Arsenal Academy

Arsenal Academy
Officers' Quarters (Currently South Carolina Governor's Mansion)
Location
Columbia, South Carolina
Information
Other name	South Carolina Military Academy
School type	Military academy
Established	1842 (1842)
Closed	1865
Feeder to	The Citadel Academy (from 1845)

The Arsenal Academy was a military academy in Columbia, South Carolina, originally established in 1842 as an independent school by the state of South Carolina. In 1845, the academy became a component of the South Carolina Military Academy, in which first year cadets underwent their initial year of training before completing their studies at the larger Citadel Academy in Charleston, South Carolina. The school closed in 1865 at the end of the American Civil War.

History

At the outset of the Civil War in 1861, the South Carolina Military Academy consisted of two institutions, both built in the 1820s as state arsenals, specifically to have the state prepared in the event of another slave revolt like that of Denmark Vesey (who was from Charleston). This process consolidated a number of smaller arsenals around the state to two locations, which would in 1842 be converted to military academies. The Arsenal Academy, or Arsenal Military Academy, or The Arsenal, was in Columbia, and the Citadel Academy, or Citadel Military Academy, or The Citadel because of the appearance of its building, in Charleston. The Arsenal was burned by Union General William Sherman's troops in 1865; in fact, destroying it was one of his objectives. It was never rebuilt. The only surviving building from The Arsenal is the current Governor's Mansion.^[1]

The Citadel suffered no damage and, after serving as housing for Federal forces during the Reconstruction Era, reopened as The Military College of South Carolina.

Confusingly, The Citadel's original building was built as a South Carolina state arsenal. The vanished Arsenal Academy was also a South Carolina state arsenal.

References