On December 20, 1860, South Carolina became the first state in the US to secede from the Union, which at that time consisted of 34 states. The state opposed the election of Abraham Lincoln to the presidency of the US since he had vowed to abolish slavery. The first shots of the American Civil War were fired from Fort Sumter of Charleston, South Carolina in April 1861 by the cadets of The Citadel — the military academy of the South. For the four years that followed, 11 slave-owning states in the South fought the other states of the Union. The Civil War was brutal and devastating, featuring more than 200 named battles, often pitching family against family. The British historian John Keegancalled this war as ‘the most ferocious ever fought’ in history. Perhaps the most famous of its campaigns was the ‘March to the Sea’, led by Major-General William Tecumseh Sherman of the Union. It began in Atlanta and ended in Savannah on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, in December 1864. Sherman’s forces burned down every town that stood in the way. The march, terrible as it was in terms of the suffering it brought on civilians and soldiers alike, was tactically brilliant. It brought the South to its knees. While the old civilisation may have gone with the wind, civility has not vanished with the Civil War On April 9, 1865, General Lee surrendered the forces of the Confederacy to General Grant at the Appomattox Courthouse in Virginia. It was not just the war that ended with the surrender, the civilisation of the Antebellum South also passed into history. Its passing was memorialised in the 1939 epic, ‘Gone with the Wind’ — based on the novel by Margaret Mitchell. I had traveled to Atlanta, Georgia several times but always found it to be a very cosmopolitan city. There was hardly any trace of the Antebellum South there. The only reminder of the Civil War was to be found on Stone Mountain on the outskirts of the city on which are carved statues of General Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson and President Jefferson Davis of the Confederacy. One day, I got the opportunity to visit Charleston, South Carolina and I grabbed it. After all, that’s where the first shots were fired. Also, it was the only state where the Confederate flag was embedded in the state flag. I assumed that more artifacts of the pre-Civil War civilisation lay buried there, waiting to be discovered. I had arrived there to speak at a conference. After the conference, we were treated to dinner at the iconic Boone Plantation — the city’s number one tourist destination. The main house is a marvel of antebellum architecture. It evoked Tara, the plantation in ‘Gone with the Wind’. The grounds were spacious and beautifully landscaped. What was a bit hard to take were the rows and row of huts that were built to house the slaves. Inside the huts were effigies of the slave families going about the everyday business of life. Next day we decided to check out The Citadel. This was still functioning as a military college. I had anticipated we would not be let in but entry was no problem. We were welcomed by the guard at the gate. There was a huge quadrangle in the centre. We saw smartly dressed cadets marching by themselves. They would turn at 90 degrees when they came to a corner, like toy soldiers in a fairy tale. Large items of weaponry were on display on the four sides, including artillery and helicopters. But what caught my eye was the Sherman tank parked in the centre of one side. What could be more ironic than to put a weapon on display in the academy of the South whose name was associated with the man who decimated the armies of the South? Admittedly, much time had elapsed since that war ended. Two World Wars and the Vietnam War had been fought since and perhaps they had bridged the great divide between the North and the South. But I had been told that the South had never reconciled to its defeat. And, true to form, the Civil War was not called by that name in the South. It was called the War of Northern Aggression. Was that not true? The next day, while touring the local markets, we discovered that one of the long buildings had a big sign engraved on top of its entrance: ‘In Honor of the Daughters of the Confederacy’. Further down, along the waterfront, we saw a few monuments to the soldiers of the Confederacy. These had survived the ravages of the time. Later, we decided to take in a harbor cruise to view Fort Sumter. I noticed that we boarded the boat from Union Pier. The view of the fort matched the pictures. It was not particularly impressive. What had put the fort on the map was what happened there, not its architecture. I spotted the captain of the boat. He was walking around talking to his guests. I decided to chat with him. I said we had traveled from California to admire the civilisation of the south. And we had wanted to see the state flag with the Confederate flag embedded in it but all we had seen thus far were the star and stripes of the national flag. He said you will have to travel to the state capital of Columbia to see that flag. And then I told him about the Sherman tank in The Citadel and saw the expression on his face change. But that was trumped by the expression that came when I told him that his very own ship had docked at Union Pier. I said my dream of seeing the civilisation of the South remained unfulfilled. Now he put his guard down. He said you have no idea what they think of us. It was unclear who ‘they’ were. I assume he meant the Yankees from the North. He said they think we own slaves and beat them if they don’t do the tasks assigned to them. On the way back to the harbor, we went past a whole flotilla of sailing boats, saw an amazing suspension bridge, an aircraft carrier and a submarine.This was the postbellum Charleston. The city has reinvented itself into one of America’s top tourist attractions. The downtown area, brimming with centuries-old mansions and cobblestone streets, has been called ‘a living museum’. It hosts a lively art scene and top-rated restaurants designed to provide you a taste of just about anything your heart desires. On our last day, we drove off to check out the tea gardens on Kiawah Island. The gardens were beautifully laid out and a pleasure to walk in. You could literally smell the roses. The spacious southern mansions were stunning in their grandeur. We had lunch in one of them, saw a model house that appears on HGTV, and walked along the seashore. In Charleston, Southern hospitality was on full display. While the old civilisation may have gone with the wind, civility has not vanished with the Civil War. The writer can be reached at ahmadfaruqui@gmail.com Published in Daily Times, April 11th 2018.