South Carolina where the troops encountered the newly freed slaves. The attack was a success, and the Confederate forces retreated inland, abandoning Beaufort and Port Royal Sound, including Paris Island. This new Union site would eventually become the headquarters for a command called the Department of the South, which would cover the coasts of South Carolina, Georgia, and part of Florida. Plantation owners and other white residents fled, leaving behind the bulk of their possessions, including thousands of slaves and large amounts of cotton from the record crop then in the process of being harvested. The people left behind would provide the north with some of its first view of slavery and a unique look into the culture of the Sea Islands.

At Port Royal by John Greenleaf WhittierOleMassa on he trabbels gone ;He leaf de land behind :De Lord's breff blow him furder onLike corn-shuck in de wind.We own de hoe, we own de plough,We own de hands dat hold;We sell de pig, we sell de cow,But nebber chile be sold.

The Fleeing ConfederatesThe South Sea Islands contained some of the most notable South Carolinians: Robert Barnwell Rhett, William J. Grayson, Elliotts, Heywards, Coffins, Fripps, Barnwells and Seabrooks. As the Union came the white population left leaving only one white resident in Beaufort who was too drunk to move.

The Day of the Gun-shoot at Bay PointNovember 7, 1861 9:25 the Union fleet entered the Sound. They were fired upon and the bombardment began. The Wabash, Commodore Du Pont's flagship led the ships straight up the sound.