hile it may lack as compelling a cast of heroes and villains as World War II, World War I shook the world in a way no conflict ever has in the course of human history. It took place at a turning point, at a moment where there were people still riding into battle with swords on horseback while at the same time, the first ever tanks rolled out of factories. Before then, war was quite different. Armies were small. Costs were low. No one could have predicted automatic weaponry. Dynamite. Mustard gas. Grenades and mines and missiles. No one could have foreseen the possibility of the loss of millions. Even though the United States entered the war late, it made tensions high everywhere, and nowhere was that more clear than in South Carolina. It was massively unpopular. The South as a region was still hurting from the Civil War, which ended only a few decades prior. You also had a high population of German immigrants in South Carolina who were against going to war with their home country and a large concentration of Irish who opposed anything that helped the British. They, along with the rest of the country, were forced to swallow their reservations when Congress voted to enter the war in 1917. Despite the war’s unpopularity in the state, 300,000 South Carolinians signed up for the draft. Around 52,000 were actually chosen. Eight of them received the Medal of Honor. A little over 2,000 never came home.
PILLARS OF THE PAST THE STORY OF ONE OF USC’S MOST HISTORIC BUILDINGS BY MARY-BRYANT CHARLES • PHOTOS BY MARK MADDALONI • DESIGN BY EMILY SCHOONOVER
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