Remembering “The Civil War and its Aftermath
in Mount Pleasant” “Anxiety”
Tis is the ninth part in a series about Mount Pleasant’s role in the Civil War. It has been offered to Mount Pleasant Magazine by former Post and Courier editor and writer
John L. All, who resides East of the Cooper and is passionate about preserving its history. We hope you will enjoy this tale about Mount Pleasant’s past.
–Te Editors H BY JOHN L. ALL
ENRY SLADE TEW, A STORE- keeper, wrote for his daughter who was in Florida an account of what transpired over the next few days and weeks. Tew’s son, Col. Charles Courtenay Tew, a first honor
graduate of The Citadel, had been killed in action at Sharpsburg, Md. On that Tursday night and early the next morning, two plantation owners asked Tew to send for sizable quantities of grain in their barns to sell to those who could afford it
and to give to those who could not. Tew couldn’t do so because there no longer was a way to transport it. Early the next morning, Tew learned that the com-
missary (quartermaster) was going to sell all the Army supplies that he could not move from the grain mill on Shem Creek, where it was stored. “I went up and succeeded in purchasing some flour and meal for myself and also in getting a few sacks of each for the poor which I paid for myself,” Tew wrote. “I had previously collected some rough rice and corn for the poor which I had at the mill and in my store, and I had made distribution of about 80 bushels to some of the families. “Tat day, Friday, was one of anxiety for us all.
About dark, all the batteries on Morris Island and some of the vessels commenced the most terrible fire I think I ever witnessed in the war, directed at Sullivan’s Island principally, through Sumter came in for a share, with the view to cut the bridge and prevent the evacuation of
the island. Te fire was incessant and seemed to extend up to our bridge. It was a grand but awful scene. Te awfulness of that night must dwell in the minds of those who witnessed it as long as memory lasts.” When the last troops – 30 mounted men – started
over the bridge at Cove Inlet, 15 mortars on Morris Island began firing in an attempt to destroy it. Te rid- ers started out at a walk so as not to vibrate the wooden bridge to pieces, but, as the fire increased, they broke into a gallop. Te bridge didn’t collapse under the pounding hooves, but witnesses claimed that the noise could have been heard all the way to Charleston. It most likely was during the evacuation of the island that a shell burst over the so-called Presbyterian Church building, raining shot down through the roof. It is highly unlikely that Dr. Moore would have maintained a hospital in a building with that kind of damage. Tat night, Friday, Feb. 17, the 144th New York
Volunteers went ashore at Graham’s Creek near Buck Hall Plantation. Te Confederates had withdrawn, evacuated by steamer to Strawberry Point by way of Cordesville and then to St. Stephen. Te 32nd U.S. Colored Troops landed, and they held the position during the night. Tey were sent to Andersonville the next day, where they learned that Charleston had been abandoned. Te 55th Massachusetts also had tried to land on that day but grounded. It was on that day that Sherman’s troops entered Columbia as Wade Hampton, hopelessly outnumbered, moved his troops out, leaving much of it in flames of questionable origin.
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