The city was not laid out in the traditional central-plaza Spanish custom, but rather, inspired on a North American perpendicular grid pattern, modeled on the city of Charleston, South Carolina, with the help of American (Confederate) landscape engineers. Another notable link between the city and South Carolina was Cárdenas native, Ambrosio José Gonzales, who would spend several years residing there and married Harriet Elliot, daughter of prominent South Carolina planter and state Sen. William Elliot, in 1856, living 24 miles from Charleston. According to historian Antonio Rafael de la Cova, Gonzales would join the Confederate forces and was nominated for the rank of general six times but was unsuccessful due to a personal feud with Jefferson Davis.