Combat· American Civil War
Battle of Port Royal
One of the largest Union amphibious operations of the war's first year, and the seizure of the base that anchored the blockade of the South Atlantic.
In early November 1861 Flag Officer Du Pont's fleet attacked the two earthwork forts, Walker and Beauregard, guarding the entrance to Port Royal Sound in South Carolina. The warships steamed in an oval, pouring fire into the forts in turn, and the bombardment was so heavy that the defenders abandoned their works. A Marine detachment from the flagship Wabash landed to occupy Fort Walker after the Confederates withdrew, though Major Reynolds' Marine battalion, intended for the assault, was not in fact needed. Federal losses were slight. Port Royal Sound, with its fine deep-water harbor, became the principal Union base for the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron for the rest of the war, a permanent foothold on the Confederate coast.
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Record no. 405