Port Royal Sound

Port Royal Sound was named in 1562 by Jean Ribault, who founded a short-lived Huguenot colony at the bequest of the French admiral Gaspard de Coligny, called Charlesfort, on Parris Island.

In the early 1684 a group of about 150 Scottish immigrants founded a settlement called Stuarts Town on the shores of Port Royal Sound.

Having been allies and enemies of both the Spanish and the British over time, and having moved widely throughout the southeast, by 1710 the Yamasee had settled in about ten towns in the Port Royal area.

The names of some of the towns survive to the present as placenames, including Altamaha, Chechessee, Pocotaligo, and Huspah.

Relations with South Carolina deteriorated in the early 18th century until the Yamasee decided to change sides.

After the Yamasee War of 1715 they, and many other Indians of the Port Royal regions, moved south of the Savannah River, mostly becoming Spanish allies.

This left South Carolina's southern frontier exposed, leading to the construction of several forts and the eventual establishment of the new colony of Georgia.

Two weeks after October 19, 1861 The Roanoke, which would also carry 700 New York troops, included 1000 barrels of dried apples, bacon, bread, coffee, flour, pickles and pork, and 380 barrels and boxes of beans, bread, coffee, flour, pork, potatoes, rice, salt, sugar and vinegar, for troop rations, (plus 63 boxes of soap, supplied by the Colgate company).

During the American Civil War the Union naval commander Samuel Francis Du Pont reduced the forts guarding Port Royal Sound.