Letter, 14 July 1862, and manuscript map, undated, significantly augment existing documentation on Port Royal Island (Beaufort County, S.C.) during the Civil War. The detailed map of Port Royal Island is presumed to have been executed by a member of Gen. Thomas Sherman’s occupation force. The Port Royal area came under Union control early in the war, falling to Federal troops in late 1861.
The map of Port Royal is executed in pen and ink, with some particulars added in colored pencil. The latter include Union and Confederate flags, drawn in red and blue, which delineate the location of camps of the opposing forces, the main blocks of the town of Beaufort, S.C., drawn in blue squares, and the location of a number of residences, also indicated by blue squares.
The map covers the area from Coosawhatchie Bridge in the northwest, Pocotaligo Bridge and a rice plantation in the north, the southern portion of Ladies Island in the southeast, and the northern tip of Daws Island in the southwest. A portion of Battery River on the southern end of Port Royal Island is depicted, but the map does not include the confluence of Battery and Beaufort Rivers or the southernmost tip of Port Royal Island. The map delineates the location of Union regiments in Beaufort, the old fort adjacent to Beaufort, Camp Stevens on the north shore of Port Royal Island, Confederate pickets on the opposing shores of mainland South Carolina, two rebel forts on the same, the site of the engagement at Port Royal Ferry, numerous residences on Port Royal Island with the names of owners given, roads with some distances given, bridges, the Charleston and Savannah Railroad, and the names of many of the small islands in the surrounding waters. A scale of miles is provided, and the cardinal directions are delineated.
The map is accompanied by a two-page autograph letter signed by the cartographer, who is identified only as “Allen.” It was written on board the steamer Vanderbilt off the coast of North Carolina en route to Fortress Monroe (Hampton, Va.) and is addressed to Harry E. Harner, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. In a postscript, the writer indicates that the map was enclosed with his letter. The letter speaks of a hasty departure from Beaufort under orders to join McClellan’s army at Richmond, Va.