Rachel and I took a ferry ride to Fort Sumter. Several park rangers told us about the events during the Civil War there, when the Confederates bombed and then took possession of the fort from the federal government to start the conflict and the Union Navy blockaded Charleston harbor throughout the war. The black Massachusetts 54th regiment immortalized on the relief at Boston Common (and in the film “Glory”) were mostly killed during a Union attempt to retake Fort Sumter.
Grave of my ancestor Joseph Price, a Northen civil war veteran. 
Outside Mishnah Israel synagogue 
Inside Mishnah Israel Synagogue 
On the ferry back to Charl 
The cannons and wall ruins of Fort Sumter. 
Overlooking the battery of Fort Sumter and the entrance of Charleston Harbor. 
The low skyline of colonial downtown Charlestown 
A huge carrier ship padding under the Ravenal bridge, the gateway to “
Charleston.
arlestown.
We drove south into warmer weather in Savannah, Georgia. I started wearing shorts, hopefully for quite some time to come. We got a tour of Mishnah Israel, the third oldest congregation in the country (after New York and Newport). It looks like a gothic church inside and out – see pictures. We found in the lush Bonaventure Cemetery the 1918 gravestone of Joseph Price, my mother’s great or great-greatfather, who fought for the North in the Civil War, then set up business in Savannah and lived there the rest of his life. Finally, we walked and had dinner in the very lively section along the Savannah River.
We have two good old songs for today- Georgia on my Mind” by Ray Charles and “Midnight Train to Georgia” by Gladys Knight and her Pips.
Mark's cross-country trip 