Charleston in the American Civil War

Charleston, South Carolina, played a pivotal role at the start of the American Civil War as a stronghold of secession and an important Atlantic port for the Confederate States of America.

The first shots of the conflict were fired there by cadets of The Citadel, who aimed to prevent a ship from resupplying the U.S. Army soldiers garrisoned at Fort Sumter.

Beginning with the Missouri Compromise in 1820, proslavery thought and the defense of slavery, more than tariffs or states' rights, fomented sectionalism in South Carolina.

They have encouraged and assisted thousands of our slaves to leave their homes; and those who remain, have been incited by emissaries, books and pictures to servile insurrection.

[2]Following its declared secession from the United States in December, South Carolina militia seized Castle Pinckney and the Charleston Arsenal and their supplies of arms and ammunition.

On January 9, 1861, Citadel cadets fired upon the merchant ship USS Star of the West as it was entering Charleston's harbor to resupply U.S. soldiers garrisoned at Fort Sumter.

Informed by the Lincoln administration that a supply ship, with food but no men or munitions, was to restock the fortress, Davis, after consulting with his cabinet on April 9, ordered Beauregard to capture the fort before it was resupplied.

Throughout much of the war, Citadel cadets continued to aid the Confederate Army by drilling recruits, manufacturing ammunition, protecting arms depots, and guarding U.S.

[3] Amos Gadsden, a formerly enslaved person, recounted that a balloon started it while Union and Confederate troops were camped on opposite sides of the river.

[5] In June 1862, the Battle of Secessionville, on modern-day James Island, South Carolina, was the only U.S. Army effort to retake control of Charleston by land during the war.

A coordinated series of U.S. attacks on the city were launched in early July 1864, including an amphibious assault on Fort Johnson and an invasion of Johns Island.

On February 18, the mayor surrendered the city to U.S. Army General Alexander Schimmelfennig,[citation needed] and U.S. soldiers retook control of key sites.

The flag lowered at the surrender of Fort Sumter in 1861, at the outset of the war, had been treated as an heirloom, housed in a specially-made case and exhibited at patriotic events to assist in fundraising.