December 11

1861The city

The Great Fire of 1861

Fire broke out on the evening of 11 December near the foot of Hasell Street and burned diagonally across the peninsula from the Cooper to the Ashley, taking Institute Hall, the Circular Church, the Cathedral of St. John and St. Finbar and some 540 acres of the city. The burnt district it left was still unrepaired when the Federal photographers arrived in 1865. The Great Fire of 1861 →

Contemporary press accounts, December 1861

1863Fort Sumter

The magazine explodes at Fort Sumter

Fire reached a small-arms magazine in Fort Sumter and the explosion killed eleven men and wounded about forty-one — the worst single loss the garrison suffered in the whole siege. The fort was held anyway, and the relief boats came out that night as usual.

Official Records, Series I, Vol. 28, Pt. 1

Entries are dated from the War of the Rebellion official records, the naval official records and contemporary Charleston sources. Browse the whole year.