1783-City Incorporated

 Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward and Thomas Bee, proposed a bill of incorporation for Charlestown. An elected intendant (mayor) and thirteen wardens would have the power to govern the city, whose name was changed to Charleston.

1864 – Civil War

Clubhouse of the race course where Federal officers were imprisoned.

By this time there were 6000 Federal prisoners within the city limits. Many of them were housed in the City Jail at the corner of Franklin and Magazine Streets. Others were housed around the corner in Roper Hospital at the corner of Queen and Logan Streets. The majority were held at the Charleston racecourse. Most of the Federal prisoners considered their imprisonment in Charleston to be a life-saving change, away from the hellish conditions of Andersonville. Lt. Benjamin Calef wrote:

We reached Charleston on the morning of August 13, and were kept waiting a long time in the Street, when I procured some fresh figs, bread and milk, and seated on the curb-stone, made an excellent breakfast … I should not omit to speak of the long piazza at the front [of Roper Hospital], on which I have spent so many hours with my pipe for my companion.

Charleston Jail and prison.