Archive: Feb 2015

Charleston, probably more than any other American city, was the setting for numerous “affairs of honor,” a euphemism for the abhorrent practice of dueling. According to Dr. David Ramsey, a respected physician and noted historian in the late-18th and early-19th centuries, the propensity for dueling in Charleston was mostly to due to the climate because…

Thanks to Charleston’s rich history and emphasis on preservation, several movies and TV shows have been filmed here…too numerous to mention all. Two movies (fairly recent) in particular seem to strike a note with people on my tours. These are The Patriot and The Notebook. Early in The Patriot, Benjamin Martin, played by Mel Gibson,…

On the chilly night of February 17, 1864, an odd looking, submersible vessel, slipped through Breach Inlet between the Isle of Palms and Sullivan’s Island toward the United States Navy’s blockading squadron about 5 miles beyond the mouth of Charleston Harbor. It was the H.L. Hunley, and when it had completed its mission, it would…