HISTORIC ATTRACTIONS

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1. Beaufort Co., SC Historical Marker: The second oldest town in South Carolina, Beaufort was authroized by the Lords Proprietors on December 20, 1710. It was later chartered on January 17, 1711, laid out prior to February 16, 1717, and incorporated by the state on December 17, 1803.
2. Beaufort National Cemetery: Abraham Lincoln created this cemetery in 1863 for the casualties of battles in the South. 122 Confederate and 9,000 Union soldiers are buried there and it is still an active cemetery for funerals and military honors.
3. 1st SC Infantry of African Descent: Located on Boundary Street (U.S. 21) at the Beaufort National Cemetery in Beaufort, SC.
4. Battery Saxton: Battery Saxton, constructed in 1862, was in the second line of earthworks built by Federal troops occupying Beaufort during the Civil War. Laid out by the 1st New York engineers with the assistance of black laborers, it held 38 inch siege howitzers and was occupied in 1862 - 1865 as one of two batteries anchoring a line from Battery Creek to the Beaufort River. The remnants of which are visible just south of U.S. Hwy. 21 (known as Shell Road during the war).
5. Beaufort College: Located on Carteret Street in Beaufort, South Carolina. Now part of the University of South Carolina Beaufort campus, Beaufort College was erected by the Beaufort Historical Society and the Beuafort College Board of Trustees-2001.
6. John Mark Verdier House Museum: Built in 1805, this Federal-style home was taken over by Union officers as their headquarters during the Civil War. 
7. St. Helena's Episcopal Church: This Episcopal Parish was established by Act of the Assembly on
   June 7, 1712. The first known rector, William Guy, conducted early worship services in homes
   of settlers. The parish suffered greatly during the 1715 Yemassee Indian attack; constructed
   the present building in 1724 (enlarged 1817 & 1842); and was given ciommunion silver in
   1734 by John Bull, a captain in the militia.
8. Tabernacle Baptist Church: Tabernacle Church was formed by black members of Beaufort
   Baptist Church after other members evacuated the area because of Ferderal occupation
   in 1861. The church's lecture room was used for services during the war. In 1867, the
   black congregation bought this property from the Beaufort Baptist Church. It's present
   building was dedicated in 1894. Many new churches have grown from the Tabernacle.
9. Statue of Robert Smalls: This statue represents an African-American slave who went from slave to
   US Congressman during the slave era. The statue stands at Charles Street & Craven Street, next to Tabernacle Church, Beaufort.
10. Memorial of Stephen Elliott, CSA: Stephen Elliott is known for acts of bravery and outstanding leadership
    in the defense of Beaufort. This memorial was erected by the Stephen Elliott Chapter of the
    United Daughters of the Confederacy opposite the home in which this Chapter was organized.
11. Maxcy-Rhett House (Secession House): The Secession House is located at the corner of Craven & Church
    Streets in Beaufort, South Carolina. It was erected by the General Richard H. Anderson Camp
    No. 47 Sons of Confederate Verterans-2005.
12. Beaufort Female Benevolent Society: The Beaufort Female Benevolent Society is located at 308 Scott Street in Beaufort, South
    Carolina. It was erected by Beaufort County Historical Society and Beaufort Female Benevolent
    Society-1989.
13. Statue of Thomas Heyward, Jr.: The statue was placed by the Thomas Heyward, Jr. Chapter, national
    Society ~ Daughters of the American Revolution in 1979 at the Charles Street entrance to the Henry C. Chambers Waterfront Park in Beaufort.
14. Mather School: Mather School is located on the East side of SC 281, 100 yards south of the interesection
    of SC 281 and Reynolds Street., Beaufort, South Carolina. It was erected by the Mather School
    Alumnae Association-1982.
    
    
    
    Port Royal Historical Markers
    
    
    
15. Union Church of Port Royal: The Union Church was built in 1878 on an 11th street lot donated by D.F. Appleton. The church was active until the mid-1970s, shared by Presbyterians, Baptists and Methodists, who rotated Sundays. The different denominations each outgrew the building and built their own respective churches This building now houses a museum who's exhibits form a collage of information about Port Royal's mayors, industries, post offices and residents collected from donated artifacts found in attics and family albums.
16. Camp Saxton Site - Emancipation Day: The Camp Saxton site marker is in Port Royal, South Carolina, on Pinckney Boulevard. The marker locatetion is on the U.S. Naval Hospital - Port Royal (A Secured Military Installation). On New Years Day 1863, this plantation owned by John Joyner Smith was the scene of ceremonies celebrating the enactment of the Emancipation Proclomation. Hundreds of freed men and women came from Port Royal, Beaufort and the sea islands to join Federal military, civil authorities and many others in marking the event.
17. First Fort: On or near this site, in the settlement known as Stuart Town, stood the "Tight Watch House" erected in 1683 -1684. After the destruction of the town by the Spanish in 1686, it was replaced by a fort approximately 100 square feet defended by "9 Great Guns" and was known as the Beaufort Fort after 1710. It was the main defense of the area until Fort Frederick was erected in 1735.
    
    
    Parris Island Historical Markers
    
    
    
18. The United States Marine Corps War Memorial, Parris Island, SC: Sometimes called the "Iwo Jima Memorial." The original is in Washington, DC.
19. Jean Ribaut Monument: The Jean Ribaut Monument is located on Parris Island MCRD. Here stood Charlesfort, built 1562 by Jean Ribaut for Admiral Cligny. A refuge for Hugunenots and to the glory of France. Erected 1925 by the Government of the United States of America to mark the first stronghold of France on this Continent.
    
    
    St. Helena Island Historical Markers
    
    
    
20. Penn Center: Penn Center was the first school for freed slaves in South Carolina. It is now a museum and cultural center.
21. In Honor of Edith M. Dabbs and James McBride Dabbs: In Honor of Edith M. Dabbs for her work and leadership in preserving historic documents and photographs of Penn School and for her contributions as author of Face of an Island and Sea Island Diary. It is also in honor of James McBride Dabbs for his dedicated service as trustee and advocate of Penn School from 1960 to 1970.
22. Chapel of Ease -- St. Helena Island: Built about 1740, it was made a seperate church after the revolution and burned by forest fire on February 22, 1886.
23. The Great Sea Island Storm: On the night of August 27, 1893, a huge "tropical cyclone," the largest and most powerful storm to hit S.C. (until Hurricane Hugo in 1989), made landfall just East of Savannah, Georgia. With gusts as high as 120 mph and a storm surge at 12 feet, the worst of the storm struck the Sea Islands near Beaufort, devastating St. Helena, Hilton head, Daufuskie, Parris and smaller islands.
24. Fort Fremont: Located at the southwestern tip of St. Helena Island in Beaufort County, Fort Fremont was constructed in 1899 to defend Port Royal Sound and the Naval Station located at Parris Island (which became the Marine Corps Recruit Training Depot in 1906).
    
    
    Sheldon Historical Markers:
    
    
    
25. Ruins of Old Sheldon Church: Old Sheldon Church, also known as Prince Williams' Parish Church, was built between 1745 and 1755. It was burned by the British in 1779. It was rebuilt in 1826 and burned again in 1865 by the Federal Army. It is named for the ancestral home of the Bull family in Warwickshire, England. Annual services are held here on the second Sunday after Easter.
26. Sheldon Union Academy: Sheldon Union Academy, later Sheldon School, opened in 1893 on this site and educated black children of rural Sheldon community for almost fifty years. The original Sheldon Union Academy board, which founded and governed the school from 1893 to 1918, included S.T. Beabien, M.W. Brown, P.R. Chisolm, H.L. Jones, S.W. Ladson, F.S. Mitchell, and N.D. Mitchell.
    
    
    
    Bluffton Historical Markers:
    
    
    
27. Michael C. Riley Schools: This is the site of two schools that served the black community of southern Beaufort County for most of the twentieth century. Bluffton Graded School, a small frame building constructed about 1900, was followed in 1954 by an elementary and high school named for Micheal C. Riley (1873 - 1966), longtime trustee of Beaufort County School District #2.
28. St. Luke's Church: This sanctuary, built 1824 as St. Luke's Episcopal Church, housed an active Episcopal congregation until just before the Civil War. It was sold to the trustees of St. Luke's Methodist Church in 1875 and served that congregation since. St. Luke's is listed in the National Register of Historic Places for its architectural significance as a blend of the Georgian and Greek revival styles.
29. Charles Cotesworth Pickney: Born in South Carolina, Pinckney was educated in England and served in the First and Second Provincial Congress. A commander in the Revolution, he later served in the SC General Assembly, signed the US Constitution, and was a delegate to the SC Constitutional Convention of 1790 in Columbia. Pickney spent part of his life on this island.
30. Pickney Island: Inhabited for some 10,000 years, Pinckney Island was known as Espalanga, Look-Out, and Mackney's prior to about 1775. Alexander Mackey received two Proprietary grants for land on the island in 1710. Charles Pinckney later owned the island and willed it in 1769 to his son, Charles Cotesworth, who became a successful planter there. James Bruce, former military aide to President Woodrow Wilson, purchased this island from the Pinckneys in 1937 and developed it into a small game hunting preserve. In 1975 Margaret and James Barker and Edward Starr, Jr. donated the island to the Unted States for a wildlife refuge and a nature and firest preserve.
    
    
    
    Hilton head Hsitorical Markers:
    
    
    
31. Fish Hall Plantation: This plantation was part of a 1717 Proprietary land grant of 500 acres to Col. John Barnwell. Later owners included members of the Green, Ellis, and Pope families. Nearby tabby ruins are remains of fire places of slave cabins, graves of blacks, who made up most of the island's population until after the 1950's, are in nearby Drayton Cemetery.
32. Memorial to Captain John Stoney: Captain John Stoney was a native of Ireland, a soldier in the Revolution, a planter on the island, a founder of the Episcopal Church on Hilton Head and the ancestor of the Stoneys of South Carolina. The memorial is also for his grandson, John Safford Stoney, eldest son of John and Elizabeth Gaillard Stoney, who died in 1832 in his twenty fifth year. Both of their earthly remains, also with those of James Stoney, son of Captain John Stoney, who is commemorated by his tomb, rest where they were interred in unmarked graves at the northwestern extremity of this island. The tomb was removed to this place for safekeeping May 4, 1959.
33. Thomas Fenwick Drayton: Confederate Brig. General Thomas F. Drayton was in command of this area at the time of nearby battle of Port Royal, November 7, 1861. A brother, Captain Percival Drayton, commanded the Union warship Pocahontas at the same battle. Earlier, General Drayton had married Emma Catherine Pope, whose parents owned Fish Hall Plantation.
34. Fort Howell - 1864: An excellent example of the defensive earthworks common to the Civil War Era, Fort Howell was constructed by Union Forces occupying Hilton Head Island and was one of the final fortifications to be built during the way. The men of the 32nd U.S. Colored Infantry Volunteers labored to complete the fort in the fall of 1864. Its purpose to protect Mitchelville, a freedman's town of newly emancipated slaves, which lay just down the road from this spot. Fort Howell was deeded to the Hilton Head Island Land Trust in 1992 to insure its public preservation as an historic site for current and duture enerations to enjoy.
35. Hilton Head Island Veterans Memorial: Dedicated to all veterans who have served their country honorably, and have helped preserve the freedoms that we enjoy in this great country.
36. Mitchelville Site: In 1862, after Hilton Head's fall to Union forces in 1861, this town, planned for the area's former slaves and name for General Ormsby M. Mitchel, began.
37. Revolutionary War Ambush: In December 1871, returning from a patrol with the patriot Militia, charles Devant was mortally wounded from ambush near here by Camptain Martinangel's Royal Mlitia from Daufuskie Island. he managed to ride his horse to his nearby plantation, Two Oaks where he died. "Captain John Leacraft's Bloody legion avenged his death."
38. Zion chapel of Ease and Cemetery: A Chapel of St. Luke's parrish, established May 23, 2767, built of wood shortly after 1786 under the direction of Captain John Stoney and Isaac Fripp, was consecrated in 1833. members of the Barksdale, Baynard, Chaplin, Davant, Fripp, Kirk, Mathews, Pope, Stoney, and Webb families worshipped here. By 1868 the chapel was destroyed.