Castle Pinckney

 military, ruined castle, place with historical importance, fortification, NRHP - National Register of Historic Places, interesting place

Castle Pinckney was a small masonry fortification constructed by the United States government in the 1790s in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina. Constructed on a shoal near the marshy Shutes' Folly Island a mile offshore from Charleston, the fort was meant to protect the city from a possible sea attack when war with France seemed imminent. The original log and earthen fort, named for the Revolutionary War hero Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, was completed in 1797.

A severe hurricane in 1804 virtually destroyed it, and a replacement brick and mortar structure was erected in 1809.

Castle Pinckney is a brick work of eliptical form, with two tiers, mounting thirty guns. It was repaired under the Third-System beginning in 1829. As of 1851, it was intended to be armed with eight 42-pounder seacoast guns, ten 24-pounder guns, four 8" heavy seacoast howizters, one 10" heavy mortar, one 10" light mortar and one 8" light mortar, for a total of 25 guns.

It was used as a prisoner-of-war camp and artillery position during the American Civil War.