The “Old Magazine” battery was a defensive work on the public block bounded by today's Queen, Franklin, Logan and Magazine streets. The first magazine on this site, built in 1737, had been known as the New Powder Magazine until it was replaced in 1772. In 1779, it was repaired and stocked with gunpowder that would supply gun emplacements along the Ashley River from Battery Northwest to Oyster Point. Although public officials referred to it as the Town Magazine, it was more commonly called the Old Magazine, and a French map of the Siege of Charleston showed it as “Du vieux Magasin.” After the British gave up Charleston in 1782, all powder supplies, public and private, were again moved to the Shipyard Creek magazine north of the city. Downtown storage was limited to "only the smallest necessary part in Town Magazine, in order to discharge the city from danger thereof." Borick, Carl P. A Gallant Defense, The Siege of Charleston, 1780. University of South Carolina Press, 2003.
Davis, Nora M. "Public Powder Magazines at Charleston." City of Charleston Yearbook, 1942.
DeSaussure, Wilmot G. "An Account of the Siege of Charleston, South Carolina, in 1780." City of Charleston Yearbook, 1884.
Moultrie, William. Memoirs of the American Revolution. New York, 1802; rep. ed. Arno Press, 1968.
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| “Sketch of Operations Before Charlestown Copied from Sir Henry Clinton’s Map, 1780.” Courtesy of Alabama Maps http://alabamamaps.ua.edu
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Old Magazine Battery. Note barracks building behind the magazine.
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| Edmund Petrie, Ichnography of Charleston, South Carolina. London, Phoenix Fire Company, 1788. American Memory, Library of Congress http://memory.loc.gov/ |
“Old Powder Magazine” in 1788.
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| C. Drie. Bird's Eye View of the City of Charleston, South Carolina. 1872. American Memory, Library of Congress http://memory.loc.gov/ |
Location of the “new magazine” and the “old magazine battery” in 1872. The fortifications had made way for the City Jail and hospitals.
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