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Castle Pinckney was a small masonry fortification constructed by the United States government in the 1790s in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina. It was used as a prisoner-of-war camp and artillery position during the American Civil War.

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 castle structure was erected in 1809. It was garrisoned through the War of 1812, but saw no action. Afterwards, Castle Pinckney was abandoned for several years and fell into disrepair.

The fort was regarrisoned and a sea wall was completed during the Nullification Crisis of 1832, when President Andrew Jackson prepared to collect a controversial tariff by military force if necessary. After that brief period of activity, the fort again fell into disuse and was primarily a storehouse for gunpowder and other military supplies.

By the Civil War, Castle Pinckney was part of a network of defensive positions in the harbor, which included the larger and more strategically placed Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie, and other smaller earthworks and fortifications. Castle Pinckney's armament in 1860 consisted of fourteen 24-pounders, four 42-pounders, four 8-inch howitzers, one 10-inch and one 8-inch mortar and four light fieldpieces to protect its flanks. On December 27, 1860, one week after South Carolina seceded from the Union, the fort was surrendered to South Carolina militia by its small garrison, which retired to Fort Sumter to join Major Robert Anderson. Castle Pinckney became the first Federal military position seized by a Southern state government. After the subsequent attack on Fort Sumter, the Charleston Zouave Cadets manned Castle Pinckney.

The first Union Army prisoners of war arrived in Charleston following the First Battle of Manassas and were held in Castle Pinckney in the lower casements. After the prisoners were removed, the fort was strengthened with earthen embankments and additional mortars and Columbiads on the barbette tier.

After the Civil War, the fort was modernized for possible use during the Spanish-American War but again was not needed. Some sources suggest that the fort never fired a single hostile shot during its lengthy existence. Parts of the old brick walls and casemates were dismantled in 1890 to make way for a harbor lighthouse, which operated into the 20th Century. Castle Pinckney was declared a U.S. National Monument in 1924 by presidential proclamation.

A local Sons of Confederate Veterans fraternal post took over management and care of the island in the late 1960s and attempted to preserve it and establish a museum. Eventually, unable to raise the needed funds, the SCV allowed the fort to revert to state ownership. Castle Pinckney has recently undergone some limited restoration efforts. Due its location on an isolated shoal in the middle of the harbor, access is limited, if not nonexistent, and maintenance near impossible. It is gradually being reclaimed by nature.

• Castle Pinckney restoration
• National Park Service overview of Castle Pinckney