West Point Class of '72

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Our Next Mini Reunion: It is Charleston in Spring of 2024

Next Stop: Charleston

Charleston, South Carolina has been named the top city for tourism in the US several times in the past few years, and it was named the top city to visit in the world by the readers of Travel + Leisure Magazine in 2016. So, it’s time for our Class to visit this city…

Charleston has a full menu of things to see and do. Speaking of menus, this is a definite destination for foodies, with shrimp, grits, and barbeque. Other than during the hot summers, the weather is pleasant. There are beaches, waterways, and forests in the surrounding area.

But it is its history that makes Charleston especially interesting. The city was founded in 1670, and quickly became the largest city in the South. Charleston is an excellent natural port, but the first settlers had to endure challenges that persist to this day: hurricanes, fires, and even the occasional earthquake. The first cash crops were rice and indigo, whose cultivation was greatly assisted by the knowledge of the slaves who were brought with the first English settlers. Gradually, Charleston became the main port for the export of cotton to England prior to the US Civil War, and was probably the richest city in the US at the time.

Charleston played a major role is both the American Revolution and the Civil War. The British seized Charleston in 1780, in the worst surrender of American forces in that entire conflict. But the British soon discovered the hornets’ nest of the surrounding area. They were constantly harassed by guerrillas led by Frances Marion, the Swamp Fox (the nearby national forest is named after him) until the war ended and the British departed. In response to this vulnerability of American port cities, as clearly shown in both the Revolution and the War of 1812, the US built a set of forts to protect the Atlantic seaboard, from Maine to Louisiana (built by graduates from a certain new school on the Hudson). One of those forts was Fort Sumter, just outside of Charleston. It was here, in April 1861, that the forces of the states that had just left the Union bombarded the fort to force its surrender. Despite that early victory, Charleston remained bottled up by the US Navy for the duration of the Civil War, and economic recovery was slow after the war. Ft. Sumter is now a National Monument, one of the premier sights in Charleston.

Charleston also honestly confronts the aspects of its history that are objectionable today: Antebellum Charleston was the largest slave market in the US. The Old Slave Mart Museum tells that story.

Charleston has many other sights related to military history: the first successful employment of a submarine in combat occurred here. The Confederate submarine, Hunley, sank the Union ship, Housatonic, in 1864, with an explosive on the end of a long pike. Unfortunately for the crew of the submarine, however, the shock waves from the explosion came back to the submarine and killed its eight-man crew. The sub sank and was recovered in 2000 and is now housed in a museum (in north Charleston) specially designed for it. The famous aircraft carrier, the USS Yorktown (CV-6), which served from World War II to the recovery of Apollo astronauts, is berthed in Charleston at Patriot’s Point.

Charleston has preserved its history for us to take in. With its cobblestone streets, the city offers horse-drawn carriage rides through a variety of neighborhoods in the Historic District. One of those areas is Cabbage Row, which became the inspiration for Catfish Row in the story of Porgy and Bess, considered the greatest American opera. In the outskirts of the city are the plantations and gardens of the antebellum era. Beaches, wildlife (yes, alligators), dinner cruises, beautiful sunsets – these are all available for us to enjoy, so let’s all meet there in 2024!

West Point Class of 72

Proud and True 72