Civil War

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.
• The Civil War in Charleston
  Read about battles that took place in Charleston and see images taken by Civil War photographer Matthew Brady.
• 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.
  • Watch a video about the famous submarine
• 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.
• 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