were successfully repelled by the rebel defenders and a wreath was fashioned by women throughout the confederacy and hung in the city in the defenders honor.
…
August 2
Union General Gillmore orders the construction of a “Marsh Battery” in shelling range of the city. An engineer tells him it is impossible.
Boom #7 (35)
Aug. 10-17
The engineer is relieved of his duty and another takes his place. Construction began by the 1st New York Engineers on August 10th. Marsh grass, tarps, sand, logs, sand bags, pine planks, steel and rope are piled one on top of the other to form a platform before a 16,700-pound Parrott rifle from West Point with the #6 mark stamped on it is dragged into place on August 17th. The cannon was nicknamed “Swamp Angel.”
Boom #8 (40)
[Mosey back to the flag and assume the plank [position for the summer prayer]
August 21
A day of fasting, humiliation and prayer
Bishop Davis – Protestant Episcolpal Church of SC
“The people of these Confederate States, now coming to The in deep humility of heart.
Behold we are before Thee in our sins; we acknowledge and bewail our transgressions; we seek not to justify ourselves,–but confess that we are unclean. We have sinned with our fathers; we have done wickedly…”
Boom #9 (45)
“absolve us from our offences, and remember them no more against us forever. We do earnestly repent and are heartily sorry for our misdoings. We also confess unto Thee the ignorance and blindness of our hearts; we know not ourselves as we ought to know. Give unto us, Thy people:
grace, and light, and truth;”
Boom #10 (50)
“May it please Thee, O Almighty God, in Thine infinite goodness, to put an end to this dreadful struggle, and establish once more for Thy people truth and equity, quietness and peace, through Jesus Christ, our only Lord and Savior. Amen.”
Boom #11 (55)
Gillmore sent a letter be dispatched to Beauregard demanding the surrender of Fort Wagner on Morris or suffer the shelling of the city.
Boom #12 (60)
The people of Charleston, along with the cities defenders, 500-600 woman from Baltimore sent on “Truce boats” to reunite with long-lost family and scores of refugees from New Orleans and other lost cities began to pour into the churches to fast and pray for forgiveness.
Boom #13 (65)
Word came that Beauregard was not in the city and more time was needed to prepare a response.
Gillmore ordered the Swamp Angel cannon sited on the steeple of St. Michael’s.
Boom #14 (70)
Aug. 21-22nd
Presbyterian Church
“The whole congregation joined in singing, as in days gone by; the sacred notes rose in humble melody from the house of God, swelling their holy tribute to His glory; and dying away at last like echoes of departed days;
…when out upon the calm, still air there came an alien sound–the sullen voice of a hostile gun–ringing”
Boom #15 (75)
[NOTE: 15 shots rang out between midnight on the 22nd and daybreak on the 23rd]
The result was a CYA legal justification for shelling the city: the steeples were used to signal the military and the docks were used by civilian and military blockade runners alike. This justification came in handy for Sherman’s march to the sea. Although nobody was killed in the shelling, the city South of Broad was evacuated and the owners of the mansions would never return to them. They stood “Like echoes of departed days.”
COT
Shared a poem…
Swamp Angel – Herman Melville
It comes like the thief in the gloaming;
It comes, and none may foretell
The place of the coming—the glaring;
They live in a sleepless spell
That wizens, and withers, and whitens;
It ages the young, and the bloom
Of the maiden is ashes of roses—
The Swamp Angel broods in his gloom.
…
Is this the proud City? the scorner
Which never would yield the ground?
Which mocked at the coal-black Angel?
The cup of despair goes round.
…
Who weeps for the woeful City
Let him weep for our guilty kind;
Who joys at her wild despairing—
Christ, the Forgiver, convert his mind.
Great post, Vila!