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AdShop Devices, Apparel, Books, Music & More. Free Shipping on Qualified has been visited by 1M+ users in the past month. aka Battle of Beaufort; Brigadier General William Moultrie defeated a British detachment. 6-Feb: Thomas's Plantation: Ninety-Six District: Spartanburg County: aka Fair Forest. Loyalist . Another Union attack is beaten back at Charleston, South Carolina, as the defenders continue to deny the important port city to the North. November 30, The Battle of Honey Hill is .
Civil War History: 10 Sites to Explore.South Carolina – Civil War Battles –
South Carolina was the first state to secede from the Union in December , and was one of the founding member states of the Confederacy in February The bombardment of the beleaguered U. The retaking of Charleston in February of , and raising the flag the same flag again at Fort Sumter , was used for the Union the symbol of victory. South Carolina provided around 60, troops for the Confederate Army. As the war progressed, former slaves and free blacks of South Carolina joined U.
The state also provided uniforms, textiles, food, and war material, as well as trained soldiers and leaders from The Citadel and other military schools.
In contrast to most other Confederate states, South Carolina had a well-developed rail network linking all of its major cities without a break of gauge. Relatively free from Union occupation until the very end of the war, South Carolina hosted a number of prisoner of war camps.
South Carolina also was the only Confederate state not to harbor pockets of anti-secessionist sentiment strong enough to send regiments of white men to fight for the Union , as every other state in the Confederacy did. Kershaw , whose South Carolina infantry brigade saw some of the hardest fighting of the Army of Northern Virginia and James Longstreet , the senior lieutenant general in the army, and Stephen D. Lee , the youngest lieutenant general. The white population of the state had strongly supported the institution of slavery since the 18th century.
Political leaders such as Democrats John Calhoun and Preston Brooks had inflamed regional and national passions in support of the institution, and many pro-slavery voices had cried for secession. For decades, South Carolinian political leaders had promoted regional passions with threats of nullification and secession in the name of southern states' rights and protection of the interests of the slave power.
Alfred P. Aldrich, a South Carolinian politician from Barnwell , stated that declaring secession would be necessary if a Republican candidate were to win the U.
If the Republican party with its platform of principles, the main feature of which is the abolition of slavery and, therefore, the destruction of the South, carries the country at the next Presidential election, shall we remain in the Union, or form a separate Confederacy?
This is the great, grave issue. It is not who shall be President, it is not which party shall rule — it is a question of political and social existence. In a January speech, South Carolinian congressman Laurence Massillon Keitt , summed up this view in an oratory condemning the "anti-slavery party" i.
He claimed that slavery was not morally wrong, but rather, justified:. The anti-slavery party contends that slavery is wrong in itself, and the Government is a consolidated national democracy. We of the South contend that slavery is right Later that year, in December, Keitt would state that South Carolina's declaring of secession was the direct result of slavery:.
President a Hostile Act" and stated its intention to declare secession from the United States. In December , amid the secession crisis, former South Carolinian congressman John McQueen wrote to a group of civic leaders in Richmond, Virginia, regarding the reasons as to why South Carolina was contemplating secession from the United States.
In the letter, McQueen claimed that U. I have never doubted what Virginia would do when the alternatives present themselves to her intelligent and gallant people, to choose between an association with her sisters and the dominion of a people, who have chosen their leader upon the single idea that the African is equal to the Anglo-Saxon , and with the purpose of placing our slaves on equality with ourselves and our friends of every condition!
We, of South Carolina, hope soon to great you in a Southern Confederacy, where white men shall rule our destinies, and from which we may transmit to our posterity the rights, privileges and honor left us by our ancestors. South Carolinian Presbyterian minister James Henley Thornwell also espoused a similar view to McQueen's, stating that slavery was justified under the Christian religion, and thus, those who viewed slavery as being immoral were opposed to Christianity:.
The parties in the conflict are not merely abolitionists and slaveholders. They are atheists, socialists, communists, red republicans, Jacobins on the one side, and friends of order and regulated freedom on the other. In one word, the world is the battleground — Christianity and Atheism the combatants; and the progress of humanity at stake. Anti-slavery is essentially infidel. It wars upon the Bible, on the Church of Christ, on the truth of God, on the souls of men.
On November 10, the S. Delegates were to be elected on December 6. The convention then adjourned to Charleston to draft an ordinance of secession. When the ordinance was adopted on December 20, , South Carolina became the first slave state in the south to declare that it had seceded from the United States.
The declaration also claims that secession was declared as a result of the refusal of free states to enforce the Fugitive Slave Acts. Although the declaration does argue that secession is justified on the grounds of U. Broadly speaking, the declaration argues that the U. Constitution was framed to establish each State "as an equal" in the Union, with "separate control over its own institutions", such as "the right of property in slaves. We affirm that these ends for which this Government was instituted have been defeated, and the Government itself has been made destructive of them by the action of the non-slaveholding States.
Those States have assumed the right of deciding upon the propriety of our domestic institutions; and have denied the rights of property established in fifteen of the States and recognized by the Constitution; they have denounced as sinful the institution of Slavery; they have permitted the open establishment among them of societies, whose avowed object is to disturb the peace and to eloign the property of the citizens of other States.
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. A repeated concern is runaway slaves. The declaration argues that parts of the U.
Constitution were specifically written to ensure the return of slaves who had escaped to other states, and quotes the 4th Article: "No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up, on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due.
A further concern was Lincoln's recent election to the presidency, whom they claimed desired to see slavery on "the course of ultimate extinction":. A geographical line has been drawn across the Union, and all the States north of that line have united in the election of a man to the high office of President of the United States whose opinions and purposes are hostile to slavery. He is to be entrusted with the administration of the Common Government, because he has declared that that "Government cannot endure permanently half slave, half free," and that the public mind must rest in the belief that Slavery is in the course of ultimate extinction.
The South Carolinian secession declaration of December also channeled some elements from the U. Declaration of Independence from July However, the South Carolinian version omitted the phrases that "all men are created equal", "that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights", and mentions of the " consent of the governed ".
Professor and historian Harry V. South Carolina cites, loosely, but with substantial accuracy, some of the language of the original Declaration. That Declaration does say that it is the right of the people to abolish any form of government that becomes destructive of the ends for which it was established. But South Carolina does not repeat the preceding language in the earlier document: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal" Jaffa states that South Carolina omitted references to human equality and consent of the governed in its secession declaration, as due to their racist and pro-slavery views, secessionist South Carolinians did not believe in those ideals:.
In no sense could it have been said that the slaves in South Carolina were governed by powers derived from their consent. Nor could it be said that South Carolina was separating itself from the government of the Union because that government had become destructive of the ends for which it was established. South Carolina in had an entirely different idea of what the ends of government ought to be from that of or That difference can be summed up in the difference between holding slavery to be an evil, if possibly a necessary evil, and holding it to be a positive good.
On December 25, the day following South Carolina's declaration of secession, a South Carolinian convention delivered an "Address to the Slaveholding States":. We prefer, however, our system of industry, by which labor and capital are identified in interest, and capital, therefore, protects labor—by which our population doubles every twenty years—by which starvation is unknown, and abundance crowns the land—by which order is preserved by unpaid police, and the most fertile regions of the world, where the white man cannot labor, are brought into usefulness by the labor of the African, and the whole world is blessed by our own productions.
We ask you to join us, in forming a Confederacy of Slaveholding States. South Carolina was further upset that New York no longer allowed "slavery transit. No longer — and South Carolina's delegates were outraged. In addition, they objected that New England states let black men vote and tolerated abolitionist societies. According to South Carolina, states should not have the right to let their citizens assemble and speak freely when what they said threatened slavery.
Other seceding states echoed South Carolina. A blow at slavery is a blow at commerce and civilization. The state adopted the palmetto flag as its banner, a slightly modified version of which is used as its current state flag.
After South Carolina declared its secession, former congressman James L. Petigru famously remarked, "South Carolina is too small for a republic and too large for an insane asylum.
On February 4, , in Montgomery, Alabama , a convention consisting of delegates from South Carolina, Florida , Alabama , Mississippi , Georgia , and Louisiana met to form a new constitution and government modeled on that of the United States. According to one South Carolinian newspaper editor:. South Carolina's declaring of secession was supported by the state's religious figures, who claimed that it was consistent with the tenets of their religion:.
The triumphs of Christianity rest this very hour upon slavery; and slavery depends on the triumphs of the South This war is the servant of slavery.
South Carolina militia swarmed over the abandoned mainland batteries and trained their guns on the island. Sumter was the key position for preventing a naval attack upon Charleston, so secessionists were determined not to allow U. More importantly, South Carolina's claim of independence would look empty if U.
On January 9, , the U. Mississippi declared its secession several weeks after South Carolina, and five other states of the lower South soon followed.
Both the outgoing Buchanan administration and President-elect Lincoln had denied that any state had a right to secede. Upper Southern slave states such as Virginia and North Carolina, which had initially voted against secession, called a peace conference, to little effect.
Meanwhile, Virginian orator Roger Pryor barreled into Charleston and proclaimed that the only way to get his state to join the Confederacy was for South Carolina to instigate war with the United States.
The obvious place to start was right in the midst of Charleston Harbor. On April 10, the Mercury reprinted stories from New York papers that told of a naval expedition that had been sent southward toward Charleston. Lincoln advised the governor of South Carolina that the ships were sent to resupply the fort, not to reinforce it. The Carolinians could no longer wait if they hoped to take the fort before the U. Navy arrived. About 6, men were stationed around the rim of the harbor , ready to take on the 60 men in Fort Sumter.
At a. Students from The Citadel were among those firing the first shots of the war, though Edmund Ruffin is usually credited with firing the first shot. Thirty-four hours later, Anderson's men raised the white flag and were allowed to leave the fort with colors flying and drums beating, saluting the U. During this salute, one of the guns exploded, killing a young soldier—the only casualty of the bombardment and the first casualty of the war.
Civil War Battles in South Carolina – Civil War Academy.Civil War Battles of South Carolina – Legends of America
Discover writers share all of the places, activities and adventure that South Carolina has to offer. Related Articles Itineraries. Discover Revolutionary Heroines at Musgrove Mill. Discover the History of the Hampton Plantation. Kings Mountain : British Maj. Patrick Ferguson was sent to deal with rebels and try to recruit Tories in September He chose to make a stand at Kings Mountain, a dominant point in the foothills along the South Carolina-North Carolina line.
Ferguson did not build any fortifications there, however, and patriots used trees for cover as they moved up the mountain to attack. Ferguson was killed, and most all of his 1, men were either killed, wounded or captured. The battlefield is now a National Military Park. Cowpens : Patriot Gen. With total British casualties around compared with 25 Americans killed and wounded , this battle is considered a significant turning point in the war, building on the success at Kings Mountain.
The battlefield is now run by the National Park Service. Hobkirk Hill : In late April , Maj. Nathanael Greene was seeking to rid the British from their last interior outposts in South Carolina. His 1, Continentals and militia gathered on a hill about 2 miles north of Camden. Fort Motte : On May 6, , Brig. Francis Marion and Lt. As they saw British re-enforcements approach, the patriots set fire to the plantation home, which was the bulk of the fort in addition to a ditch and parapet.
The British had to surrender, and Motte entertained officers from both sides later that night. Losses exceeded on both sides in a battle won by the British. A small park commemorates the battle, and the S. Battleground Trust owns five ot. Fort Sumter : Though Confederate forces fired on the Union supply ship Star of the West some months earlier, the predawn shelling of Fort Sumter on April 12, , is widely regarded as the start of the American Civil War.
After 34 hours, the Union surrendered its still unfinished brick fortification on a man-made island at the entrance to Charleston Harbor.
Port Royal : Seven months after surrendering Fort Sumter, Union forces returned to South Carolina with 17 warships and 58 support vessels. After five hours of shelling on Nov. The Union victory provided a significant morale boost, enabled a huge Union military presence near Charleston and brought freedom to thousands of slaves in the Port Royal area. The Port Royal Experiment, designed to prepare former slaves for citizenship, was on.
Secessionville : On June 16, , Union generals decided to attack Confederate defenses on James Island from two directions. Sherman's troops arrived. Sherman's artillery caused some damage to the new building. Six bronze stars mark the spots where shells struck the building Feb. If you visit: Tours offer a wealth of information and are given Monday-Saturday, year-round except for holidays. The tour office also has a scavenger hunt for kids that gets top reviews.
If you visit: Map out time to go through both museums, which are housed in a historic mill in Columbia's Vista district. Civil War History: 10 Sites to Explore. Chrysti Shain. Discover writers share all of the places, activities and adventure that South Carolina has to offer.
Fort Moultrie on Sullivan's Island is a series of fortresses erected to protect Charleston. The battle and the history of the Revolutionary War in the South Carolina Backcountry is detailed through interpretative signage in the Visitor Center and along the 1-mile British Camp Trail and a 1. Natural features of the park include Horseshoe Falls, a fishing pond, and the Enoree River. The Whigs heard of this plan, rallied against the British soldiers and won the battle, killing Captain Huck in the process.
This battle is believed to have revived the morale of the people in South Carolina and was the beginning of a series of victories including battles at Kings Mountain and Cowpens, which eventually led to the British surrendering at Yorktown in Keep in mind, though, if you are going on a Saturday, the interpreters usually leave around 3 p. Check the web site for admission prices and special events. The battle that took place at Musgrove Mill on August 19, was a short about 30 minutes but very bloody battle.
In fact, Isaac Shelby, a Colonel who fought both at Musgrove Mill and Kings Mountain stated in his memoirs that the battle at Musgrove Mill was the fiercest battle in which he ever fought. The brief battle was between a small detachment of Colonial Patriots and a larger group of British Loyalists.
Walk the Battlefields of South Carolina
South Carolina was the first state to secede from the Union in December and was one of the founding members of the Confederacy February The bombardment of the beleaguered U.
South Carolina was a source of troops for the Confederate army, and as the war progressed, also for the Union , as thousands of ex-slaves flocked to join the Union forces. The state also provided uniforms, textiles, food, and war material, as well as trained soldiers and leaders from The Citadel and other military schools. In contrast to most other Confederate states, South Carolina had a well-developed rail network linking all of its major cities.
Relatively free from Union occupation until the very end of the war, South Carolina hosted a number of prisoner of war camps. South Carolina was also the only Confederate state not to harbor pockets of anti-secessionist that was strong enough to send large amounts of white men to fight for the Union, as every other state in the Confederacy did. The destruction his troops wrought upon South Carolina was even worse than in Georgia because many of his men bore a particular grudge against the state and its citizens, who they blamed for starting the war.
Garrison commander Anderson refused. On April 12, Confederate batteries opened fire on the fort, which was unable to reply effectively. At pm on April 13, Major Anderson surrendered Fort Sumter, evacuating the garrison on the following day. The bombardment of Fort Sumter was the opening engagement of the Civil War. Although there were no casualties during the bombardment, one Union artillerist was killed and three wounded one mortally when a cannon exploded prematurely while firing a salute during the evacuation on April 14th.
Because Benham was said to have disobeyed orders, Hunter relieved him of command. The Confederate victory resulted in estimated casualties of Union and Confederate.
The Confederates scattered, and the Federals returned to their ships. Despite this minor victory, the Federals abandoned their raid on the railroad. Although a bloodless raid, this engagement typified scores of similar encounters that occurred along the South Carolina coastline. The Union victory resulted in no casualties. Keokuk struck more than 90 times by the accurate Confederate fire, sunk the next day. With the warships repulsed the skirmish was a Confederate victory, with 22 Union casualties and 14 Confederate.
The bombardment provided cover for Brigadier General George C. At dawn, July 11, Strong attacked the fort. Soldiers of the 7th Connecticut reached the parapet but, unsupported, were thrown back. Estimated casualties in the Confederate victory were Union and 12 Confederate.
To divert Confederate reinforcements from a renewed attack on Fort Wagner, General Quincy Gillmore designed two feints. Terry demonstrated against the Confederate defenses.
Because of incomplete reconnaissance of the difficult, marshy ground, the disorganized Confederate attack was soon aborted. Their mission accomplished, Federal troops withdrew from the island on July 17th. The inconclusive battle resulted in an unknown number of Union casualties and an estimated 18 Confederate. At dusk on July 18th, Gillmore launched an attack spearheaded by the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, a black regiment.
Members of the brigade scaled the parapet but after brutal hand-to-hand combat were driven out with heavy casualties. The Federals resorted to siege operations to reduce the fort.
This was the fourth time in the war that black troops played a crucial combat role, proving to skeptics that they would fight bravely if only given the chance. The Confederate victory resulted in Union casualties and Confederate. Federal batteries erected on Morris Island opened fire on August 17 and continued their bombardment of Fort Sumter and the Charleston defenses until August Siege operations continued against Fort Wagner on Morris Island.
The number of casualties in the inconclusive battle are unknown. During the night of September , Confederate forces evacuated Fort Wagner and Battery Gregg pressured by advancing Federal siegeworks. Federal troops then occupied all of Morris Island. On September 8th, a storming party of about marines and sailors attempted to surprise Fort Sumter. The attack was repulsed. The Confederate victory resulted in Union casualties.
The number of Confederate casualties is unknown. Colcock at Honey Hill. Determined attacks by U. Colored Troops including the 54th Massachusetts failed to capture the Confederate entrenchments or cut the railroad. The Confederate victory resulted in estimated casualties of Union and 60 Confederate. Federal soldiers began building bridges across the swamp to bypass the roadblock.
The Union victory resulted in an estimated loosed of 92 Union and Confederate. Eastern Theater of the Civil War. Western Theater of the Civil War. Peninsula Campaign of the Civil War. The American Civil War main page. Primary Menu Skip to content. Fort Sumter, South Carolina. Fort Sumter,s. Footer Menu Skip to content.
