Fort Johnson Chronology
1670 1708
In 1670, a group from Barbados settled at Albemarle Point (Charlestown Landing), six miles upriver from the future site of Fort Johnson their colony became South Carolina. In subsequent decades, James Island was gradually settled and divided into plantations. In 1708, the plantation of one John King occupied the site of Fort Johnson, which was then known as Windmill Point.
1708 1709
In 1708, in response to a French and Spanish attack two years earlier, colonial authorities directed the construction of a fort on Windmill Point to serve as a harbor defense for Charleston. Named for Colonial Governor Nathaniel Johnson, the large, triangular fort was an earthwork reinforced with timber and oyster shell, and was designed to mount 28 heavy guns. Fort Johnson was completed by 1709, and John King was compensated for 100 acres of his land. This fort was located in the vicinity of the present dock.
1709 1759
The original Fort Johnson underwent numerous repairs and alterations during its first 50 years of service, as hurricanes, shore erosion, and general deterioration regularly threatened the works and buildings. No military enemies challenged Fort Johnson, which nevertheless remained armed and garrisoned by South Carolina troops throughout the period.
1756
Fort Johnson began functioning as a quarantine station as well as a fortification in 1756, when the colonial government required all incoming vessels to stop at the fort for medical inspection.
1759
In 1759, during the Seven Years War, the old Fort Johnson was replaced by a new work constructed of tabby, or oyster shell concrete. The second fort appears to have occupied the same site as the first.
1759 1775
The second Fort Johnson suffered the same erosion and maintenance problems as the first,
but was not subject to military attack. Charleston, meanwhile, became a hotbed of discontent with British colonial rule. In 1765, the Stamp Act crisis in South Carolina focused on Fort Johnson, where the initial supply of royal stamps arrived. Vehement opposition by Charlestonians insured that the stamps were not delivered to the colony.
1775
In September, 1775, as South Carolina joined the Revolution, Fort Johnson was seized by local forces. The small British garrison fled without a fight.
1775 1779
Fort Johnson was a key element in the American defenses of Charleston Harbor. The old fort was reinforced and expanded with works constructed of earth and palmetto logs. New defenses were added to protect the peninsula from attack by land, from James Island. These included a line of massive earthworks with batteries, located some 500 yards west of Fort Johnson proper remnants of these works can still be seen on either side of Fort Johnson Road, just east of the NOAA grounds. Fort Johnson played no direct part in repulsing the British naval attack of 1776, which was confined to Fort Moultrie.
1779
In spite of its new inland defenses, Fort Johnson was dismantled, disarmed, and evacuated on the approach of British General Prevost’s invasion force, marching slowly north from Savannah. Prevost withdrew after unsuccessfully demanding the surrender of Charleston.
1780 1782
The site of Fort Johnson was once again evacuated without a struggle on the approach of Sir Henry Clinton’s British army from the south. The British captured Charleston in May, 1780, and held the city until after the end of the Revolution, evacuating in December, 1782. During their occupation, the British re fortified Fort Johnson against American attack, but demolished the fortifications when they evacuated.
1782 1805
Fort Johnson lay abandoned, in ruins, after the Revolution. In 1793, South Carolina erected a small fort or battery on the site, and in 1794 the United States added an additional battery. The U.S. battery was the earliest Regular Army presence at Fort Johnson. The site was severely damaged by hurricanes in 1800 and 1803. In 1805, South Carolina agreed to cede Fort Johnson and a reservation to the United States.
1805 1815
The U.S. built a series of temporary batteries on the Fort Johnson site during the period, with particularly heavy construction activity during the War of 1812 (1812 1815). The British did not attack Charleston, however. The brick powder magazine built during this period still stands.
1815 1860
After the War of 1812, even the temporary works at Fort Johnson fell into disrepair. In 1829, the site was abandoned as an actual fortification the small U.S. garrison moved to Fort Moultrie, and the buildings at Fort Johnson became the depot for the U.S. Engineer Office, Charleston Harbor. The Engineer Office was engaged primarily in the construction of nearby Fort Sumter, and Fort Johnson provided a convenient headquarters until 1860. During the ante bellum period, a series of sea wall projects were implemented at Fort Johnson to preserve the site for future fortification.
Also during this period, a planter’s summer village, Johnsonville, grew up in the area immediately south of the U.S. reservation. There, James Island planters sought to avoid the seasonal ravages of malaria and other diseases that they perceived more prevalent further inland. Johnsonville was demolished during the Confederate occupation.
1860 1861
In December, 1860, as hostilities with South Carolina loomed, the meagre U.S. forces at Forts Johnson and Moultrie withdrew to Fort Sumter. South Carolina forces quickly seized Fort Johnson, and began erecting earthwork batteries to oppose Fort Sumter, or any Federal naval effort against Charleston. On April 12, 1861, the opening shot of the Civil War was fired from a South Carolina mortar battery located on the beach just south of old Fort Johnson. The mortar shot was the signal for commencement of a general bombardment of Fort Sumter, which capitulated 34 hours later.
1861 1865
The Civil War was by far the most active period in Fort Johnson’s military history. The Confederate defenders of Charleston made Fort Johnson the left anchor of a line of earthworks and batteries that stretched across James Island to the Stono River. Fort Johnson itself was no longer a "fort" in the traditional sense, but rather an array of large earthwork batteries and parapets that ultimately enclosed the entire Fort Johnson peninsula. During the Siege of Charleston (1863 1865) Fort Johnson was a key element in the heavy artillery defenses of the harbor, and artillery duels with Federal batteries below James Island were a regular occurrence.
Fort Johnson was abandoned by the Confederates in February, 1865, when Charleston was evacuated. Elements of several Federal regiments, including the legendary 54th Massachusetts, occupied Fort Johnson during the spring and summer of 1865.
1865 1873
The site was apparently abandoned by U.S. forces in the summer of 1865, and was never fortified again. Archaeological evidence suggests that the small community of ex slaves who occupied part of the Fort Johnson reservation for many years took up residence during this period.
1872 1906
South Carolina operated a maritime quarantine station at Fort Johnson from 1872 to 1906, inspecting and fumigating vessels from suspect ports. The Quarantine Officer’s House built in about 1887 still stands.
1906 1948
The U.S. Public Health Service took over the quarantine station at Fort Johnson in 1906, and continued operations until 1948, when the station was closed. During World War II, Fort Johnson was used by the Coast Guard for guard dog training, and by the Army for anti aircraft training.
1948 1998
The Fort Johnson reservation and its buildings became surplus in 1948. In 1954, the property was deeded to the College of Charleston and the Medical College of South Carolina, for marine science and medical research facilities. This began the era of the utilization of Fort Johnson as a center for marine research and natural resources management the reservation now includes facilities of the College of Charleston, the Medical University of South Carolina, the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
1998
In October, ground was broken for the Hollings Marine Lab (Marine Environmental Health Research Laboratory - MEHRL) complex at Fort Johnson.
2007
Planning for a new lab adjacent to the College of Charleston's Grice Lab was implemented.