War On The Parkway

It's hard to imagine while we're zipping along Betsy Kerrison Parkway that this stretch of Johns Island was once a Civil War battleground in what became known as the Battle of Haulover Creek, when Union and Confederate forces clashed over access via the island to Charleston's railroads and strategic harbor.

The march to Haulover Bridge

The fighting came fairly late in the war when Union troops stationed on Folly Island were ordered to Johns Island with two objectives: to create a diversion for Confederate troops that would draw them away from the Union's planned attacks further down the coast toward Florida, and to possibly allow Union troops to cross Johns Island and cut the Savannah to Charleston railway at Rantowles Creek, a critical supply line for the Confederacy.

In February of 1864, some 2500 Union troops were ferried across Stono Creek to Kiawah Island, where they camped overnight at the abandoned Vanderhorst mansion; from there, they waded across Captain Sams inlet onto Seabrook Island and sloshed through the marshes to arrive at Haulover Bridge, just north of today's roundabout. They arrived in early morning fog that shrouded them from a Confederate sentinel post where Rosebank Farms is today. Rushed and surprised by the Union troops, the southern sentinels fled north along what is now the Parkway to give the warning to troops already camped near today's Hopkinson Plantation.

The Confederacy's Captain Moses Humphrey led the attack on Union troops

Sporadic fighting raged up and down the roadway, culminating at what was then known as The Cocked Hat, at the intersection of Bohicket, Main and River Roads. (The name stemmed from Revolutionary War times, when the shape created by the intersection of the three byways reminded contemporaries of the then-fashionable tricorner, or cocked, hat.) Heavy artillery fire from both sides boomed throughout the night before falling silent just before dawn; but when Confederate troops reassembled for a renewed attack, Union forces had already withdrawn in the darkness after learning they'd be outnumbered with more southern troops already marching up from the Georgia border to join in the fighting.

No ground was gained by either side, and the clash became a footnote to the larger, bloody sprawl of the War Between The States. Johns Island remained in Confederate hands until the fall of Charleston, marking the end of the plantation era, the opening of the door to land speculators and the eventual commercial development of the barrier islands.

(Photos courtesy Johns Island Conservancy)

Little Digger

The little critter seen here is surely one of nature's more inventive productions - the mole cricket. It looks like a standard issue cricket from body to tail, but sports a shovel-like head and articulated, clawed forelegs for digging, the reason behind the crested tunnels that crisscross your lawns in late summer. They are prodigious diggers, feeding on turf roots and worms, and are the bane of landscapers and golf course maintenance crews.

A mature tawny mole cricket

Although they appear all over the world, mole crickets are most common in coastal areas like ours. Only one of the three varieties encountered here is native to South Carolina; the other two are invasive and probably first arrived during the 19th century in the ballast of cargo ships from South America. These two non-native species - the southern mole cricket and the tawny mole cricket - were first detected in the late 1800's and early 1900's in port cities like Charleston, Brunswick, Georgia and Mobile, Alabama.

Mole cricket tunnels

The tawny mole cricket is the largest of the three types, at up to two-inches when mature, and is considered the most destructive, although its smaller cousins can also damage lawns and carefully tended turf. The insects develop from eggs laid by females during an early spring mating season, when males dig sound chambers with holes at the surface to amplify their mating calls. The same males and females often return to the same location to mate, which is why you may notice tunneling in the same areas of your lawn each year. The larva emerge in about three weeks, molt up to eight times during the late spring and early summer and reach the adult stage by August, when serious lawn damage begins to appear and continues into October. Cooler weather slows the activity, and by December the insects retreat to deeper soil levels to overwinter.

Fortunately, mole crickets reproduce only once a year and can be managed, if not eradicated, with a variety of insecticides applied during the late spring and early summer, before major damage occurs. And in some parts of the world, mole crickets are not viewed so negatively. In certain parts of Africa, mole crickets are considered a sign of good fortune and in drought-prone areas, as a sign of coming rain. In southeast Asia, they're considered a great delicacy, served fried over rice.

The Deep Blue Sea

Charleston and the Lowcountry have been shaped for millennia by its harbor, the foundation of the area's growth, starting with the Archaic era's First People drawn by its abundance of fish and mollusks. European colonists quickly recognized the protection and security the harbor and the mild Lowcountry climate offered, making Charleston an economic and cultural powerhouse of the colonial period and on into the 19th-century, when the Confederacy quickly grasped the importance of defending such a critical asset.

Dredging the channel

The harbor is just as critical today, generating more than $60 billion in revenue for the state through container shipping fees via the South Carolina Port Authority, which operates four container shipping terminals surrounding the harbor and two inland distribution centers. And now, Charleston boasts the deepest port on the East Coast thanks to a decade-long, $600 million dollar dredging project that deepened the port's shipping lanes from 45 to 52 feet, allowing the world's largest cargo ships to reach the terminals regardless of tide levels. Begun in 2011 and carried out by the Army Corps of Engineers, the project's last phase was completed late last year. The project's successful completion brought one of the world's largest container ships to Charleston, the MSC Rayshmi. With a draft of over 48-feet, it became the largest container ship to ever visit the port, able to pass under the soaring Ravenel Bridge and reach the Wando Welch terminal in North Charleston.

The MSC Rayshmi, the world's largest container ship

The harbor's been deepened eight times over the past two centuries, starting in the late colonial period, when the port's depth was only twelve feet. The announcement of this latest project had an immediate economic effect, even before the first dredge load was brought up from the depth. Major automobile manufacturers like BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Volvo quickly realized how the deepened harbor would streamline their supply and distribution channels, setting in motion new manufacturing plants in the Lowcountry; Walmart built a 600-acre distribution center supplied by rail lines running from the port.

Today, one out of every ten jobs in South Carolina is directly related to activities in and around the port, as Charleston's long relationship with the sea brings new benefits to the Lowcountry.