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"P" is for Port Royal, Battle of (November 7, 1861)

South Carolina From A to Z
SC Public Radio

“P” is for Port Royal, Battle of (November 7, 1861). On November 7th a Union naval squadron including seventeen warships and thirty-five transports (with 1,300 soldiers aboard) entered Port Royal Sound. The warships bombarded Fort Walker on Hilton Head and Fort Beauregard on Bay Point. After five hours of fighting, the Confederates evacuated the forts and fled inland—abandoning Beaufort and the Sea Islands. The Union suffered eight killed and twenty-three wounded; Confederate losses were eleven killed and sixty-one wounded. In a short time the Northern army and navy established a huge military installation that served as headquarters for the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron and the Department of the South. The Battle of Port Royal began a social and economic revolution as the Union victory brought freedom to thousands of slaves who lived in the area.

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Dr. Walter Edgar has two programs on South Carolina Public Radio: Walter Edgar's Journal, and South Carolina from A to Z. Dr. Edgar received his B.A. degree from Davidson College in 1965 and his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina in 1969. After two years in the army (including a tour of duty in Vietnam), he returned to USC as a post-doctoral fellow of the National Archives, assigned to the Papers of Henry Laurens.