CHARLESTON, S. C. Since its founding in 1670 as an English settlement, Charleston, the chief city of South Carolina, has had a rich and varied history. It was the first Southern city to join the Revolutionary movement ; and the Civil War was begun, in April 1861, by the bombardment and cap ture of Fort Sumter, in its harbor (see Fort Sumter).
Charleston is situated 7% miles from the ocean, on a peninsula formed by the Ashley and Cooper rivers. Their estuary forms a magnificent land locked harbor six miles long and three miles wide— one of the largest and safest on the Atlantic coast.
The city has about 26 miles of available waterfront.
Charleston has long been an important naval and military point. It has the only United States navy yard from Cape Hatteras to the mouth of the Rio Grande, and it is also the only place on the South Atlantic or Gulf coast with a drydock large enough to repair a battleship. When the United States entered the World War in 1917, Charleston became the headquarters of the southeastern military depart ment and of the sixth naval district.
Before the Civil War the export trade in cotton, rice, and naval stores was very considerable, but that war reduced it to almost nothing. Only since the beginning of the 20th century has Charleston really recovered from her losses of the Civil War period.
The principal exports today are coal, cotton, cotton goods, lumber, fertilizers, cigars and tobacco, fruits, and vegetables. Charleston has the only large coal ing terminals of the South Atlantic states, and the recent construction of two large fuel oil tanks, with a capacity of 700,000 gallons each, has made it the most important supply and distributing point for oil between Baltimore and New Orleans. The chief manufactured products are fertilizers, lumber, and textiles. Other important industries are asbestos, cigars, overalls, iron foundries, printing and publish ing establishments, and medicines. In addition Charleston is an important wholesale distributing point. Charleston's water-borne commerce totals about $400,000,000 annually.
Charleston has a number of buildings dating back to Colonial days, and many places of historical inter est carefully preserved. These include the old post office building where Washington and Lafayette were entertained, the old slave market, the Huger resi dence, in which Lord William Campbell, the last colonial governor of South Carolina, resided, and many others. There are many beautiful parks and gardens scattered throughout the city. The mu nicipal College of Charleston, chartered in 1785, is the principal institution of higher education. The Military College of South Carolina, a state institu tion founded in 1845, is one of the foremost military schools of the country.
The earliest settlement of Charleston—named in honor of the English King Charles II—was on the Ashley River, opposite the present site. A band of French Huguenot refugees joined the colony in 1685.
Thomas Quincy in Boston wrote of Charleston, in 1774, that it was " the most beautiful and in many ways the most magnificent" city in North America.
Fort Sullivan, later renamed Fort Moultrie in honor of General William Moultrie, was built on Sullivan's Island at the entrance to the harbor in 1776, and successfully resisted attack until 1780.
The British captured the town in 1780, and it was not reoccupied by the American forces until 1782.
In 1783 Charleston was incorporated as a city, and from that time until 1790 it was the capital of the state of South Carolina. The convention which pro claimed the state's secession from the Union met here on Dec. 28, 1860. After the taking of Fort Sumter by the Confederates, it was almost continually besieged by the Union forces and fleets, 1862-65.
In 1886 an earthquake killed scores of people and caused a property damage of $8,000,000. Population, about 70,000.