Battle of Port Royal Island (Gray's Hill), February 3, 1779

As we get ever closer to the Sestercentennial (250th anniversary) commemoration of the United States, local historic events relating to the Revolutionary War will garner greater attention.

The location of the Battle of Port Royal Island fought on February 3, 1779  has long generated speculation and discussion. However with careful research, patience and improvements in archaeological technology in his favor,  archaeologist Daniel Battle discovered the actual site of the Battle of Port Royal Island in the Gray's Hill area in 2016. The site is on private and Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort property and therefore inaccessible at this time though a communication from the South Carolina Battleground Preservation Trust indicates that contracts to purchase the land were signed in January 2020. An historic highway marker is near the location on US Highway 21.

Photo by Mike Stroud https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=14738

There is considerable discussion about whether to call the engagement a "battle" or more aptly a "skirmish." Whether battle or skirmish, whether the engagement is called _ of Port Royal Island, _ of Beaufort, or _ of Gray's Hill, the end result for those killed during the engagement is the same - a grave. Each man was fighting for his life. Eight Patriots were killed while the British suffered an estimated 52 casualties. This was the only instance in the Revolutionary War in which two Signers of the Declaration of Independence fought side-by-side. Thomas Heyward, Jr. of Beaufort District and Edward Rutledge were head of two artillery companies from Charleston that shelled the British forces that day. Heyward's plantation had been torched by the British the day before.   

According to Old Churchyard Cemetery of St. Helena's Episcopal Church, two of the British officers who died that day were interred in the Parish Church of St. Helena Churchyard on 5 February 1779 by Patriot Capt. John Barnwell read the burial service and reputedly said: "We have shown the British we not only can best them in battle but that we can also give them a Christian burial."

(BDC Postcard Collection Item 0530002186431)

Dennis Ford wrote that this was South Carolina's first land based engagement between professional British, militia, and Continental forces. The British Winter Campaign, 1778 -1779 in the state had mostly gone in Britain's favor up to this point.  The significance of the engagement was largely psychological for the Patriots.

The American Battlefields Trust has an informative website about the engagement.

We have a vertical file about the engagement under the title "Port Royal Island, Battle of, 1779" in the Research Room that includes more information about the discovery and efforts to preserve the battlefield.