SIEGE: Civil War South Carolina: Race, Politics, Battles, and Memory

by Douglas Smock

SIEGE is not a typical Civil War history. It goes beyond the battles to create a political, social and economic context. The book taps the rare manuscript collections of several libraries from Harvard to the College of Charleston to find voices that have been largely unheard. They include everyday soldiers on both sides, enslaved workers and free Blacks, as well as civilians in South Carolina as their mood rapidly shifted from jubilation to fear and then desperation. Other primary sources include the story of an enslaved fourteen-year-old who was forced into a work gang to rebuild walls at Fort Sumter while Confederate militia sheltered in the face of heavy artillery fire. At the behest of Massachusetts governor John Andrew, Harriet Tubman recruited local Black guides to lead US troops on raids to free bonded people in South Carolina. The book also reports on the teachers who taught newly freed Black children in 1862 in the Port Royal Experiment, a prelude to Reconstruction.

377 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 29, 2024