Charles Macbeth

Charles Macbeth was the thirty-seventh mayor of Charleston, South Carolina, serving three full terms and a partial term between 1857 and 1865. He was born on January 24, 1805, in Charleston, South Carolina, and he died on November 30, 1881, in Pinopolis, South Carolina. From 1830 to 1865, he was part of a Charleston law practice. On February 17, 1865, Macbeth informed the Northern forces that the city had been evacuated, but he remained to preserve order. When he learned of plans by Confederate loyalists to set fires across the newly occupied city, he joined with an alderman and petitioned the Northern military for assistance. He then set up armed guards to protect important sites. In 1881, the city's annual yearbook praised him for not just protecting his fellow Charlestonians from their enemies, but "even against themselves." In 1935, the city paid $200 for a portrait of Mayor Macbeth. The painting was already in bad shape, and its condition worsened after suffering damage during Hurricane Hugo. The portrait is the only known image of Macbeth. He is buried at First Scots Presbyterian Church in Charleston, South Carolina.