Rosalie B. wrote in
:

Dec 9 - Saturday morning, soldiers march into the fort (followed by
some ladies in hoop skirts (I looked through the binoculars). Then
they come up on the ramparts, raise the flag and fire muskets at us.
The soldiers fired the cannon at us about every half hour. Bob said
to wave the white flag. Although there is to be a parade of boats
this evening, we aren't tempted to stay and we pull the anchor and
head south.



We took a load of boaters out to witness the damned Yankees attacking The
Battery Confederates during a Civil War reinactment in Charleston Harbor
a few years back. The Confederates had real cannon brought to bear with
impressive reports, especially being out in the harbor nearer the
business end of these monsters. Everyone was holding their ears.

We stayed well out of the way of the display ground upriver from the
ships firing at the Confederates. However, we were unprepared for the
Yankees' sneak attack staged just for us near the end of their runs at
The Battery!

A Yankee ship I've forgotten the name of just kept sailing towards us,
instead of coming about as they had been doing to go around Shutes Folly
(island in the harbor) for another round of firing. They brought up a
big megaphone (authentic of the period, I might add) and said something
like, "Just keep your station, we'll go around you." Because he had the
big guns, we figured it a good idea to do as told, drifting in the
current on the idling diesel.

SUDDENLY, without provocation, WE WERE PART OF THE WAR! Four cannon were
set off on us at point-blank range from the Yankee ship, at about 3
second interval! Several of our assembled sailors, now part of the
action, were "hit" by imaginary cannon balls and shrapnel falling to the
deck, holding their chests, to the shear delight of the tourists watching
us from the Waterfront Park Pier not far away, not to mention all the
Yankees laughing their heads off on their rail! Someone who was below
making more Bloody Mary, rushed up on deck with both the Stars and Bars
and the South Carolina State flags, which were quickly hauled up our
mainmast to show our true colors.

Within minutes, the shore batteries of the Citadel Cadets had been
retrained on the dastardly Yankees and a full salvo laid waste to our
attackers in a massive burst of noises our fallen soldiers must have
heard way out in their graves on James Island. I was holding my hands
over my ears and it hurt!

We celebrated the Yankees' defeat and subsequent withdrawl with the
aforementioned pot of Bloody Mary made in our coffee kettle and headed
"out of range" to anchor off Drum Island before lighting off our Steak
Grilling Weapon.


Wave the White Flag mah ass, Suh!......(c;