When Jeff Davis Paid a Visit

More than a dozen Federal soldiers around City Hall indicate a strong Union presence in Charleston in the spring of 1865. Before that time, however, Charleston was an arch-Confederate city. That fact was demonstrated when Jefferson Davis visited Charleston in early November 1863. The president had traveled west to Chattanooga for meetings in mid-October with Gen. Braxton Bragg and the leading generals of his Army of Tennessee, then stops in Mississippi and Alabama. Heading back to Richmond, he stopped in Charleston for several days in early November, during which the city staged on the 2nd a lavish parade down Meeting Street to City Hall. Across Meeting had been hung a banner reading “The Ladies of the Soldiers Relief Association Welcome President Davis to Charleston.” At City Hall Davis stepped down from his carriage and on the elevated porch was introduced by Mayor Charles Macbeth. The cheering crowd hushed to hear the president’s remarks. “It is by united effort,” he declared, “that our success is to be achieved.” He urged every man to lay aside his self-interest and join in the struggle for “the Confederate liberty for which we are fighting.”

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.