By: Marie Richie
Charleston has a very special place in Civil War history. When secession was declared on December 20,
1860, troops were immediately mobilized to Fort Moultrie of Revolutionary War
Fame. On January 9, 1861, newly
graduated Citadel cadets fired upon the Union ship Star of the West as it
entered Charleston Harbor. These first
shots of the War Between the States sent the unarmed ship back north to New
York Harbor.
Four short months later, war commenced just outside Charleston with
Union bombardment of rebel-occupied Fort
Sumter. Confederate troops stood
their ground and reinforced the garrison to withstand four years of Union
attack – even a tragic underground fire in December of 1863. With this quick victory in their own
backyard, Confederate leaders such as South Carolina governor Perkins predicted
victory in six months and began planning a march on Washington in May of
1861. The Federal army responded faster
than expected, and by December of that year Federal troops had arrived and
occupied Beaufort.
In June of 1862, the Battle of Secessionville turned back the Union
attempt to take Charleston from Folly Island.
During this time, the citizens of the city began to suffer severe
shortages from the Union blockade of the port.
In January of 1863, Confederate ironclad ships temporarily broke the
Union blockade, only to suffer a siege on Fort Sumter in April. After landing on Morris Island, Union troops
begin their first major assault on Charleston in August 1863, culminating in
the Christmas Day bombardment of the city that destroyed much of the existing
infrastructure. Shelling continued
throughout the year, though the Federal army was turned back until February
1865 when the city was evacuated by General Sherman. Federal occupation begins with the landing of the Massachusetts
55th on James Island and on April 12 when the Union standard was
once again raised over Fort Sumter.