Intro to Charleston

Charleston is a colorful coastal city in the state of South Carolina. The city was established as Charlestown or Charles Towne, Carolina in 1670, and moved to its present location (Oyster Point) from a location on the west bank of the Ashley River in 1680. It adopted its current name in 1783.

The Southern city is also known as The Holy City due to the prominence of churches on the low-rise cityscape, particularly the numerous steeples which decorate the city's skyline. It was one of the few cities in the original thirteen colonies to provide religious tolerance to the French Huguenot Church. Charleston was also one of the first colonial cities to allow Jews to practice their faith without restrictions. Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim, founded in 1749, is the fourth oldest Jewish congregation in the continental United States.

Charleston is found just south of the mid-point of South Carolina's coastline, at the confluence of the Ashley and Cooper Rivers. Charleston's name is comes from Charles Towne, named after King Charles II of England. History After Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland was restored to the British throne following Oliver Cromwell's Protectorate, he granted the chartered Carolina territory to eight of his loyal friends, known as the Lords Proprietors, in 1663. It took seven years before the Lords could set up for settlement, the first being that of Charles Town. The community was founded by English settlers in 1670 on the west bank of the Ashley River, a few miles northwest of the present city. As the capital of the Carolina colony, Charleston was the hub for further expansion and the southernmost point of English settlement during the late 17th century.

The settlement was often subject to attack from sea and land. Periodic assaults from Spain and France, who still opposed England's claims to the area, were combined with resistance from Native Americans, as well as pirate raids. Charleston's colonists built a fortification wall around the small settlement for defense.

American Revolution

As the relationship between the colonists and England broke down, Charleston became a focal point in the ensuing American Revolution. In protest of the Tea Act of 1773, which embodied the concept of taxation without representation, Charlestonians confiscated tea and stored it in the Exchange and Custom House. Representatives from all over the colony came to the Exchange in 1774 to elect delegates to the Continental Congress, the group responsible for drafting the Declaration of Independence. South Carolina declared its independence from the crown on the steps of the Exchange. Soon, the church steeples of Charleston, especially St. Michael's, became targets for British warships causing rebel forces to paint the steeples black to blend with the night sky.

American Civil War

The South Carolina General Assembly made the state the first to ever secede from the Union on December 20, 1860. On January 9, 1861, Citadel cadets fired the first shots of the American Civil War when they opened fire on the Union ship Star of the West entering Charleston's harbor. On April 12, 1861, shore batteries under the command of General Pierre G. T. Beauregard opened fire on the Union-held Fort Sumter in the harbor. After a 34 hour bombardment, Major Robert Anderson surrendered the fort.

In December 1864 Citadel and Arsenal cadets were ordered to join Confederate forces at Tullifinny Creek, South Carolina where they fought in pitched battles with advancing units of General W. T. Sherman's army, suffering eight casualties.

In 1865, Union troops moved into Charleston, and took control of many sites, such as the United States Arsenal, which the Confederate army had seized at the onset of the war. The War department also confiscated the grounds and buildings of the Citadel Military Academy, which was used as a federal garrison for over 17 years, until its return to the state and reopening as a military college in 1882 under the direction of Lawrence E. Marichak.