You Say Legarre, I Say Legare

The Legarre house required some more digging. Initial internet searches produced little fruit. So, I tried spelling combinations, the easiest of which was "Legare." Bingo! Charleston is full of references to Legare, a very prominent family throughout the city's history. Next, were there any "Legare" houses on James Island? Bingo again! The Legare-Waring House is located on James Island. You can read more about this house at their website http://www.legarewaringhouse.com/. I am including an image of the house from that site, just to give you a feel for the excitement that I had thinking that I might have found the location of the battle field.


So, on our excursion in the Captain's footsteps we were off to the Legare-Waring house. It is a very historic place! Better known as Charlestowne Landing, the location of the original city of Charleston. So, we paid our money and took the tour. Very interesting. We saw some of the reconstruction of the original town, learned about the excavations, the settlement, the early commerce, and many other things. There was even a part on the walking tour that described the original plantation house that had existed during the civil war. A few pictures of these sites:

A view of the recreated earthworks and cannon location of Charlestowne Landing.

Recreation of a working garden at Charlestowne Landing.

The Scene of some excitement for me. This was identified as the location of former slave quarters on the grounds of the Legare-Waring plantation. Could this have been the location of the Captain's capture?

As I thought about the location and geography, this place didn't seem to fit the intent of Union operations in June 1862. It was fairly far from Secessionville, with no direct connection to that part of James Island. So, I became less convinced that we had found the spot of the Major's Capture.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

The Legare-Waring house was my grandmother's ancestral home and where she was born together with her 3 sisters. While it looks like you have a great appreciation for the incredible grounds (landscaped by my great aunt, Ferdinanda "Ferdie" Legaré Waring prior to her selling it to the state in the late 1960s), there is absolutely NO way that it is on James Island. It is on the mainland, not an island, in an area known as West Ashley or St. Andrew's Parish.