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In 1864, six hundred Confederate prisoners of war, all officers, were taken out of a prison camp in Delaware and transported to South Carolina, where most were confined in a Union stockade prison on Morris Island.

They were placed in front of two Union forts as ""human shields"" during the siege of Charleston and exposed to a fearful barrage of artillery fire from Confederate forts. Many of these men would suffer an even worse ordeal at Union-held Fort Pulaski near Savannah, Georgia, where they were subjected to severe food rationing as retaliatory policy. Author and historian Karen Stokes uses the prisoners' writings to relive the courage, fraternity and struggle of the ""Immortal 600.""

Discover the true accounts of South Carolinian's as they recount General Sherman's march through the Palmetto State during the Civil War.

During the fateful winter and spring of 1865, thousands of civilians in South Carolina, young and old, black and white, felt the impact of what General William T. Sherman called ""the hard hand of war."" This book tells their stories, many of which were corroborated by the testimony of Sherman's own soldiers and officers, and other eyewitnesses. These historical narratives are taken from letters and diaries of the time, as well as newspaper accounts and memoirs. The author has drawn on the superb resources of the South Carolina Historical Society's collection of manuscripts and publications to present these true, compelling stories of South Carolinians.

Major General William T. Sherman's march from Savannah, Georgia, to Columbia, South Carolina, was marked by a battle with an unrelenting enemy: the swamps of the Palmetto State. For more than two weeks, Sherman's veterans faced an unforgiving quagmire, coupled by daily skirmishes with gallant bands of outnumbered Confederates. Along the way, a ruined countryside and wrecked towns marked the path of an army unlike any since the days of Julius Caesar. It would take an army as adept with the axe as they were with the rifle to tame the rivers, tributaries and swamps of the South Carolina Lowcountry. Join historian Chris Crabb as he traces the steps of Sherman's sixty-thousand-man army in its amphibious march from Beaufort to Columbia.

Join Charleston historian Doug Bostick as he traces the political turmoil of 1860 and early 1861, when the firebrands of secession in Charleston were pushing the South to act together in a decisive way. The Union Is Dissolved chronicles the face-off between professor and student--Robert Anderson and Pierre G.T. Beauregard--and the firing on Fort Sumter, signaling the beginning of the American Civil War. Featuring many historical images and first-person accounts found in period newspapers and family papers, this fascinating volume offers a concise introduction to our nation's greatest struggle.

Join historian Doug Bostick as he tells the story of the siege of Charleston, the longest siege of the Civil War.

Charleston was the prize that the Union army and navy desperately sought to capture. Union General Halleck, in writing to General W.T. Sherman, declared, Should you capture Charleston, I hope that by some accident the place may be destroyed. However, despite bringing to bear the full firepower of the U.S. Army and Navy, Charleston would not relent. The defense of Charleston employed every tool available to an outmanned Confederate army. Yet after 567 days of constant attack by infantry, gun batteries and the Union fleet, Charleston would not surrender. Only after the evacuation of the Confederate forces to reinforce General Joe Johnston in North Carolina did the Federal government gain control of the city.

In December 1860, when the State of South Carolina desired to secede from the Federal Union, Major Anderson, of the 1st Regiment of U.S. Artillery, was in command of the forts of Charleston harbor; and, with his company, was stationed at Fort Moultrie, on Sullivan's Island. He saw the spreading commotion; and--as a Sea-Captain, in stormy weather, glass in hand, sweeping the horizon with his eye, uninterested in natural wonders or scientific questions, is wholly engrossed with the care and management of his ship--he thought not of political affairs, but studied only his duty as a servant of the Republic--an officer of the American Army. Situated as he then was, he found himself utterly weak in case of an attack--his fort was insecure, his garrison was small--he, therefore, petitioned Government for more troops; but received for reply that, as the movement would increase disaffection, the Administration preferred not granting his request unless necessitated. He now looked round him, with a view to strengthening his position, as best he could. On a point of James Island, facing Fort Moultrie, west by south, stood Fort Johnson, and between these, nearly mid channel, an artificial Island had been raised, on which a fortification was built, now in course of completion; and here, with the waters to wall him in, and the shores all round the bay under range of his guns, Major Anderson decided to concentrate his little force.

In so many words, General Lee laid out the challenge of defending the young Southern Republic and two of its key cities: Charleston and Savannah. While in the Lowcountry, Lee acquired the two most famous trademarks of his wartime career. Long hours in the saddle prompted Lee to grow his signature beard and, while at Pocotaligo, he acquired his beloved equine companion, Traveller. Charleston historian Danny Crooks examines Lee's first year serving the Confederacy, a year of confusion and convoluted loyalty. Using Lee's own words and those of his contemporaries, Crooks helps the reader to understand why Lee, and only Lee, could bring order to the early chaos of the war.