The History of

1. The History of SOUTH CAROLINA in the BUILDING OF THE NATION Notes Written, Designed and Produced by Michal Howden

2. CHAPTER NINETEEN – THE CIVIL WAR I. THE WAR BEGINS • The Civil War began on April 12, 1861 when the Confederates fired on • Ft. Sumter in Charleston harbor. • Both sides thought they would win. Many were convinced it was going to be • a short war. • The Confederacy was depending on strong generals and strong fighting spirit. • The Confederacy was fighting to protect its land. The North would have to • invade the South. The South also hoped to get help from a European country. • The North, or the Union, far outnumbered the South. The North had many more • manufactured items, iron and railroads. The North had an effective navy. The • North was fighting to preserve the Union and the North had Abraham Lincoln.

3. Confederate batteries fired on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861

4. CHAPTER NINETEEN – THE CIVIL WAR II. TWO YEARS OF STALEMATE • The first major battle of the war was fought near Manassas, Virginia. The battle • shocked everyone. It showed both armies were filled with green troops and that • the war was not going to be some short adventure. It was going to be terrifying • experience for both sides. • The North was plagued with a series of inept generals and this incompetence • kept the North from using its advantages for the first two years of the war. • The first two years of the war were a stalemate. • The North did occupy New Orleans and sections of Tennessee, but lost battles • near Richmond, Virginia (which had become the capital of the Confederacy). • The Northern armies were much larger than the Confederates but they could • capture Richmond. One important reason for Southern success was the • promotion of General Robert E. Lee of Virginia.

5. CHAPTER NINETEEN – THE CIVIL WAR III. ROBERT E. LEE • Just as Abraham Lincoln came to symbolize the • Northern cause, Robert E. Lee • came to symbolize the Confederacy. • Lee was a career officer in the United States Army. • He did not support slavery, • but he did support his state-Virginia. • Northern officials identified Lee as the best soldier to command the Northern • armies and Lincoln offered Lee command of the Union troops. Lee could not • fight against his state and declined. • Instead, when Virginia seceded, Lee followed. He joined the Confederate Army. • He was promoted to command. He surrounded himself with gifted generals. He • was a bold and daring officer. He made the best of what he had.

6. CHAPTER NINETEEN – THE CIVIL WAR IV. A NEW KIND OF WAR • The stalemate ended when Lincoln found an efficient general – Ulysses Grant. • b) Grant did not believe it was important to capture the Confederate’s capital, he • believed it was important to defeat the Southern Army. Like Lee, he had found • some gifted generals and the tide of war began shifting to the North. • At each battle the South lost men they could not replace. They ran short of • supplies. The North seemingly had massive quantities of supplies and men. • Grant also approved a new strategy which came to be called total war. Before, • armies would try to capture the capital. Some Northern generals actually tried • to “gently” win the war. They wanted to defeat the Southern army but leave life • in the South as it had been. • Grant believed the South would not surrender until it was totally defeated. He • pushed relentlessly. The Union destroyed property. Grant became known as • Bulldog Grant. This brutal strategy proved to be the key advantage.

7. CHAPTER NINETEEN – THE CIVIL WAR V. EMANCIPATION • When elected, Lincoln came to Washington D.C. believing his main goal was • to preserve the Union. Ending slavery was not his primary concern. • However, as the war progressed, Lincoln’s thinking expanded. He came to • believe that the United States would never succeed as a slave holding nation. • He came to believe slavery was something morally wrong. He came to believe • that slavery should be abolished once and for all. • On January 1, 1863 Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. From that • time on the war was a moral crusade against slavery. • Practically, this document did not end slavery in the country. That would come • with Northern victory. But this document did change the tenor of the war and it • delayed, if not prohibited, any European nation from adding the South.

8. CHAPTER NINETEEN – THE CIVIL WAR VI. THE FIRST SHOT AT FORT SUMTER • When the South seceded, Southerners occupied many of the forts in their states. • One fort that was not occupied by Confederates was Fort Sumter, in Charleston • South Carolina. • b) Lincoln felt it was important that the South start the war by firing the first shot. • When Ft. Sumter began running out of supplies, Lincoln sent a letter to the • Confederates announcing that a ship filled with supplies only would be coming • to Fort Sumter. • The Confederates did not want the fort reinforced. They told Lincoln the ships • would not be allowed to land. • Lincoln sent the ship anyway. The Confederates demanded that Fort Sumter • surrender and when it did not, the Confederates opened fire on the fort. The • war had begun.

9. CHAPTER NINETEEN – THE CIVIL WAR VII. PREPERATIONS FOR WAR • To lead South Carolina into war, the legislature elected Francis Pickens as • governor. • Planters offered their slaves to build defenses in Charleston harbor. • Gov. Pickens was not an easy man to work with and his power was limited. An • Executive Council was established to lead the war efforts. • When President Davis asked for 18,000 troops from the state, the Executive • Council asked for volunteers. When they could not get enough volunteers, • they started drafting men. • The council became as unpopular as Gov. Pickens. In 1862, the legislature • abolished the council and Milledge Bonham became governor.

10. CHAPTER NINETEEN – THE CIVIL WAR VIII. THE VIRGINIA FRONT • The capital of the Confederacy was moved from Montgomery, Alabama to • Richmond, Virginia. • South Carolina sent Wade Hamilton III and several regiments to guard • the new capital. • South Carolina troops fought in the first battle at Manassas.

11. CHAPTER NINETEEN – THE CIVIL WAR X. INVASION OF PORT ROYAL SOUND • The Union navy decided to occupy Port Royal sound and use it as the • headquarters for Union blockade of the South Atlantic states. • A Union fleet sailed in and the Beaufort District became occupied territory • for the remainder of the war. • The Northern forces took over plantations for nonpayment of taxes and sold • the land to Northerners. A group of missionaries purchased one site to use • as a school. They were known as Gideon’s Band. • In Beaufort, freedmen were recruited for the Union army. By the end of the war • South Carolina had 5,642 troops in the Union army.

12. CHAPTER NINETEEN – THE CIVIL WAR X. ON THE HOMEFRONT • Southern law said that a man would not be drafted if he owned 15 slaves. • Some people complained the war was a “rich man’s war but a poor man’s • fight”. • As food became scarce, less cotton was planted and more food was grown. • Substitutes were found for almost everything. Coffee made from wheat and rye. • Clothes were made out of curtains. • As the wounded came back from the front, groups of women established • hospitals to care for them. • A number of women did something unheard of before the war – they went to • work. Many women went to work for the Confederate government.

13. CHAPTER NINETEEN – THE CIVIL WAR XI. TESTING THE UNION BLOCKADE • Throughout the war, the Union navy stationed ships along the coast to keep • ships from entering or leaving the South. • Some Southern ships “ran the blockade” or tried to. If a successful voyage • could be made, great profits could be had and needed supplies brought in. • Confederate torpedo boats rammed Union ships to try and create holes in • the blockade. • The Confederate submarine Hunley operated in Charleston harbor. It became • the first submarine to sink an enemy ship, but the Hunley was sunk during • the fight.

14. CHAPTER NINETEEN – THE CIVIL WAR XII. ROBERT SMALLS AND THE PLANTER • Before the war, Robert Smalls, a Beaufort slave, was hired out to work in • Charleston. • In 1861, he was hired by the Confederates to carry messages to forts in the • harbor on the steamer Planter. • In 1862, after much planning, Smalls and his crew seized the boat and sailed • into Union lines. • d) The Planter was pressed into Union service for the rest of the war.

15. CHAPTER NINETEEN – THE CIVIL WAR XIII. ATTACK ON CHARLESTON • Charleston suffered great damage during the war, but not always from the • fighting. In December of 1861 a great fire broke out in the city. • In both 1862, and 1863 Union troops attacked Charleston. The Confederates • pushed the Yankees away in 1862. • In 1863 the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, the first black troops to see action • in the war, attacked Charleston. • The Union bombardment of Fort Sumter began in August. Sumter was shelled • for 437 days during the war.

16. CHAPTER NINETEEN – THE CIVIL WAR XIV. SOUTH CAROLINIANS AT THE FRONT • No major battles were fought in South Carolina, but South Carolina troops • were an important part of the Confederate armies. • Many of the high ranking officers in the Confederate Army had strong • South Carolina ties. • After the death of J.E.B. Stuart, South Carolina’s Wade Hampton III became • Lee’s chief of cavalry in the Army of Northern Virginia.

17. CHAPTER NINETEEN – THE CIVIL WAR XV. SHERMAN’S MARCH THROUGH THE STATE • In 1865, South Carolina was invaded once again. After Atlanta fell to his men, • Union General William Tecumseh Sherman began his “march to the sea”. • The war was nearly over. Grant was closing in on • Richmond. Sherman closed in on South Carolina. • Sherman split his army into two columns. He • pretended to head for Charleston • and Augusta. His real goal was Columbia. • Thinking Columbia safe, many valuable items were • sent to the city for safe-keeping. • Sherman destroyed bridges and railroad tracks on his way north. Looters • pillaged, robbed, burned and destroyed millions of dollars worth of property. Ulysses S. Grant

18. CHAPTER NINETEEN – THE CIVIL WAR XVI. THE BURNING OF COLUMBIA • Sherman’s forces closed in on Columbia. Thousands of citizens tried to flee. • Confederate forces began to loot the city. Bales of cotton began to burn. • Sherman entered the streets and the fires continued. The winds got higher, • the fires spread. • d) In the end, about one third of the city was burned.

19. CHAPTER NINETEEN – THE CIVIL WAR XVII. THE END OF THE WAR • In April, 1865, General Grant had effectively limited General Lee’s options. • After one last attempt to break out of Grant’s trap, General Lee decided he • could no longer prolong the war. • General Lee agreed to meet General Grant at Appomattox Courthouse, in • Virginia. Lee surrendered on April 9, 1865. • c) General Johnston surrendered his army to General Sherman in North • Carolina on April 26, 1865. With this the American Civil War came to an end.