Tuesday, December 11, 2018

December 11 in Charleston

Most of the wartime damage to the city of Charleston, SC, came not from federal shells but an accidental fire on today's date in 1861. "The fire burned over 540 acres, 575 homes, numerous businesses, and five churches," and rousted General Robert E. Lee from his hotel.
A Union shell probably did blow up the powder magazine on Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor exactly two years later, killing 11 Confederate soldiers and wounding 41.
The city and fort were abandoned by the Confederacy in February 1865.

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