What is Poe's connection to South Carolina?

Answer 1

On a chilly autumn day in the year of the new millennium, I head my car out of Charleston, South Carolina up the coast, across the river and marshes to Sullivan's Island, now a settled community of mostly year round residents. Meandering, I could turn left onto Gold Bug Avenue, or Raven Drive, or turn right onto Poe Avenue, names commemorating a writer's stay on this little sea island. If I could travel far enough in time I would see a different Sullivan's Island, one remote, uninhabited, isolated. Such was the Sullivan's Island of the nineteenth century, the Sullivan's Island that greeted Edgar Allan Poe.

There probably was a fresh wind whipping the sails of the brig Waltham when she made her way into Charleston harbor on November 18, 1827 carrying the eighteen-year-old Edgar Allan Poe, recently enlisted under the name of Private Edgar A. Perry. Poe was bound for his post in the United States Army at Ft. Moultrie on the tip of Sullivan's Island. Sullivan's Island stands guard at the mouth of Charleston harbor, protecting the city from assault by pirates, hurricanes, British and Yankees.

Answer 2

Edgar Allan Poe had a connection to South Carolina through his time stationed at Fort Moultrie in Charleston while serving in the military. He was stationed there for about a year in 1827-1828. This experience influenced some of his work, including the short story "The Gold-Bug."