Charleston’s Mosquito Fleet was a group of hardy African-American men who, for nearly two centuries, braved the winds, waves, and weather to supply city residents with fresh fish and seafood each morning. Seeing them sail into the harbor with a day’s catch was one of...
When it comes to the life and trial of Denmark Vesey, about the only thing most people agree on is that little about him is actually known, though much is rumored or alleged. Still, “[t]he Vesey affair, though failed,” opined Converse College Professor William I....
Dr. John Moultrie, 1729-1798 The son of a Scottish immigrant, William Moultrie had four brothers, two of whom – Alexander and Thomas – served as officers in the Continental Army as he did. Their brother James, Chief Justice of British East Florida, died in 1765,...
Pop quiz: Name the icons featured on South Carolina’s state flag, and when and where it was first flown? If you guessed a blue flag with a palmetto tree and crescent moon was first flown over Fort Sullivan (now Fort Moultrie) in 1776, you’d be wrong. At least,...
Confederate President Jefferson Davis’s Secretary of State Robert Augustus Toombs wired Gen. Pierre Gustav Toutant Beauregard with orders to demand Anderson’s surrender, or else once he was certain the fort was about to be resupplied, to open fire. Beauregard replied...
The Confederate Cabinet met in Montgomery on April 9 and decided to force Fort Sumter’s surrender by attacking it before President Lincoln’s naval expedition arrived with additional supplies and forces. All around Charleston, Confederate troops prepared for the...
