One Building, Three Governments

The structure shown in the middle of this photograph was built in 1771 when South Carolina was still a royal colony of England. It served as the Exchange and Custom House, located at Exchange and East Bay Streets. Then it served the new nation after the Revolutionary War. The U.S. Post Office began operation here in 1818. Alfred Huger became Charleston’s postmaster in 1835, serving faithfully until after South Carolina’s secession, when he formally became Confederate postmaster in the city. A few days after Gillmore opened his artillery bombardment on Charleston, Huger had to move his postal operations from this building, which was very much in the Federal guns’ effective range from Morris Island. This photograph was taken by George Barnard. On the typed listing of images donated by the widow of U.S. Captain Orlando M. Poe to West Point in 1896, this image is No. 206, dated March 1865.

This is the caption as printed in 100 Significant Civil War Photographs: Charleston in the War. It has not yet been through this site’s research and fact-checking pass.