Charleston Arsenal

The Charleston Arsenal was a United States Army arsenal facility in Charleston, South Carolina seized by state militia at the outbreak of the American Civil War. On June 21, 1996, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places as Porter Military Academy.

The arsenal was constructed in 1841 near the intersection of Ashley Avenue and Mill Street in Charleston. It served as a storage place for weapons, ordnance, and ammunition for the U.S. Army in antebellum days. An earlier Federal arsenal, the Old Citadel, was taken out of service and after became a part of the Citadel. The Charleston arsenal produced a considerable amount of artillery and small arms ammunition during the Mexican-American War and up to the Civil War.

With the secession of South Carolina in late 1860, it became a target for Confederate sympathizers and local militia. South Carolina troops seized the arsenal in late December, and the Confederates held it for much of the war. Josiah Gorgas had the arsenal enlarged and modernized with the installation of steam power. For a time, it was used a barracks to house Confederate troops, including the 26th South Carolina. The arsenal was finally retaken by Union troops in 1865 when Charleston finally fell.

On July 16, 1866, the U.S. Government designated the 11.26 acre site as a Federal Military Reservation, but in 1879 the army closed the arsenal. The building and land was sold in 1888 to the Porter Military Academy which occupied the site until it build a new campus west of the Ashley River, and in 1963 the site became part of the Medical University of South Carolina.