Huge black cannons, their muzzles forever silenced.
Parapets and interior brickwork, scarred by shot and shell.
They are just a few enduring snapshots of an hour my wife and I shared at Fort Sumter on the eve of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War.
Charleston, S.C., was the next-to-last stop on a road trip that took us also to St. Augustine, Fernandina Beach, Savannah, Ga., and Beaufort, S.C., last week.A genteel city, Charleston was bustling with shoppers and tourists like us.
College of Charleston students seemed everywhere, too.
Yet there was no hint of the sesquicentennial of the cataclysmic conflict that divided and defined our nation.
There was no solemn band music that afternoon, like at Tuesday morning’s commemorative festivities at Charleston Harbor.
No Civil War re-enactors.
No sound of cannon, either.
The sight of Fort Sumter, 4 miles away, was alluring enough.
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