Morris Island Lighthouse Segment

This clip is a preview of filmmaker and historian Michael Jordan's upcoming documentary, "Lighthouses of the Southeast," featuring numerous historic lighthouses from the Virginia Capes to the Florida Keys. Visit www.southeastlighthouses.com to learn more.

[@clockguy2]

The lighthouse was designed by Peter C. Hains. He also designed the lighthouse at St, Augustine Florida.
Peter Conover Hains was born July 6, 1840, to a relatively poor Philadelphia shoemaker. He attended the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1857; George Armstrong Custer was his classmate.
After graduating in 1861, Hains served in the Union artillery and fired the first shot of the Battle of Bull Run in Manassas, Va. Later in the war, when the chief engineer fell ill at Vicksburg, Hains designed the successful siege for the Union Army under Gen. U.S. Grant.
By 1864, Hains had been promoted to captain and married the daughter of Adm. Thornton Jenkins, chief of staff to Adm. Farragut. Two years later, he transferred to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and worked on lighthouse construction from 1868 to 1878, including structures off Morris Island and St. Augustine.
By 1882, Hains was working as the chief engineer on the Potomac and Anacostia rivers, and he designed the Tidal Basin, which solved the capital's problem of a foul-smelling, stagnant swamp. The site today is near the Jefferson Memorial, and Hains Point overlooks the basin and the Washington Monument. In 1890, he designed the national road built from Washington to Mount Vernon (now known as the George Washington Parkway).
Hains also served on the Nicaragua Canal and Panama Canal commissions and successfully argued to build it in Panama.
Toward the end of his life, in 1916, he was called to active duty and appointed major general by an act of Congress. This made him the only Civil War officer to serve on active duty in World War I and the oldest U.S. officer in uniform during that war.

[@drycoal95]

wow I was not expecting such an important guy to have built this random lighthouse. Thanks for the history lesson!