Question

Why was the African American population of South Carolina's Sea Islands one of the first to become freedmen during the Civil War?

Answer 1

South Carolina was the first state to secede from the Union (Dec. 1860), and was one of the founder members of the Confederacy (Feb. 1861). The bombardment of the beleaguered U.S. garrison at Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor on April 12, 1861 is normally reckoned as the first military engagement of the war.

South Carolina was a source of troops for the Confederate army, and as the war progressed, also for the Union, as thousands of ex-slaves flocked to join the Union forces. The state also provided uniforms, textiles, food, and war material, as well as trained soldiers and leaders from The Citadel and other military schools. In contrast to most other Confederate states, South Carolina had a well-developed rail network linking all of its major cities without a break of gauge. Relatively free from Union occupation until the very end of the war, South Carolina hosted a number of prisoner of war camps. South Carolina also was the only Confederate state not to harbor pockets of anti-secessionist fervor strong enough to send large amounts of white men to fight for the Union, as every other state in the Confederacy did.

Among the leading generals from the Palmetto State were Wade Hampton III, one of the Confederacy's leading cavalrymen, Maxcy Gregg, killed in action at Fredericksburg, Joseph B. Kershaw, whose South Carolinainfantry brigade saw some of the hardest fighting of the Army of Northern Virginia, and James Longstreet who served in that army under Robert E. Lee and in the Army of Tennessee under Gen. Braxton Bragg.