An investigation into who burned South Carolina's capital in 1865 Who burned South Carolina's capital city on February 17, 1865? Even before the embers had finished smoldering, Confederates and Federals accused each other of starting the blaze, igniting a controversy that has raged for more than a century. Marion B. Lucas sifts through official reports, newspapers, and eyewitness accounts, and the evidence he amasses debunks many of the myths surrounding the tragedy. Rather than writing a melodrama with clear heroes and villains, Lucas tells a more complex and more human story that details the fear, confusion, and disorder that accompanied the end of a brutal war. Lucas traces the damage not to a single blaze but to a series of fires—preceded by an equally unfortunate series of military and civilian blunders—that included the burning of cotton bales by fleeing Confederate soldiers. This edition includes a new foreword by Anne Sarah Rubin, professor of history at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and the author of Through the Heart of Dixie: Sherman's March and America.
This work is the first monograph which closely examines the role of the German minority in the American South during the Civil War. In a comparative analysis of German civic leaders, businessmen, militia officers and blockade runners in Charleston, New Orleans and Richmond, it reveals a German immigrant population which not only largely supported slavery, but was also heavily involved in fighting the war. A detailed appendix includes an extensive survey of primary and secondary sources, including tables listing the members of the all-German units in Virginia, South Carolina and Louisiana, with names, place of origin, rank, occupation, income, and number of slaves owned. This book is a highly useful reference work for historians, military scholars and genealogists conducting research on Germans in the American Civil War and the American South.
Discover the fascinating history and legacy of working equines in Charleston, South Carolina. Featuring thorough research, absorbing storytelling, and captivating photographs, Charleston Horse Power takes readers back to an equine-dominated city of the past, in which horses and mules pervaded all aspects of urban life. Author, scholar, and preservationist Christina Rae Butler describes carriage types and equines roles (both privately owned animals and those in the city's streets, fire, and police department herds), animal power in industrial settings, regulations for animals and their drivers, horse-racing culture, and Charleston's equine lifestyles and architecture. Butler profiles the people who made their living with horses and mules—from drivers, grooms, and carriage makers, to farriers, veterinarians, and trainers. Charleston Horse Power is a richly illustrated and comprehensive examination of the social and cultural history and legacy of Charleston's equine economy. Urban historians, historic preservationists, general readers, and Charleston visitors interested in discovering a vital aspect of the city's past and present will enjoy and appreciate this impressive work.