Charleston Confederate Sights - Marion Square, College of Charleston and Surrounding Neighborhoods

Immediately south of and adjacent to the Embassy Suites which was the original site and structure of The Citadel military academy is Marion Square.  This expansive grassy park has an impressive monument for South Carolina and Southern statesman John C. Calhoun.  On one side of the monument is a plaque which tells the story of the construction of the monument which was funded by the Ladies Calhoun Monument Association. Soon after his death in 1860, during the War for Southern Independence for which Calhoun had laid the the groundwork as a leader of the Southern states, the Treasurer of the Association had to keep the funds on her person to avoid their confiscation during "the memorable night of the destruction of Columbia SC by Sherman".  On another side of the square is an obelisk monument to General Wade Hampton, a great Carolina Confederate General who is the namesake of many places in the states of South and North Carolina particularly in the Greenville upstate area. A block farther south of Marion Square is the beautiful historic College of Charleston with its moss draped oak lined cobblestone streets.  To the east of the Embassy Suites is the Charleston Museum; at the entrance to the museum is a full scale model of the Confederate submarine Hunley. This model was constructed from engineering drawings of the submarine before the actual Hunley was found and raised from the floor of Charleston harbor.  In the neighborhood around the museum are a number of beautiful antebellum homes including the Rhett-Aiken house which dates from the 1820s.