Smoke billowed from Castle Pinckney early Saturday afternoon on November 2nd, confounding some locals in Charleston and plenty of boaters in the harbor. In fact, the U.S. Coast Guard dispatched a vessel and a helicopter to investigate.

But all is well.

Castle Pinckney Guardian Matthew Locke, leading a squad of 16 volunteers (members of the SCV Fort Sumter Camp and several supporters), was simply conducting an annual clean up and authorized burn at the historic fort in Charleston Harbor.

Hundreds of Eastern Brown Pelicans and other coastal birds that had nested there during nesting season had long since left. This provided a strategic opportunity for Locke’s squad to attack one of the fort’s worst enemies ─ weeds that had grown in the cracks and crevasses of the structure’s brick walls, and over the tons of soil within it.

Locke’s volunteers ─ armed with a variety of tools, including shovels and pruning sheers ─ boarded a small flotilla of boats at 8:45 a.m. They departed at 9 a.m., landed at Castle Pinckney, and spent the next several hours cutting weeds that had grown in and over the fort’s walls and covered much of its interior. They also pruned several Palmetto Trees inside the fort, and collected trash at the site.

They began stacking-up large piles of weeds, trash and other debris in the center of the fort at about 1 p.m. before setting fire to the piles around 1:30 p.m.

Hence the smoke!

“We worked Saturday to cut and burn the summer growth in preparation for the construction of a dock at Castle Pinckney, and we accomplished our mission,” Locke said.

The Castle Pinckney Historical Preservation Society (CPHPS), a nonprofit 501©3 corporation responsible for the historic site’s stewardship, recently received a permit to construct a dock at the fort. CPHPS then launched fundraising efforts to fund the project.

“A dock at Castle Pinckney,” Locke explained, “would make it easier for critical parts of the fort’s interior structure to be repaired, and for archaeological work to begin.”

The volunteers extinguished the debris fires around 3:30 p.m., and lowered the Honor and Remember Flag that was hoisted over the fort on Nov. 8, 2023. The flag was flown to honor the late LCpl Roy Henderson Dalgliesh, USMC, and 1.3 million fallen service men and women. (See posting of Nov. 8, 2023)

The volunteers then hoisted the “Stainless Banner,” the Confederacy’s second of three national flags that was adopted on May 1, 1863, and authorized to March 4, 1865. (See posting of May 9, 2024)

They loaded their gear after completing their work, boarded boats and departed by 3:45 p.m.