On April 12, 1861, Confederate forces at Fort Johnson fired upon Federal-occupied Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, etching James Island's name in American history as the starting place of the War Between the States. The island was a battleground for war skirmishes, live oak-laden property that housed antebellum plantations, fertile soil that yielded sea island cotton, precious land that enslaved so many, and a rural planting community existing in the shadow of Charleston. More than this, though, James Island was and is a beloved home to generations of proud families and individuals. This...