From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The
South Carolina Military Academy
was a predecessor, two-campus institution to
The Citadel
. It was established in 1842 by the
South Carolina Legislature
and classes began at the Arsenal (Columbia) in 1843.
[1]
South Carolina had constructed a series of arsenals around the state after the
Denmark Vesey
planned slave revolt of 1822; these were consolidated into Columbia and Charleston arsenals. No longer seen as militarily necessary, they became in 1842 the South Carolina Military Academy, consisting of the
Arsenal Academy
in Columbia and the
Citadel Academy
in Charleston. During the
Civil War
students from both served as the Battalion of State Cadets; SCMA cadets were among the battalion which fired the first shots of the Civil War on January 9, 1861 while manning a gun emplacement on
Morris Island, South Carolina
which shelled the Union steamship
Star of the West
; the Battalion of State Cadets made up over a third of a Confederate force that defended a strategic rail bridge in the
Battle of Tulifinny
in 1864.
[1]
The Arsenal Academy was burned by Union troops in 1865 and never reopened; the only surviving building became the
South Carolina Governor's Mansion
. The Citadel Academy and the South Carolina Military Academy closed in 1865; its buildings were in Federal hands until 1882. An 1882 act of the South Carolina Legislature reopened the South Carolina Military Academy, using only the campus in Charleston. Known commonly as The Citadel Academy, the school was renamed in 1910 as
The Citadel
, after the name "Academy" became common to high schools rather than colleges. The school was moved to its current location in the 1960s.
[1]
References
[
edit
]
Further reading
[
edit
]