excerpted from http://www.cogswell.org/Prom_text_1299.htm
Harvey Cogswell and his brother in law, Benjamin F. Evans, organized and operated the printing firm of Evans & Cogswell in Charleston, SC.
In the days leading up to secession, Evans & Cogswell Printing Company was retained as printers to the Secession Convention, and daily printed the minutes of the Convention in S.C., and printed the documents that communicated the secession to the other Southern States. The Ordinance of Secession, one of the most fateful and fatal documents in America's history, was lithographed by Evans & Cogswell.
During the War Between the States, Evans and Cogswell printed small denomination currency, Government bonds, the Soldier's Prayer Book, books on war tactics, stamps, and medical books for the Confederacy. Their company had been established in Charleston, but was moved to Columbia for protection from Gen. Sherman. Subsequently, Columbia, and the Evans & Cogswell printing plant there, was burned during the course of Gen. Sherman's infamous March to The Sea.
Because of this devastating loss, the company went into bankruptcy, but was reorganized in 1866 with the addition of C. Irvin Walker, a distinguished Confederate veteran, and the company was renamed Walker, Evans & Cogswell.
In the printing business, he was succeeded by his son, William Harvey Cogswell, whose children and grandchildren were actively involved in the management of the company.
Harvey Cogswell's rebuilt Columbia, SC, printing plant is listed Number One among "South Carolina's 11 most endangered sites" by The Palmetto Trust for Historic Preservation. "The Historic Confederate Printing Plant was built in 1864 to produce stocks, bonds, and currency for the Confederacy. It was burned by Gen. Sherman, but later rebuilt. It is located in the Congaree Vista, a downtown area. However, the size of the building and lack of adequate parking have impeded its rehabilitation." During the October 1996 Special Meeting and Reunion of the Cogswell Family Association, in Charleston, the Board of Directors voted to join the fierce battle being waged by the Palmetto Trust to preserve the priceless historic Cogswell Printing Plant in Columbia.
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