page_title: South Carolina
section_title: Civil War 1861–1865
hierarchical_section_title: South Carolina / History / Civil War 1861–1865
caption_attribution_description: English: View of Broad Street, Charleston, South Carolina, 1865, looking east with the ruins of the Cathedral of St. John and St. Finbar visible. Glass wet collodion negative. The Library of Congress, Washington, D. C.
context_page_description: South Carolina is a state in the Southeastern United States and the easternmost of the Deep South. It is bordered to the north by North Carolina, to the southeast by the Atlantic Ocean, and to the southwest by Georgia across the Savannah River.
  South Carolina became the eighth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution on May 23, 1788. It also became the first state to vote in favor of secession from the Union on December 20, 1860. After the American Civil War, it was readmitted into the United States on June 25, 1868.
  South Carolina is the 40th most extensive and 23rd most populous U.S. state. In 2019 its GDP was $249.9 billion. South Carolina is composed of 46 counties. The capital is Columbia with a population of 133,451 in 2018; while its largest city is Charleston with a 2018 population of 136,208. The Greenville–Anderson–Mauldin metropolitan area is the largest in the state, with a 2018 population estimate of 906,626.
  South Carolina is named in honor of King Charles I of England, who first formed the English colony, with Carolus being Latin for "Charles".
context_section_description: On April 12, 1861, Confederate (southern) batteries began shelling the Union (northern) Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, and the American Civil War began. In November of that year the Union attacked Port Royal Sound and soon occupied Beaufort County and the neighboring Sea Islands. For the rest of the war this area served as a Union base and staging point for other operations. Whites abandoned their plantations, leaving behind about ten thousand slaves. Several Northern charities partnered with the federal government to help these people run the cotton farms themselves under the Port Royal Experiment. Workers were paid by the pound harvested and thus became the first former slaves freed by the Union forces to earn wages.
  Although the state was not a major battleground, the war ruined the economy. Under conscription, all men aged 18–35 (later 45) were drafted for Confederate service. More than 60,000 served, and the state lost nearly one-third of the white male population of fighting age.
  At the end of the war in early 1865, the troops of General William Tecumseh Sherman marched across the state devastating plantations and most of Columbia.
caption: Charleston in ruins, 1865
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