Louis Coste, Hal's third great-grandfather, arrived as a Huguenot immigrant from Montpelier, France, in the late 18th century and became a naturalized citizen in 1808. He and his wife, Lucinda Mackey, had three sons, among them Napoleon L. Coste, who went on to have a long and adventurous career in the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service. That included expeditions with naturalist James Audubon, and the placement of many of the lighthouses and other aids to navigation along the east coast. His most famous deed was at the outbreak of the Civil War when Coste commandeered the revenue cutter, William Aiken, and turned it over to the state of South Carolina. Hal recounts other significant events in the life of N.L. Coste, as well as his son, Napoleon Edward, who also served the Confederacy and later the Revenue Cutter Service. Hal next recounts his memories of his grandfather, Vincent O. Coste, who served in the U.S. Lifesaving Service, which joined with the Revenue Cutter Service in 1915 to form the U.S. Coast Guard. Vincent later commanded the Coast Guard station on Sullivan's Island. Hal next speaks of the lives of his mother and father, before detailing his own time on the island. These include his mayonnaise meal in kindergarten, his learning to swim in the creek behind the island, and especially his passion for surfing. Before ending with his general feelings regarding changes that have occurred on Sullivan's Island, Hal explains and displays the two silver life-saving medals from the Coast Guard that hang on his walls, one for Hal's own actions and one for the incredible story of his great-uncle, James Coste, who in 1898 saved a young man who would turn out to be the grandfather of Charleston's long time mayor, Joe Riley.
Interview with Marcellus Forrest by Lee Drago, Eugene Hunt, and Margareta Childs, February 21, 1981, AMN 500.001.002, in Avery Normal Institute Oral History Project, of the Avery Research Center at the College of Charleston.
Interview with Peter Poinsette by Edmund L. Drago and Eugene C. Hunt, March 31, 1981, AMN 500.001.007, in the Avery Normal Institute Oral History Project, of the Avery Research Center at the College of Charleston
“Stories Collected from Slaves” by Leonarda J. Aimar is a bound volume of formerly enslaved people's stories. In her transcription, she attempted to capture the storytellers’ colloquial speech, now recognized as the Gullah language. The volume includes a list of addresses, occupations, and diseases of African Americans during their enslavement; an eye-witness account of the Battle of Secessionville on James Island during the Civil War in 1862; how enslaved people were returned to their slaveholders following the Revolutionary War; and an account of Sherman's march from Savannah, Georgia to Charleston, South Carolina during the Civil War. A formerly enslaved man, Sam, provides a detailed account of being a butler, coachman, and horse jockey. He also recounts how Union Army Major Robert Anderson took control of Fort Sumter and the events that transpired there on April 12, 1861. Other accounts include an enslaved man’s recollections of his time as a servant to a plantation overseer who sympathized with the Union during the Civil War and formerly enslaved man Jim Alston’s detailed eye-witness account of the 1876 Cainhoy Riot.
A notebook (ca. 1920) containing reminiscences by Rose P. Ravenel, who writes about her girlhood, her relationship with her "mammy" and her French nurse. She describes life at Farmfield Plantation during the Civil War, knitting socks for Confederate soldiers, making paper and envelopes, salt production, molasses candy, flower dolls, and the family's hardships after the Civil War.
Letter from Sue M. Monroe to Nellie [B. Clarksall?] concerning the body of Nathaniel Heyward (II), who was killed in the Second Battle of Bull Run, August 1862. Monroe apparently tried to catalog and care for the graves of those buried on the battlefield at Manassas. 4p. October 12, 1898.
Letter from Nellie B. Clarksall to Miss Heyward enclosing the previous letter of Sue Monroe. The letter concerns Miss Heyward's attempt to locate the remains of her uncle Nathaniel Heyward (II) who had died at the Second Battle of Bull Run. 3p. October 20, 1898.
Black-and-white offset print reproduction of the first Cabinet of the Confederate States, including Judah P. Benjamin serving as Attorney General. From Harper's pictorial history of the Civil War.
A letter to Woodward Manning from his brother Ira L. Manning discussing the death of their brother Elisha, the failing cotton crop, the hiring of freedmen, and requesting information on who from their hometown was killed in the war.
Letter from W. A. Browning, private secretary of President Andrew Johnson, to Archbishop Spalding of Baltimore, informing him of the pardon of Bishop P. N. Lynch of Charleston.
Caption: 'The Old Flag again on Sumter--raised (on a temporary staff formed of an oar and boathook) by Captain H.M. Bragg, of General Gillmore's staff, February 18th, 1865.'
[Color image.] Caption: 'Unloading a transport with ambulances for the Army, at Wilmington, N.C.--View looking up Water Street.--sketched by our Special Artist.' [full date April 15, 1865.]
Caption: 'Sherman's march through South Carolina--advance from McPhersonville, February 1, 1865.--sketched by William Waud.--[see page 133.]' [full date March 4, 1865.]
Caption: 'Sherman's march through South Carolina--burning of McPhersonville, February 1, 1865.--sketched by William Waud.--[see page 133.]' [full date March 4, 1865.]
Caption: 'Eastport, Mississippi, General Thomas's head-quarters, January, 1865.--sketched by Adam Rohe.--[see page 110.] [full date February 18. 1865.]
Caption: ' "Marching on!"--the Fifty-Fifth Massachusetts Colored Regiment singing John Brown's March in the streets of Charleston, February 21, 1865.--[see page 172.]' [full date March 18, 1865.]
Caption: 'Enthusiastic crowd of citizens of Charleston, S.C., assembled on Vanderhost's (sic) Wharf, Feb. 20, to greet the second visit of Gen. Gillmore and staff.--sketched by our Special Artist.' [full date March 25, 1865.]
Kate Ferguson, wife of Samuel Wragg Ferguson, writes to her husband's godmother. This undated letter was apparently written after Samuel Ferguson's promotion to brigadier general in the Confederate army. She relates how "Ferguson's command is now resting from his last terrible raid" and that "Capt Nugent and William Barker have not yet returned from Deer Creek." 4p.
Letter from James B. Heyward in Columbia to Dr. D.W. Ray, trustee for the late owner whose land James had verbally agreed to rent. James is anxious to move his slaves there for safekeeping but is worried the trustee had no knowledge of the agreement between James and the recently departed owner. James also mentions that he must hasten back to the low country "as my property there is in peril from the proximity of the enemy." 2p. December 19, 1864.
Letter from James B. Heyward at Combahee to his wife Maria Heyward. James has traveled back down to his Combahee plantation from Columbia with the hope of being able to check on the condition of his Fife Plantation near Savannah, if the news of the enemy is favorable. He apparently enjoys being back on his own plantation writing "it is delightful here." 3p. December 6, 1864.
A letter to Woodward Manning from the Quartermaster's office ordering that any surplus of corn available is to be given to the army through purchase or impressment
Caption: 'The siege of Charleston--View from the sea-face of Fort Wagner.--sketched by Mr. Theodore R. Davis.--[See Page 621.]' [full date September 26, 1863.]
Caption: 'Map of the Southern states, showing the relative proportion of slaves in the different localities.--[see page 142.]' [full date February 28, 1863.]
Caption: 'Folley's (sic) Battery, near the lighthouse, at Charleston, South Carolina.--from a sketch by A.P. Palmer, 21st South Carolina Volunteers.--[see page 79.]' [full date January 31, 1863.]
Caption: 'The Siege of Charleston--the morning call to the Rebels.--sketched from the naval battery by Mr. Theodore R. Davis.--[see page 603.]' [full date September 19, 1863.]
Caption in German: 'Belagerung von Charleston.--Gen. Gillmore's hauptquartier auf Morris Island.' [Siege of Charleston.--Gen. Gillmore's headquarters on Morris Island.]
![354. Sue M. Monroe to Nellie [B. Clarksall?] -- October 12, 1898](https://rspace.library.cofc.edu/iiif/image/26587/full/200,/0/default.jpg)
![007. Virginia to Stanna -- [Unknown month] 29, 1864](https://rspace.library.cofc.edu/iiif/image/25299/full/200,/0/default.jpg)
