Kershaw, Joseph Brevard

Located in the Midlands, Camden boasts more than sixty well-preserved buildings in its historic district that attest to a rich past and to a lifestyle respectful of that heritage.

After a debilitating expedition to Alvarado (March 30–April 6) the Palmettos marched through Jalapa to Puebla, where the army remained until departing for the Valley of Mexico on August 7.

December 20, 1860, the day in Charleston on which delegates at the South Carolina state convention voted unanimously to secede from the Union, is arguably the decisive moment in the state’s history.

With walls five feet thick and fifty feet high, Fort Sumter was designed to mount 135 heavy cannons and garrison 650 officers and men. The fort was about ninety percent complete when South Carolina seceded on December 20, 1860, and due to the war was never finished.

Even before the state seceded, South Carolina had already begun making preparations for a war that most of her citizens believed either would never actually occur or would be of short duration. Militia companies, some of them with lineages dating back to the Revolutionary War, were joined by new units raised in cities, towns, and communities all over the state to accommodate the flood of enthusiastic volunteers.