The Low Country Reunion
Charleston, SC
by Del Esguerra

As I mentioned in my previous article, we are locked in for 13-16 September 2010. The venue for the reunion will be the Francis Marion Hotel located at 387 King Street in downtown Charleston.

Tel number: 843-722-0600
Hotel web address: http://www.francismarioncharleston.com

I’m sure you’ll find the ambience of the Francis Marion all that you’d expect from historic Charleston. Las Vegas is a tough act to follow in terms of room rates, but rest assured we’ve negotiated the best rates possible ($119.00/day) for Charleston in the fall.

Registration will be Monday the 13th, with the President’s Reception that evening. Tuesday will be the membership meetings and luncheon. We’ll be doing a Charleston Harbor Dinner Cruise on Tuesday evening. We’ll bus over to Patriots Point to board the boat, about a 10 minute ride from the hotel. The Dinner cruise is a great way to see Charleston, dance to live music after dinner, or lounge topside, enjoying the beautiful (and cool) sunset. Click here for information on the cruise. Patriots Point, by the way, is where the Yorktown is tied up and open daily for tours. It also houses the Medal of Honor Museum.

Wednesday features a day trip to MCRD Parris Island, a couple of hours by bus. We’ll depart around 0800 and arrive at Parris Island around 1000, where we’ll get a briefing at the Reception Center, do a tour of Parris Island training sites and make a stop at the museum. Lunch will be in the mess hall and we’ll wrap it up with a visit to the virtual indoor range to test you marksmanship skills. For those of you electing not to go on the tour, we can arrange an afternoon of exploring downtown Charleston, shopping, site seeing, etc.

Thursday is free during the day for your leisure activity of choice. Thursday night is our traditional banquet. BTW, I’ve received several recommendations for a guest speaker, so if you have any recommendations please drop me a line. Friday is check out day.

Did you Know?

Why we call Charleston the heart of the Low Country? “The Lowcountry is often thought of as a geographic and social identifier. According to some historians, the Lowcountry extends from the Sandhills of South Carolina, just east of Columbia, to the coast. This area is mostly near or below sea level; thus the term "low country".

Why I referred to Charleston as the “Holy City” in my last article? When I first heard it called that, I said wait a minute, the only “Holy City” I know of is Rome. Well, “Unlike many of the other colonies in the New World, Carolina was not founded by a particular religious sect. In fact, the Lords Proprietors, anxious to make a success of their business venture, provided a haven of religious tolerance. By the early 1700’s, Anglicans, Anabaptists, French Huguenots, Quakers, Presbyterians, Congressionalist’s and Jews were worshipping in Charles Town and no religious arguments were permitted by law. With its abundance of churches, Charleston is still called the 'Holy City'."

Sumter, Fort, situated on a sandbar, commands the sea approach to Charleston, SC. On the night of 20 December, 1860, Maj. Robert Anderson, Union commander at Charleston, removed his garrison from Fort Moultrie, on Sullivan's Island, to a better defensive position at Fort Sumter. At 4:30 on the morning of Friday, 12 April, the Confederate batteries opened fire on Fort Sumter. On 13 April, after a bombardment of thirty-four hours, Anderson surrendered; the Civil War had begun. In April 1863, Fort Sumter, then garrisoned by Confederates, repelled an attack by a Union fleet. In August, the siege of Fort Sumter by Union forces began and lasted for 567 days; the Confederates never surrendered. The fort was eventually abandoned in February 1865 and later made a national monument.

The Fort Sumter Island tour is one of the more popular tourist attractions in Charleston. More information can be obtained here.

Stay tuned, more to come in the next edition. In the meantime, you can contact me at del.esguerra@comcast.net with your comments, questions, or suggestions. Also, I’ll be posting information here on the website.