City Hall

“Two shells fell this morning at the corner of Broad & Meeting Sts.,” Augustine (“Gus”) Smythe wrote his mother on May 22, 1864. This view looks east, down Broad Street from its intersection with Meeting. In the foreground is seen one of those shell-strikes, where pavement stones have been replaced to fill the hole in the street. City Hall was also used as a Provost Guard House. On the first floor was the City Sheriff’s Office as indicated by signage. The pavement on Broad had been taken up to provide material for Confederate engineers building fortifications. It is May 1865, and leafy locust trees line the street. A handful of Union soldiers lounge in front of City Hall, indifferent to the camera. A nattily attired lad, however, is staring directly at the photographer.

This is the caption as printed in 100 Significant Civil War Photographs: Charleston in the War. It has not yet been through this site’s research and fact-checking pass.