White Point Garden (The Battery)

The park occupies the southern tip of the Charleston peninsula, where the Ashley and Cooper rivers converge into Charleston Harbor. The 'white point' originally referred to a publicly owned site of oyster shoals visible at low tide. The City of Charleston formally established the area as a public park in 1837, and through the 19th century it filled with live oaks, walking paths, monuments, and an ornamental bandstand.

The site is best known for the autumn 1718 pirate executions. On November 8, 1718, twenty-nine pirates from the crew of the Revenge - the ship of Major Stede Bonnet - were hanged near the white point as a warning to other freebooters operating in southern Atlantic waters. Bonnet himself was hanged on December 10, 1718. Later in the month, nineteen more pirates from the crew of Captain Richard Worley were executed at the same place. Over roughly five weeks, forty-nine pirates were hanged at the water's edge, and their bodies were left on display in chains. A granite memorial marker was placed near the northeast corner of White Point Garden in 1943 to commemorate the executions.

The park also saw use during the Civil War for harbor defense. Today an array of Civil War-era cannons and several memorials and monuments dot the grounds. White Point Garden remains one of Charleston's most photographed public spaces and the anchor of the Battery promenade.