Book Review: Holding Charleston by the Bridle: Castle Pinckney and the Civil War

Holding Charleston by the Bridle: Castle Pinckney and the Civil War. By W. Clifford Roberts Jr. and Matthew A.M. Locke. El Dorado Hills, CA: Savas Beatie, 2024. 259 pp. $32.95

Reviewed by Neil P. Chatelain

Earlier this year, publisher Savas Beatie released Philip Hatcher’s Thunder in the Harbor, providing a complete history of Charleston Harbor’s Fort Sumter. That work is now complemented with W. Clifford Roberts and Matthew A. M. Locke and their new work Holding Charleston by the Bridle, which provides the first book-length study on Charleston’s Castle Pinckney.

Much like Hatcher’s Fort Sumter book, Roberts and Locke provide a complete history of Castle Pinckney, not merely its role in the Civil War’s four years. Seven of the fourteen chapters cover the Civil War, as one might expect, but significant space is dedicated to both antebellum and postwar developments involving the fortification.

Antebellum chapters explore how Shute’s Folly, the island the castle is situated on, was originally fortified by the British and later chosen to house the titular castle, named after Charles C. Pinckney. These chapters also look at Castle Pinckney’s role in defending the coastline, including the ebb and flow of increased and decreased manning as political and military priorities shifted.

Civil War chapters focus on the castle’s capture by South Carolina secessionists in 1860 and its role in Charleston’s defense throughout the conflict. Though Castle Pinckney never came under serious bombardment, and its guns were rarely fired, clearly written text demonstrates how both sides saw this secondary fortification was a critical position within Charleston’s harbor defense system. The engineering changes to the castle during the war, including increasing use of sand and ground support positions to bolster the original brick structure, highlight the evolution of wartime fortifications and the shift amongst Confederate coastal defenses from brick forts to sand positions such as Battery Wagner and Fort Fisher.

Postwar chapters explore Pinckney’s constant neglect and shuffling of jurisdictions between the army, lighthouse bureau, park service, and private groups. Those who have worked in the government will understand the arguments over budget allocations, use of land-space, and shifting responsibilities. Those unfamiliar with government bureaucracies will quickly gain a greater appreciation of the difficult task preservationists face in working through the proverbial red tape to create historic sites, and all readers will quickly understand the special case Castle Pinckney is regarding modern preservation. Ship channels, disappearing islands, and the jurisdiction battle are merely some of the problems facing this site’s continued existence, and there are modern efforts to preserve and restore the castle, as opposed to other brick coastal fortifications (such as Forts Livingston and St. Philip in Louisiana) which have been essentially abandoned to the elements.

Besides the nineteenth century fight between modernization and neglect that many coastal fortifications faced, and the coastal defense mission, other themes pervade. One worth mentioning was that Castle Pinckney always seemed prime for conversion into a prison. Seminole prisoners were held there before the Civil War. During the war, prisoners captured at Bull Run in July 1861 were sent there, as were prisoners captured in 1863 from the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment. Postwar, the army imprisoned military deserters and anti-Reconstruction South Carolinians there.

There is only one map of Castle Pinckney’s position in Charleston at the beginning of the book, but within the text are a plethora of imagery, including of key individuals, drawings made of Castle Pinckney by visitors, modern photographs, and most notably, numerous period engineering diagrams. The text is based on firsthand accounts, and it seems that the authors managed to locate even remote references to Castle Pinckney and tie them into the grander narrative. The front of the book includes a useful glossary of terms related to nineteenth century fortifications, and brief biographies of key individuals. There are also eighteen short appendices, ranging from firsthand accounts to newspaper clippings to summaries of the toasts given when the castle was first named.

Holding Charleston by the Bridle: Castle Pinckney and the Civil War provides an in-depth and readable history of this often overlooked fort, while simultaneously highlighting the difficulties of preserving historic coastal fortifications and calling the reader to action to take part in said preservation. It accomplishes these tasks handsomely, shedding light on an oft-sidelined position, the challenges it faced as an active installation, and the challenges faced in maintaining it today.