Nationally renowned local historians to lead USCB Walking Tour
“Being a streetwalker” on Saturday, April 17, could mean you’ve joined the circle of nationally renowned local historians who are talking about life in pre-Civil War Beaufort. They’ll take you back to the gracious days of the Beaufort planter who made time to build churches, found libraries, pursue education, the cultural arts, the literary world and immerse in politics of regional, national and world events.
The theme of this walking tour is “The Mind of Antebellum Beaufort: The Religious, Social and Intellectual Thinking Prior and During The Civil War”. It will begin at 10:00 am at the Old College Building on Carteret Street with Dr. Larry Rowland’s talk on the efforts of the planter community to establish educational and cultural institutions such as the Beaufort College.
Dr. John McCardell and Dr. Stephen Wise will continue the tour to visit several of the principal houses of worship in Beaufort. According to Dr. McCardell, “At each stop we will learn something of the history of each building and each congregation. By day’s end we will come more fully to understand the role churches have played in shaping and directing the lives not only of Beaufortians but also of those well beyond the confines of this community, across the country and even around the world.”
During the Civil War many of the historic church buildings came under the command of the Union occupation forces in Beaufort. At each church, Dr. Stephen Wise will speak on the various uses of the church buildings during the Civil War as well as the changes that occurred to the church congregations. Up to this moment in time, Beaufort was a small Southern town with limited empathies. The Civil War exposed it to influences from every part of this young republic. 
Starting at the Old College Building, the tour will visit: St. Peter’s Chapel Cemetery, Wesley United Methodist Church, St. Helen’s Episcopal Church, Baptist Church of Beaufort, Tabernacle Baptist Church
Estimated completion time is 4:00 pm. The walking tour is priced at $52 and includes catered lunch at Wesley Methodist Church, lectures, tour guide pamphlets, fees. Registration is limited and can be made by calling 843-521-4147 or kingsley@uscb.edu.
THE TOUR GUIDES
Dr. John M. McCardell Jr. is the retired 15th president of Middlebury College,Vermont and the newly named Vice Chancellor of the University of the South, in Sewanee, Tennessee. A graduate of Washington and Lee University, he did his graduate work at Johns Hopkins and Harvard University where he received his Ph.D. in history. In 1976, Dr. McCardell joined Middlebury as a history professor and has worked in academic development and planning, dean of the faculty, provost and vice president for academic affairs, and acting president.
Dr. McCardell’s doctorate dissertation was published by Norton & Co. under the title of The Idea of a Southern Nation, a book that after 18 years, continues to be one of the most cogent discussions of the rise of Southern nationalists and Southern nationalism in the mid-nineteenth century.
Dr. Lawrence S. Rowland is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of South Carolina Beaufort where he was Professor of history for 26 years. He com- pleted his doctorate degree at the University of South Carolina with a dissertation on Eighteenth Century Beaufort: A Study of South Carolina ‘s Southern Parishes to1800.
Dr. Rowland is the author of The History of Beaufort County, South Carolina, Vol. I, 1514-1861, with Alexander Moore and George C. Rogers, Jr., and Window on the Atlantic: The Rise and Fall of Santa Elena, South Carolina Spanish City. Currently, he is working on The History of Beaufort County, South Carolina, Vol. II, 1861-1990, with Dr. Steven R. Wise and Gerhard Spieler.
Dr. Stephen R. Wise is the Director of the museum and Cultural Resource Manager for the Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island. Dr. Wise earned his doctoral degree from the University of South Carolina studying under Civil War historian, Thomas L. Connelly.
His first book, Lifeline of the Confederacy: Blockade Running During the Civil War, was acclaimed as a comprehensive account of the Confederate effort to deliver supplies through the northern blockade. A second book entitled Gate of Hell: The Campaign for Charleston Harbor 1863 was made into a PBS documentary and was presented in the summer of 2006.
