The park is named in honor of Confederate General Wade Hampton III who, at the time of the Civil War, owned one of the largest collections of slaves in the South.

[1] After the Civil War, Hampton became a proponent of the Lost Cause movement, member of the Red Shirts and governor of South Carolina.

[2] In 1835, part of Gibbes' plantation was acquired by the South Carolina Jockey Club, a group that developed the Washington Race Course on the site.

In an article titled "The First Decoration Day", David W. Blight of Yale has written:[5] "The city was largely abandoned by white residents by late February.

Among the first troops to enter and march up Meeting Street singing liberation songs was the 21st U. S. Colored Infantry; their commander accepted the formal surrender of the city.

"Thousands of black Charlestonians, most former slaves, remained in the city and conducted a series of commemorations to declare their sense of the meaning of the war.

During the final year of the war, the Confederates had converted the planters' horse track, the Washington Race Course and Jockey Club, into an outdoor prison.

Union soldiers were kept in horrible conditions in the interior of the track; at least 257 died of exposure and disease and were hastily buried in a mass grave behind the grandstand.

A New York Tribune correspondent witnessed the event, describing 'a procession of friends and mourners as South Carolina and the United States never saw before.'

As many as possible gathering in the cemetery enclosure; a children's choir sang 'We'll Rally around the Flag,' the 'Star-Spangled Banner,' and several spirituals before several black ministers read from scripture.

"Following the solemn dedication the crowd dispersed into the infield and did what many of us do on Memorial Day: they enjoyed picnics, listened to speeches, and watched soldiers drill.

The war, they had boldly announced, had been all about the triumph of their emancipation over a slaveholders' republic, and not about state rights, defense of home, nor merely soldiers' valor and sacrifice."

When asked by the New York Times for proof of his assertion that it influenced General John A. Logan's inauguration of the national holiday, Blight confessed he had none.

[8] Bellware and Gardiner credit Mary Ann Williams and the Ladies Memorial Association of Columbus, Georgia as the true originators of the holiday as abundant contemporaneous evidence from across the nation exists to substantiate the claim.

The park is named in honor of Confederate General Wade Hampton III who, at the time of the Civil War was one of the largest enslavers in the South.

[1] After the Civil War, Hampton became a proponent of the Lost Cause movement, member of the Red Shirts and governor of South Carolina.