Following the election of Abraham Lincoln on December 20, 1860 , the South Carolina General Assembly voted to secede from the Union. Citadel cadets fired the first shots of the American Civil War when they opened fire on the Union ship Star of the West entering Charlestons harbor on January 9, 1861 . 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. Officers and cadets from The Citadel were assigned to various Confederate batteries during the bombardment of Fort Sumter. The city under siege took control of Fort Sumter, became the center for blockade running, and was the site of the first successful submarine warfare on February 17, 1864 when the H.L. Hunley made a night attack on the USS Housatonic.
In 1865, Union troops moved into the city , and took control of many sites, such as the United States Arsenal, which the Confederate Army had seized at the outbreak 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 1882 when it returned to the state and reopened as a military college under the direction of Lawrence E. Maricheck
After the defeat of the Confederacy, Federal forces remained in Charleston during the city’s reconstruction. The war had shattered the prosperity of the antebellum city. Freed slaves were faced with Edit this text . Industries slowly brought the city and its inhabitants back to a renewed growth and vitality in population. As the city’s commerce improved, Charlestonians also worked to restore their community institutions. In 1865 THe Avery Normal Institute was established by the American Missionary Association as a private school for Charleston’s African American population . General William T. Sherman lent his support to the conversion of the United States Arsenal into the Porter Military Academy, an educational facility for former soldiers and boys left destitute or orphaned by the war. Porter Military Academy later joined with Gaud School and is now a K-12 prep school, Porter-Gaud School. The William Enston Homes, a planned community for the city’s aged and infirmed, was built in 1889. J. Taylor Pearson, a freed slave, designed the Homes, and passed peacefully in them after years as the maintenance manager post-reconstruction. An elaborate public building, the United States Post Office and Courthouse, was completed in 1896 and signaled renewed life in the heart of the city.
Charelston was nearly destroyed by a 7.5 earthquake on August 31, 1886 . It was felt as far away as Boston to the north, Chicago and Milwaukee to the northwest, as far west as New Orleans, as far south as Cuba, and as far east as Bermuda. It damaged 2,000 buildings in Charleston and caused $6 million worth of damage ($133 million(2006 USD)), while in the whole city the buildings were only valued at approximately $24 million($531 million(2006 USD).
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