Battle of Port Royal (1861)

The Big Gun Shoot

The American Civil War started on April 12, 1861, when the Confederates bombarded Fort Sumter at Charleston Harbor. President Lincoln ordered a blockade of southern ports to stop the flow of supplies to the Confederates. Governor Francis Pickens directed General P.G.T. Beauregard to develop a coastal defense plan. Beauregard ordered construction of defenses around Charleston Harbor and Forts Walker and Beauregard at Port Royal Sound. 

On November 4, 1861, a joint Union Army-Navy flotilla under General Thomas Sherman and Commodore Samuel Du Pont, arrived at the entrance to Port Royal Sound.