South Carolina in the American Civil War
South Carolina was the first state to secede from the Union in December 1860, and was one of the founding member states of the Confederacy in February 1861. The bombardment of the beleaguered U.S. garrison at Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor on April 12, 1861, is generally recognized as the first military engagement of the war. The retaking of Charleston in February 1865, and raising the flag again at Fort Sumter, was used for the Union symbol of victory.
Fort Sumter, 1861, flying the Confederate flag after the fort's capture from the U.S. by the Confederacy.
Congressman Robert Smalls
54th Massachusetts Regiment charging towards Fort Wagner
The Mills House Hotel and nearby ruined buildings in Charleston, with a shell-damaged carriage and the remains of a brick chimney in the foreground (1865)
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America (CSA), commonly referred to as the Confederate States (C.S.), the Confederacy, or the South, was an unrecognized breakaway republic in the Southern United States that existed from February 8, 1861, to May 9, 1865. The Confederacy comprised eleven U.S. states that declared secession and warred against the United States during the American Civil War. The states were South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina.
Alexander H. Stephens, Confederate Vice President and author of the Cornerstone Speech
William L. Yancey, Alabama Fire-Eater, "The Orator of Secession"
William Henry Gist, Governor of South Carolina, called the Secessionist Convention
The inauguration of Jefferson Davis in Montgomery, Alabama
