Restoring Fort Johnson: The Fort that Defended Charleston Harbor for over a Hundred Years.

The Powder Magazine today.

College of Charleston

Recipient: College of Charleston
Amount: $356,934.78

One of a series of interlocking fortifications designed to protect Charleston, South Carolina, Fort Johnson was built on James Island during the onset of Queen Anne’s War, sometime between 1704 and 1708. Continuously expanded and upgraded over the next hundred years, the fort defended Charleston Harbor through four separate conflicts, seeing direct action during the American Revolution and Civil War. Today, a few intact remnants of the fort remain, including a powder magazine, two water-cisterns, and a line of earthworks facing the Ashley River.

Made of tabby brick, Fort Johnson’s surviving powder magazine was built around 1765. During the American Civil War, Confederate forces reinforced its walls and buried the magazine in sand to better protect it from more advanced artillery shells. Adjacent to the magazine, two water-cisterns exist that are also made of tabby and were likely built prior to the War of 1812. Designed to capture rainwater, these cisterns provided the fort’s defenders their only potable water source on an Island surrounded by the brackish tides of the harbor. Uncovered in the 1960s, both the powder magazine and the cisterns have fallen into disrepair.

With the financial assistance of a Battlefield Restoration Grant, the College of Charleston will restore Fort Johnson’s powder magazine and water-cisterns using historic building materials, replacing masonry components that are beyond repair with new tabby brick. By stabilizing these historic structures, the college and its preservation partners will be better positioned to accurately interpret the history of the fort and convey its scale to the public, while also being better able to reflect the daily lives of the fort’s defenders more accurately to the public.

Battlefield Restoration Grants from the National Park Service’s American Battlefield Protection Program support projects that restore “day-of-battle” conditions at nationally significant American Revolution, War of 1812, and Civil War battlefields and associated historic sites. The awards are made possible by the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which reinvests revenue from offshore oil and natural gas leasing to help strengthen conservation and recreation opportunities across the nation. These grants empower preservation partners to inspire wonder, understanding and empathy at the places that witnessed some of our nation’s most challenging events. In addition to this grant opportunity, the program also provides financial assistance through Battlefield Land Acquisition Grants, Battlefield Interpretation Grants, and Preservation Planning Grants. This financial assistance encourages and sustains community-driven stewardship of historic resources in Tribal, state, and local communities.