
Bronze stars mark the six locations where the SC State House was hit by artillery near the end of the Civil War. Image courtesy of SCPRT.
From the Battle of Fort Sumter to Sherman’s March and Robert Smalls, South Carolina played a significant role in the American Civil War.
Overview
- SCIWAY-Civil War
Find out about Civil War soldiers from South Carolina, battlefields such as Fort Sumter, and more. - Secession Era Editorials Project
Read editorials from newspapers in the late antebellum period.
People
- Andrew Gordon Magrath
Andrew Magrath was a federal judge and later governor of South Carolina during the Civil War. - Robert Gould Shaw and the Massachusetts Fifty-Fourth Regiment
This memorial recognizes the black Massachusetts Fifty-fourth Regiment that help assault Fort Wagner in Hilton Head. - Private Edgar W. Cherry
See the surgeon’s drawings and photograph of a surgery to repair the damage done to Edgar Cherry’s face by a bullet.
Black Soldiers in the Civil War
- Army Life in a Black Regiment
Hear the recording of the recollections of a soldier in the First South Carolina Volunteers, the first slave regiment mustered into the service of the United States. - Black Soldiers in the Civil War
Read about the recruitment of black soldiers, their white commanders, and a recruitment poster calling black men to military duty.
War & Battlefields
- Newspaper accounts of the Battle of Fort Sumter
See a newspaper account of the Battle of Fort Sumter from the Milwaukee Sentinel. - The Attack on Fort Sumter
Learn more about the morning of April 12, 1861. - The H.L. Hunley
The H.L. Hunley was a submarine built by the Confederates to attach Navy ships in Charleston. She sank off the coast and was raised in 2000 for preservation. - The Last Days of the Confederacy
Read about how General William Tecumseh Sherman waged war through Georgia and then the Carolinas. - Plan of the Naval Attack And Capture of Port Royal
See a map of the naval attack on Port Royal on November 7, 1861. - Susie King Taylor Assists the First South Carolina Volunteers, 1862–1864
Read these remembrances of a black woman who went with the First South Carolina Volunteers as a laundress, cleric, and nurse.
Culture
- Civil War-era Foodways
Read recipes and descriptions of food cooked and eaten by civilians and soldiers during the Civil War.- American Civil War Recipes
Use these recipes to create your own hardtack or Johnnie Cake.
- American Civil War Recipes
- The Bonnie Blue Flag
Listen to the Confederate song written to celebrate succession and titled after the flag South Carolina used after its succession in December 1860. - SC Confederate Relic Room
Explore uniforms, photographs, swords, and other artifacts of the Civil War. - Women During the Civil War
What were the women doing while the men were away from home?
Pieces of History
- Ordinance of Secession, 1860
The Ordinance of Secession was signed at a state convention in Charleston, stating that South Carolina repealed the United States Constitution and its amendments. - Regulations for the Medical Department of the Military Forces of South Carolina
This book shows forms and directions for military doctors in South Carolina. - New South Newspaper, 1862 - 1866
Read issues from the Union-held newspaper printed in Port Royal and Beaufort. - Unusual Civil War Weapon in the SCCRRMM Collection
Watch this video showing a Civil War pike ordered by Gov. Joe Brown of Georgia to arm soldiers.
Images of the War
Charleston Harbor, S.C. Rear Admiral John A. Dahlgren standing by a 50-pounder Dahlgren gun on deck of U.S.S. Pawnee. Image from the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
- Ft Wagner Civil War Images
See stereographs of the interior of Fort Wagner, which covered the southern approach to the Charleston harbor. - Ruins of the Charleston Lighthouse, Morris Island South Carolina, 1863
This photograph was perhaps taken at the conclusion of the battle for control of Morris Island. Notice the covered bodies in the foreground. - Historic Images of Fort Sumter
Explore the pictures and drawings of Fort Sumter made during the Civil War. - Bernard’s Photographic Views of the Sherman Campaign
View the photographs taken by George N. Barnard of Civil War sites and a studio portrait of Sherman and his generals