This view of the Battery in Charleston, circa 1865, gives a good view of how that city appeared during the war, and how it had prepared for its defense.
Courtesy of the South Carolina Department of Archives and History.
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Sherman's forces capture Confederate ordinance at Cheraw on the evening of the 3rd of March, 1865. From "Leslie's Illustrated Weekly." Courtesy of the Pratt Memorial Library.
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A cotton press near Flat Rock is destroyed by Sherman's army in April, 1865. From "Leslie's Illustrated Weekly." Courtesy of the Pratt Memorial Library.
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Nearly 20,000 people were crowded into Columbia when Sherman's army approached, and its streets were crowded with cotton bales. Whether Sherman's advance forces, panicky Confederate deserters camped...
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Federal troops, waging the total war that Sherman believed was necessary, were instructed to destroy the South's ability to make war. Here, they destroy a section of railroad tracks at Pocataligo...
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At the end of the Civil War, both of South Carolina's major cities lay in ruins. Even as Sherman approached Columbia, another branch of his army occupied Charleston. The accidental explosion of a...
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Federal forces occupied Morris Island in 1863, then remained after the invasion was over, as an occupation force, as illustrated by this 1865 Matthew Brady photograph of their gun emplacement...
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The end of the war signaled the end of the blockade of southern ports. In November 1865, the ship "Glad Tidings" entered the port of Liverpool in England with a shipment of Carolina cotton. Cotton...
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The occupation of the coastal region of South Carolina by federal armies in 1862 led to troops taking over the homes of many citizens who had supported the Confederacy. This home in Beaufort became...
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South Carolinians, under Lincoln's plan for the restoration of the Union, could be restored to citizenship by taking an oath of loyalty to the United States, such as this one signed by Thomas D...
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A view of the Darlington County Courthouse and the sycamore tree where Amy Spain, a slave who had spied for the Union army, was hung by the citizens of Darlington. Sketched by Edwards for "Harper's...