Fort Mitchel

Fort Mitchel is a South Carolina historical marker in Hilton Head, Beaufort County, dedicated 2015.

Beaufort County · dedicated 2015 · 65 Skull Creek Drive, Hilton Head, Hilton Head

Get directions ↗Start a road trip Historical trails

Front: Fort Mitchel was built by the U.S. Army in 1862. It was an earthen fortification of lunette design, open at the rear with two faces forming a salient angle and two flanking sides. It was designed to house five or six heavy guns and was positioned strategically to control Skull Creek and protect the approach to the U.S. Navy coaling station at Seabrook Landing, one mile NE of this spot. Reverse: Originally named for its designer, Capt. Quincy Gillmore, Ft. Mitchel was renamed in honor of Maj. Gen. Ormsby Mitchel in 1863. Mitchel briefly commanded Union forces on Hilton Head before he died of yellow fever in Oct. 1862. The introduction of ironclad ships later in the war made the small battery at Ft. Mitchel ineffective and the garrison was redeployed in 1864.

TodayHistorical map

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

Digital Commonwealth, Boston Public Library

Example

under a mile from where William Gabby lived in the 1760s

what this marker records spans 1777 to 1789, overlapping William Gabby's years here

From one family's 77-marker roster

Upload your family tree and TreeAlive finds the markers near where your own ancestors lived.

See your family's markers

Start with a tree file, a FamilySearch sign in, or a WikiTree ID.

Report a problem with this page

The marker isn't at this spotOur pin may be off. If you know where it stands, tell us.I couldn't find the markerWe record what the source recorded. We have not been to look.The sign reads differentlyThat would be an error, and we can pass it to the program.The historical map looks wrongThe period map behind the pin, not the marker itself.Something else

We may pass what you report to the state's marker program. Please don't include personal details.

Marker data: South Carolina Historical Marker Program, SC Department of Archives and History
Sponsored by Beaufort County Historical Society

More markers nearby

William Simmons House1 mi
First African Baptist Church3 mi
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney (1746-1825)3 mi
Pinckney Island3 mi

On the National Register nearby

Fort Mitchel260 ft

Places within about 300 feet of this marker that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. A nearby listing is not always the marker's own subject.