US Army Occupation and The Struggle for Existence

The Citadel, Charleston, Columbia, and South Carolina were devastated after the Civil War. The Arsenal campus (The Citadel's preparatory school) in Columbia, SC was reduced to rubble and ash with one building intact. The only building left standing was the Faculty Officers' Quarters built in 1855. The building housed the senior officers of Gen Sherman's army during its occupation of Columbia, SC.

The Citadel campus in Charleston was captured and occupied by U.S. Army troops in 1865. It became the U.S. Army headquarters in South Carolina following the Civil War. In a historic decision, the U.S. Secretary of War decided that The Citadel was an integral part of the "Insurgent State" of the Confederacy. The Citadel campus became U.S. Government property. Of all of the property seized by the U.S. Government after the Civil War, The Citadel was the only college annexed by the U.S. military. The U.S. Government position was that The Citadel was the de facto "Military Academy" or "West Point" of the Southern Confederacy. The military college provided well-trained officers to the Confederate States Army, Navy, and Marine Corps. After several inquiries and requests from the Governor to return The Citadel to South Carolina, the official U.S. Government response was the virtually the same. "The Citadel, being occupied at the beginning of the rebellion by the Corps of State Cadets, the said Corps of Cadets marched out of The Citadel as a corps under the command of their professors as officers, joined the forces in rebellion against the United States."

Despite all of the problems, most graduates never lost hope for the reopening of The Citadel. Even with only 175 living graduates in 1865, alumni felt confident that they would be able to reopen the small but elite military college. The odds were overwhelming, the U.S. Government occupied The Citadel, the state of South Carolina was extremely poor and unable to help, and graduates were scattered throughout the country and many were lost forever. Graduates began the task of rebuilding the Association of Graduates in the hope of being able to reopen The Citadel. Graduates that lived in South Carolina were the first to organize. As a member of the Board of Visitors, General Johnson Hagood, class of 1847, worked tirelessly to rebuild the Association of Graduates. "The Citadel U.S. Army Post" as it was called at the time, was occupied. The U.S. Government had no plans of giving the state her military college back. Alumni always remained dedicated and focused.

Through an aggressive public relations campaign, alumni petitioned the U.S. government, wrote articles in newspapers, and worked with elected officials to reopen the college. Early attempts were met with rejection from the U.S. military authorizes in South Carolina while the state was under martial law. They argued that the "West Point of the South" was to remain closed. Despite the fact that all other southern military colleges were allowed to reopen after the war, The Citadel was occupied by the U.S. Army. The federal government refused to budge. In 1880, Gen Johnson Hagood, class of 1847, was elected Governor of South Carolina. He made the reopening of The Citadel a top priority and used the legal resources of the state to regain the college campus.

In the fall of 1881, former judge, and Washington, D.C. resident, Thomas J. Mackey, aggressively prosecuted the State claim for the U.S. Government to withdraw from The Citadel. Mackey, a former Citadel Cadet, Mexican War veteran, and member of the famous Palmetto Regiment, was successful. On January 29, 1882, U.S. Secretary of War Robert Todd Lincoln, son of deceased President Abraham Lincoln, ordered the U.S. Army to abandon The Citadel on Marion Square. The State of South Carolina and graduates of the institution received the news with great jubilation, but they realized there was still much work to be done.

Governor Hagood dispatched Brigadier General Cornelius Irvine Walker, class of 1861, to accept The Citadel on behalf of the State of South Carolina. While he waited for the U.S. Army to vacate The Citadel, the "Act to Authorize the Re-Opening of the South Carolina Military Academy" was pending in the State Legislature. The act passed on January 31, 1882, just 2 days after the U.S. Government announced they would return The Citadel to the State. The Association of Graduates, the Board of Visitors, and the Governor of South Carolina, all of whom were Citadel graduates, less than 160 strong, were successful despite the overwhelming odds against them.

Civil War Reconstruction