Aerial view of Morris Island's Cummings Point, where the 1863 Battle of Battery Wagner took place (Alex Toline)

A South Carolina island that survived not only the first shots of the Civil War but seven developers will be preserved as open land.

The Charleston-area island, depicted in the 1989 film "Glory," was also the site of the 1863 attack by the African American 54th Massachusetts regiment.

Rather than build houses on the 125-acre northern tip of the island where Confederate soldiers first returned Union shots on April 12, 1861, a Florida developer bought the tract last month for $6.5 million and has agreed to sell it to the Trust for Public Land for $4.5 million.

Nature, in the form of island erosion, held off several of the seven attempts to build on the barrier island, and the 12-member Morris Island Coalition, which formed in February 2004, helped fend off the last two housing projects. (The National Trust is a member of the coalition.) The most recent owner, Bobby Ginn of the Florida-based Ginn Co., apparently heard the outcry against the island's development.

"Our job was relatively easy, for hardly anyone wanted to see the island developed, including the island's owners," said Blake Hallman, coalition spokesman, in the Charleston Post and Courier. "Charlestonians have the right to be ecstatic at the outcome of what should be the last battle for Morris Island."

Now the nonprofit trust must raise the $4.5 million to complete the deal.

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