A concise history of Civil War Charleston
In the pre-dawn hours of April 12, 1861 a single mortar shell exploded over the the darkened waters of Charleston Harbor. The shot was the signal to artillery batteries around the harbor to begin the bombardment of Fort Sumter. It marked the beginning of the American Civil War. While this 34-hour bombardment is paramount in the public memory of Charleston's role in the Civil War, the most intense fighting actually took place later, during the prolonged 587-day siege and bombardment of the city by combined US naval and ground forces between 1863 and 1865. In that time, an estimated 46,000 artillery shells were fired at the city and its surrounding defenses. In this concise and accessible narrative, Stephen R. Wise covers the entire sweep of Charleston's experience during the Civil War. From the first shots at Fort Sumter, to the battle of ironclad ships in the harbor, from the gallant by ultimately doomed assaults on Fort Wagner by United States Colored Troops, including the 54th Massachusetts regiment, to the ultimate surrender of the city in 1865. The stories are brought to life through the inclusion of more than [80] historical photographs and the use of first hand accounts from participants on both sides. Readers will learn of enslaved boat pilot Robert Smalls and his escape from slavery aboard a comandeered Confederate cargo transport, they will gain insight into the civilian experience of war within the city, and they will understand the military operations that began with the surrender of Fort Sumter by Major Robert Anderson in April 1861 and ended when Anderson returned to the city four years to the day later and once again raised the United States flag over that same fort, which had been reduced to ruble during the intervening years.
Stephen R. Wise is the former director of the Parris Island Museum and he serves on the editorial board for the South Carolina Historical Magazine. He is the author of two books published by the University of South Carolina Press—Lifeline of the Confederacy: Blockade Running during the Civil War and Gate of Hell: The Campaign for Charleston Harbor 1863, named by the South Carolina Historical Society as the best book written on South Carolina History in 1994.
