Siege of Charleston
The Union blockage of Charleston began six weeks after the surrender of Fort Sumter. Union ships tried, and failed, to storm into the city’s harbor, and Union and Confederate armies moved and counter moved, and fighting and dying on the islands at the city’s doorstep. The siege of lasted 567 days. Charleston emerged the most bombarded mainland city in U.S. history, an experience that changed it and South Carolina forever."
Library of Congress photo collection
The Siege: Charleston's glory days end
The British tried to take Charleston by sea in 1776 but were repulsed at the Battle of Sullivan’s Island. Their defeat by Col. William Moultrie and the 2nd South Carolina Regiment gave the state the symbols for its present flag, which was adopted as the state’s “national” flag in 1861 — the crescent moon representing the regiment and the palmetto tree, the spongy tree used to build a fort on the island.
Viewpoint:
ALEX SANDERS
Charleston’s post-war wall is gone with the wind
Dept.of Archives and History
sc150civilwar.palmettohistory.org
National Parks Service
fortsumtertrust.org
Lowcountry Civil War Commemoration
palmettohistorysc.org
Video: Morris Island
Historians D.J. Tucker and Joseph McGill tell the story of Battery Wagner and the charge of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, made famous in the movie “Glory.”
Some of the events commemorating the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War in Charleston in April 1861
April 8-July 10: "A Soldier's View of Charleston," exhibition of 33 paintings by Conrad Wise Chapman depicting Charleston Harbor during the Civil War, Gibbes Museum of Art, 135 Meeting St., Charleston
April 8-July 10: "Stephen Marc: Passage on the Underground Railroad," photographs and digital montages explore the history of freedom seekers, Gibbes Museum of Art, 135 Meeting St., Charleston
April 8: Lectures by USC professor Walter Edgar, College of Charleston professor Bernard E. Powers Jr. and Middlebury College professor Barbara Bellows, Charleston Museum, 360 Meeting St., Charleston, 7 p.m., free
April 9: Episode 1 of Ken Burns' "The Civil War" will be shown at the Old North Charleston Picture House, 4920 Jenkins Ave., North Charleston, 7 p.m., free
April 9: Episode 1 of Ken Burns' "The Civil War" will be shown at Marion Square, Charleston, 7 p.m., free
April 9: Lecture by Columbia University professor Barbara Jeanne Fields and Stanford University professor Gavin Wright, St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, 67 Anson St., Charleston, 10 a.m., free
April 9: Lecture by Queens University Belfast professor Catherine Clinton and University of Georgia professor Stephen Berry, St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, 67 Anson St., Charleston, 2 p.m. free
April 10: Episode 1 of Ken Burns' "The Civil War" will be shown at Marine Resources Research Institute Auditorium, 205 Fort Johnson Road, James Island, 4 p.m., free
April 11: Concert at White Point Garden, Charleston Symphony, Mt. Zion AME Spiritual Ensemble and the Jay Ungar and Molly Mason Family Band performing portions of the score from Ken Burns' "The Civil War," Aaron Copland's "Lincoln Portrait," and other music relevant to the war, 7:30 p.m., free
April 12: Candlelight Sunrise Concert, Charleston Symphony Orchestra Brass Ensemble, commemorating first shots fired from Fort Johnson on Fort Sumter, White Point Garden, The Battery, Charleston, 5 a.m., free
April 12: Lecture by Princeton University professor James M. McPherson, Gibbes Museum of Art, 135 Meeting St., Charleston, 7 p.m.
April 14: Lecture by J. Roderick Heller III, author and founding chairman of the Civil War Trust, Charleston Library Society, 164 King St., Charleston, 7 p.m.
DECEMBER: 150 YEARS LATER, CIVIL WAR LEGACIES STILL AFFECT SC
South Carolina's December 1860 secession from the Union and its lasting legacies.
JANUARY: S.C. SUFFERS, BENEFITS FROM ITS ROLE IN WAR'S FIRST SHOTS
Tourists spent nearly $10 billion a year in the state. Surveys rank history at the top of their reasons for visiting, and Fort Sumter is the state's top historical destination, drawing more than 700,000 people in 2009.
FEBRUARY: FALL OF THE LOWCOUNTRY
Just months after Sumter, the Union seizes a foothold on the S.C. coast. Today, that area hosts two of the huge military bases that help support the state's economy. Other Lowcountry legacies include freedom for blacks, an integrated military and, even, national cemeteries.
MARCH: THE SIEGE OF CHARLESTON
A 567-day siege leaves Charleston the most bombarded city in the history of the U.S. mainland. The siege also produces weapons and heroes never seen before. When it falls, much of Charleston is in ruins, as is the city's historic role as the center of S.C. power.
Upcoming installments in The State’s once-a-month series on the 150th anniversary of the Civil War
APRIL: THE BURNING OF COLUMBIA
South Carolina entered the Civil War one of the wealthiest states in the Union. At war’s end, as its capital smolders, that wealth is lost. In its place, the war leaves legacies of destruction, death and grinding poverty.
MAY: RECONSTRUCTION
The end of shooting does not end civil war. Instead, for a dozen years, South Carolina is occupied as racial violence spirals and the state is governed by a political coalition — of African-Americans and Republicans — unlike any seen before. The era also sees colleges open to educate African-Americans and, for the first time, the popular election of the governor.
JUNE: ‘REDEEMERS’
Who won the Civil War? Twelve years after its end, white conservatives — led by Confederate veterans — reclaim power. However, unified white power splinters with the rise of Ben Tillman’s Upstate, powered by manufacturing and a new state college. Also, after a new state Constitution strips African-Americans of their rights, hundreds of thousands leave in a decades-long mass exodus that ends 200 years of black majority.
JULY: THE NEW RECONSTRUCTION
The civil rights era begins as federal institutions intervene to end all-white S.C. primaries and school segregation, and to open voting and public accommodations to all. The first African-Americans since the 1890s are elected to the S.C. Legislature and Congress.
AUGUST: THE NEW NULLIFIERS
Strom Thurmond’s segregationist presidential run marks the beginning of the end of the Democratic “Solid South.” Today, South Carolinians — including leaders of a more diverse GOP — again are among the leaders in a national debate questioning whether the federal government has overstepped its legitimate role.
SEPTEMBER: THE LASTING LEGACIES
The Civil War undeniably changed South Carolina. Pre-war coastal rice plantations are today part of a new tourism-and-retirement “plantation” society. But some legacies remain unresolved, including sometimes troubled race relations, lingering poverty, intrastate regional rivalries, and debate about the proper roles of education and government.
This story was originally published September 25, 2011 at 12:27 AM with the headline "Siege of Charleston."