Qualla: Fort Scammon https://qualla.com/fort-scammon en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:06 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/v/f/fort-scammon-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Fort Scammon https://qualla.com/fort-scammon Fort Scammon: Introduction https://qualla.com/fort-scammon/ Photo credit JERRYE & ROY KLOTZ M.D., CC BY-SA 4.0. When the Union army retook Charleston in October 1862 - reoccupying the town that Confederate General William W. Loring had captured the previous month - the federal command came away with one clear lesson: control of the city depended on control of the ridge above it. Within a few months of the recapture, Union engineers began fortifying the hilltop that locals had used during the September fighting as an artillery position. By March 1863 they had laid out an elliptical earthwork on the ridge known then as Fort Hill, named the position Fort Scammon after Brigadier General Eliakim Scammon, and stationed troops there for the remainder of the war. The earthworks are still there today. They are the most visible Civil War archaeological feature in the Kanawha Valley.

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Image: JERRYE & ROY KLOTZ M.D. | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/v/f/fort-scammon-wp/dnvf-fort-scammon-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Fort Scammon: The Hilltop That Mattered https://qualla.com/fort-scammon/ Photo credit JERRYE & ROY KLOTZ M.D., CC BY-SA 4.0. Fort Scammon sits on a ridge rising about three hundred feet above the south bank of the Kanawha River, directly across from downtown Charleston. From the summit, the entire river valley is visible: the long flat of the Kanawha bottoms to the east, the confluence with the Elk Riv...

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Image: JERRYE & ROY KLOTZ M.D. | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/v/f/fort-scammon-wp/dnvf-fort-scammon-the-hilltop-that-mattered.mp3 0:06 2 full Fort Scammon: Building the Earthwork https://qualla.com/fort-scammon/ Photo credit JERRYE & ROY KLOTZ M.D., CC BY-SA 4.0. Construction began in March 1863. The work was earthwork rather than masonry - the standard nineteenth-century field fortification, built quickly with shovels and basket gangs and reinforced with timber. The layout was elliptical, with the long axis running roughly east-west alon...

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Image: JERRYE & ROY KLOTZ M.D. | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/v/f/fort-scammon-wp/dnvf-fort-scammon-building-the-earthwork.mp3 0:06 3 full Fort Scammon: What the Earth Held https://qualla.com/fort-scammon/ Photo credit JERRYE & ROY KLOTZ M.D., CC BY-SA 4.0. After the war ended, the fort had no further military purpose. The garrison left. The earthworks were not demolished but simply abandoned to weather and vegetation. The ridge they sit on was eventually subdivided as residential lots became valuable. Some of the earthwork was dist...

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Image: JERRYE & ROY KLOTZ M.D. | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/v/f/fort-scammon-wp/dnvf-fort-scammon-what-the-earth-held.mp3 0:06 4 full Fort Scammon: On Foot, Today https://qualla.com/fort-scammon/ Photo credit JERRYE & ROY KLOTZ M.D., CC BY-SA 4.0. Fort Scammon was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. The site sits within a small neighborhood park accessible from the south side of Charleston. Visitors can walk the perimeter of the original earthworks, follow what remains of the parapet around the ellip...

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Image: JERRYE & ROY KLOTZ M.D. | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/n/v/f/fort-scammon-wp/dnvf-fort-scammon-on-foot-today.mp3 0:06 5 full