Folly Island, S.C., in the Civil War-- Part 7: OK, What Is "Pluff Mud?"

In the last post I mentioned "Pluff Mud."  Not having an idea exactly how that might differ from regular mud, I had to look it up.

Pluff Mud, also spelled Plough Mud, is a Carolina Low Country term for a slippery, shiny brown-gray, sucking mud with a distinctive smell, like none other, of the tidal flats and spartina grass salt marshes.

It doesn't sound like something I'd like to go tramping  around in or being sucked into in that case.

There are several things in Charleston by the name of Pluff Mud, including an offering by the Holy City Brewing of Charleston called a Pluff Mud Porter.

I Might take a Pass On That.  --Old Secesh

Folly Island, S.C., in the Civil War-- Part 6: Fort Green

From wdma.ny.gov/kist/

While researching Folly Island, I came across the name of a Fort Green and did some more research.

In fall of 1863, Fort Green was constructed on Little Folly Island with its guns aimed at Charleston.  There is no known record of the Union dismantling it, though they probably did and at least they took the fort's artillery.  But, for the most part, the site was simply abandoned.

At the end of the war, the north end of Folly island was abandoned (probably those cannonballs discovered in the wake of Hurricane Matthew in October were a remnant of that).  The fort and rifle pits were filled with used and broken equipment described as "later buried in sand and preserved in pluff mud, these materials were forgotten until exposed by Hurricane Hugo in 1989."

--Old Secesh