Charleston in the American Civil War embattled leaders knew each other well. Beauregard, back at West Point, had been Anderson's assistant. So he prepared to defend Fort Sumter for the Union, the, large garrison-sized Stars and Stripes flying above the small group of 85 Federal men. After a 34-hour bombardment, Major Robert Anderson surrendered the fort. Throughout much of the war, cadets from the Citadel, South Carolina's military institute, continued to aid the Confederate Army by helping to drill recruits, manufacture ammunition, protect arms depots, and guard Union prisoners. On December 11 of 1861, a massive fire burned 164 acres of the city, destroying the Cathedral
Photographers of the American Civil War April 14, 1861, Osborn would visit the fort and its surrounds on at least two occasions, taking at least 43 stereo images of the battle's aftermath, in what is the largest known group of Confederate images of the war, and which is considered the most comprehensive photographic record of a Civil War engagement ever made. Today, thirty-nine are known to exist. Their friendship would outlast their Charleston business however, which the war and damaging fires had brought to an end by February 1862. Then, in September 1863, in response to Gen. Thomas Jordan's desire to document what "Southern troops could