Columbia City Map Poster

About Columbia

The National Guard base is also home to the U.S. Army's Combat Aviation Brigade and the South Carolina State Guard's Columbia Detachment, as well as a number of other units including Special Forces detachments from all branches of service, making it one of the most important military bases in both South Carolina and North America. The city was founded on May 1, 1786 by an act of the South Carolina General Assembly approved by Governor Edward Rutledge; it was named for General William Moultrie who had fought in the American Revolutionary War (1775–83) alongside his close friend Andrew Pickens (who served under him). The original site was part of Colonel Abraham Lightwood's plantation home place along Quaker Road near Cowpens Creek; Lightwood having built his house about 1764 or earlier upon land purchased from Col. Robert Gibbes in 1755 with 20 acres fronting on Saluda River granted to him by King George II for fighting against Cherokee Indians at Fort Ninety-Six during Lord Dunmore’s War (1774).