This impressive array of Civil War cannon stands outside Fort Moultrie on historic #Sullivan’s Island. The campaign in and around the Charleston area was largely dictated by firepower, and huge guns mounted on land fortifications or carried in ships. The North had a tremendous advantage with iron-making industries, and a far greater number of cannon. The South produced some cannon, but many guns used by the Confederates such as those in this picture were captured from Federal arsenals that fell into Southern hands. The Civil War saw the creation of the first “rifled” cannon, equipped with grooves inside the barrels to fire aerodynamic shells instead of cannonballs to make attacks more accurate. Another new technique for that era was the concept of “banding” cannon, by heating large wrought iron bands and placing them on the breech of the gun, where the calling metal contracted to form an extra layer of strength so that larger charges of gunpowder could be used without exploding the barrel. One of the guns in this row is a former Federal smooth-bore that was restructured by the Eason and Sons Foundry in Charleston during the war, as rifling grooves were cut inside the barrel, and iron bands added to the breech, to make it a stronger and more accurate weapon. <img.src=”Charleston Military History” alt=”Civl War Cannon”
Category: Civil War
Porter Persistence
In 1880, the old United States military arsenal in #Charleston was conveyed to Rev. Anthony Toomer Porter for use as a school. What had formerly housed weapons and ordnance would be a new home to the Holy Trinity Church Institute, for teaching young men. Porter, who had served as a Confederate chaplain during the Civil War, pulled off an amazing feat in having his request to possess the old arsenal, which had been seized by Confederates in 1860, approved by the General of the U.S. Army, none other than William Tecumseh Sherman. Porter’s remarkable persuasiveness got a hundred-year lease for one dollar, far less in treasure and blood than Charlestonians hd sacrificed in taking similar federal installations during the war. Porter converted most of the old arsenal buildings into classrooms, but selected one building for use as St. Timothy’s Chapel. Today, very little of the old campus exists other than St. Timothy’s, which stands as a reminder of the determined man for whom the school would eventually be known as Porter Military Academy, and eventually merging with Gaud School for boys into the current Porter-Gaud School, which moved from the location in 1966. <img.src=”Charleston History 
” alt=”St. Timothy’s Chapel”
Free Our Flag
This is the original state flag of #South Carolina, which was created in 1861 after South Carolina seceded from the Union, and flew over the state capitol in Columbia. The crescent was clearly not intended to depict the moon, but the crescent-shaped gorgets of the South Carolina militia, and along with the palmetto tree were symbols of our state’s independence, as both the militia and the palmetto logs were crucial to our Revolutionary War victory over the British in #Charleston in 1776. When Sherman’s armies ravaged the state in 1865, a unit from Iowa took our flag from the capitol as a war trophy. It is now in the possession if the Historic Society of Iowa in Des Moines. Because we are not a conquered enemy, and because the intention of the Northern armies was supposedly to “preserve the Union”, there is no reason why this banner stays a trophy of war. We would like it back. <img.src=”South Carolina History” alt=”The Palmetto Flag
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Factually Fictional
This idyllic image of the grand Regency-style mansion on Rutledge Avenue in #CharlestonSC seems to come from some dream of the past when it was owned by the man many believe Margaret Mitchell fashioned her character of Rhett Butler in “Gone With The Wind”. The house built for Patrick Duncan in 1816, was bought in 1845 by Charleston banker George Alfred Trenholm. Trenholm was everything the novel and movie portrayed in Butler, who was said to be from Charleston – dashing ladies’ man, expert with dueling pistols, and financer of blockade-running ships that brought in supplies during the #Civil War. Ironically, the house of the ladies’ man has been home since 1909 to Ashley Hall School – a girls school. My mother taught school at Ashley Hall for many years. <img.src=”Charleston Landmarks
” alt=”Ashley Hall”
Fortunate Faber
The 1836 Palladian villa built by Henry Faber on East Bay Street in #historic #Charleston was one of several grand mansions built in the heyday of the city’s antebellum fortunes and classic architecture. The line of elegant buildings faced the Cooper River from a section of rising land known as Hampstead Hill. The higher elevation and the proximity to the river gave owners a spectacular view and cooling breezes. One of the first railroads built in the city ran down the waterfront in front of the houses, making them in the line of fire during the #Civil War, and the area were largely abandoned by owners who fled the conflict. After the war, the area was mostly inhabited by former slaves, or freedmen, and by the early 20th century, the Faber House had been transformed into one of the few black-owned hotels in Charleston, the Hamitic Hotel. After the depression, the hotel closed and many of the former houses were razed for housing projects. A flurry of preservationism saved the Faber House in 1948, and today it has been beautifully restored as a combination of residential and office spaces. <img.src=”Charleston Historic Sites
” alt=”Faber House”