Charleston , South Carolina in the American Civil War Charleston , South Carolina , was a hotbed of secession at the start of the American Civil War and an important Atlantic Ocean port city for the fledgling Confederate States of America . The first shots of the Civil War were fired at a Federal ship entering Charleston Harbor . Later , the bombardment of Fort Sumter triggered a massive call for Federal troops to put down the rebellion . Although the city and its surrounding fortifications were repeatedly targeted by the Union Army and Navy , Charleston did not fall to Federal forces until the last months of the war . Early war years . Charleston ranked as the 22nd largest city in the United States according to the 1860 Census , with a population of 40 , 522 . Long feared as a target for foreign invasion , the Charleston harbor was ringed with a series of forts , bastions , and floating batteries to protect it from an enemy fleet . On December 20 , 1860 , the South Carolina General Assembly made the state the first to ever secede from the Union . From the time of the Missouri Compromise in 1820 , the defense of slavery , more than tariffs or states rights , was the main factor contributing to sectionalism in South Carolina . The secession convention declared : At the end of the month , South Carolina militia seized Castle Pinckney and the Charleston Arsenal and their supplies of arms and ammunition . On January 9 , 1861 , Citadel cadets fired the first shots of the Civil War when they opened fire on the Union ship " Star of the West " as it was entering Charleston ' s harbor . It had been sent by the Federal government with relief supplies for the garrison of Fort Sumter . On April 12 , 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 . Throughout much of the war , cadets from the Citadel , South Carolina ' s military institute , continued to aid the Confederate army by helping drill recruits , manufacture ammunition , protect arms depots , and guard Union prisoners . In June 1862 , a small but important battle at Secessionville , in modern - day James Island , resulted in Union forces being repulsed by a much smaller Confederate force . The victory provided the city with a propaganda coup and saved it from the threat of land invasion . Not until the latter stage of the war would the city be under such threat again . Later war years . As many Southern port cities had been closed off by the Union blockade , Charleston became an important center for blockade running . Repeated attempts by the U . S . Navy to take Charleston and / or batter its defenses into the ground proved fruitless , including the Stone Fleet . The city resisted occupation for the majority of the war . In 1863 , the Union began an offensive campaign against the defenses of Charleston Harbor , beginning with a combined sea - land engagement . The naval bombardment accomplished little however , and the land forces were never put ashore . By summer of 1863 , the Union turned its attention to Battery Wagner on Morris Island , which guarded the harbor entrance from the southwest . In the First and Second battles of Fort Wagner , Union forces suffered heavy losses in a failed attempt to capture the fort . A siege however resulted in Confederate abandonment of the fort by September of that year . A Union attempt to recapture Fort Sumter by a naval raiding party also failed badly , but the fort was successively reduced to rubble by bombardment from shore batteries after the capture of Morris Island . With the development of newer , longer range artillery , and as Union forces were able to place batteries ever closer to the city , a bombardment began in late 1863 that continued off and on for more than a year . The accumulated effects of this bombardment would destroy much of Charleston . The Union launched a coordinated series of attacks on the city in early July 1864 , including an amphibious assault on Ft . Johnson and an invasion of Johns Island . These attacks all failed , but continued to wear down the city ' s defenders . Charleston Harbor was also the site of the first successful submarine attack in history on February 17 , 1864 , when the " H . L . Hunley " made a daring night attack on the USS " Housatonic " . Although the " Hunley " survived the attack , she foundered and sank while returning from her mission , thus ending the threat to the Union blockade . As Gen . Sherman marched through South Carolina , the situation for Charleston became ever more precarious . On February 15 , 1865 , Gen . Beauregard ordered the evacuation of remaining Confederate forces . On February 18 , the mayor surrendered the city to Union general Alexander Schimmelfennig ; and Union troops finally moved into the city , taking control of many sites , such as the United States Arsenal ( which the Confederate army had seized at the outbreak of the war ) . After the eventual and long - toiled defeat of the Confederacy , Federal forces remained in Charleston during the city ' s reconstruction .