1. Beaufort National Cemetery
Location: 1601 Boundary Street Beaufort, SC 29902
Description: The original interments in the cemetery were men who died in nearby Union hospitals during the occupation of the area early in the Civil War, mainly in 1861, following the Battle of Port Royal. Battlefield casualties from around the area were also reinterred in the cemetery, including Confederate soldiers. It became a National Cemetery with the National Cemetery Act by Abraham Lincoln in 1863. Beaufort National Cemetery now has interments from every major American conflict, including the Spanish-American War, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Gulf War. Beaufort National Cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.

2. 1st SC Infantry of African Descent
Location: near 1601 Boundary Street Beaufort, SC 29902
Description: The 1st South Carolina Volunteer Infantry Regiment was raised from sea island slaves living around Port Royal. Elements of the regiment were formed on Hilton Head in May 1862. In August 1862, the regiment was reorganized near Beaufort at the Smith plantation. It was commanded by the noted abolitionist Thomas W. Higginson who led the regiment on raids along the Georgia coast. On Jan. 1, 1863, the regiment was formerly mustered into the United States Army. The regiment saw extensive service on the South Carolina, Georgia and Florida Coasts. On Feb. 8, 1864, the regiment was re-designated as the 33rd Infantry Regiment of the United States Colored Troops. The Regiment assisted in the occupation of Charleston, Savannah, Augusta and other points until it was mustered out Jan. 31, 1866.

3. Maxcy-Rhett House
Location: 1113 Craven Street
Description: This house was built circa 1810 for Milton Maxcy (1782-1817), who came here from Massachusetts in 1804. Maxcy and his brother Virgil, who founded a school for young men in Beaufort, later taught at Beaufort College. In the 1850's Edmund Rhett (1808-1863), lawyer, planter, state representative, and state senator, brought the house and extensively remodeled it in the Greek Revival style, featuring an elaborate two-story portico. Edmund Rhett, along with his brother Robert Barnwell Rhett (1800-1876), lawyer, state representative, state attorney general, U.S. congressman and senator, was an outspoken champion of state rights and Southern nationalism from the 1830's to the Civil War. This house, long known as "Secession House," was the scene of many informal discussions and formal meetings during the 1850's by the Rhetts and their allies advocating secession and Southern independence.

4. St. Helena's Episcopal Church
Location: 507 Newcastle St. Beaufort, SC 29902
Description: The Commons House of Assembly, under the Lords Proprietors of Carolina, established St. Helena’s in 1712 as a colonial parish of the Church of England. The church was built in 1724 and is one of the oldest active churches in North America. Construction of the church building was delayed by the Yemassee Indian War of 1715. Built of brick, much of which originally was ship’s ballast, and smoothed over with stucco, the church has excellent exterior proportions and fine interior detail.

5. Tabernacle Baptist Church & the Statue of Robert Smalls
Location: 907 Craven Street Beaufort, SC 29902
Description: This tall-steeple wooden building has been in service since 1811. Robert Smalls, the slave who became a congressman is buried here in the churchyard. Tabernacle Church was formed by black members of Beaufort Baptist Church after other members evacuated the area because of Federal occupation in 1861. The church's lecture room was used for services during the war. In 1867 the black congregation bought this property from the Beaufort Baptist Church. Its present building was dedicated in 1894. Many new churches have grown from the Tabernacle.
Robert Smalls (April 5 , 1839–February 23, 1915) was an enslaved American who, during and after the American Civil War, became a ship's pilot, sea captain, and politician. He freed himself and his family from slavery on May 13, 1862, by commandeering a Confederate transport ship, the USS Planter, to freedom in Charleston harbor. He was born in Beaufort, South Carolina, and eventually became a politician—serving in both the South Carolina State legislature and the United States House of Representatives. During his career, Smalls authored legislation that created in South Carolina the first free and compulsory public school system in America, founded the Republican Party of South Carolina, and successfully convinced President Lincoln to accept African American soldiers into the Union army. He is notable as the last Republican to represent South Carolina's 5th congressional district.

7. Historic Beaufort Arsenal (Visitor Center)
Location: 713 Craven Street Beaufort, SC 29902
Description: Erected in 1798 and rebuilt in 1852, the Beaufort Arsenal was the home of the Beaufort Volunteer Artillery, commissioned in 1802, which had its roots in an earlier company organized in 1776 and served valiantly in the Revolutionary War. The BVA was stationed at Fort Beauregard during the Battle of Port Royal on November 7, 1861. It now serves as the Beaufort Visitor Center.

8. Memorial to Stephen Elliott, CSA
Location: near Bay Street and US 21 Beaufort SC, 29902
Description: Stephen Elliott born in 1832, became Brig. General Elliott during the Civil War, serving the Confederacy at Fort Sumter and suffering several battle wounds at Petersburg. General Elliott died of his wounds, a year after the War, in Aiken S.C. while running for the Congress of the United States. Brigadier General Stephen Elliott was one of Beaufort's most able military figures. Known for acts of bravery and outstanding leadership in the defense of Beaufort. He served as Lieutenant, and later, Captain, of the Beaufort Volunteer Artillery, which was based in the Beaufort Arsenal. Elliott served with the Palmetto Guards during the attack on Fort Sumter on April, 1861 and as a Brig. General was gravely wounded leading SC Troops at the Union mine explosion point during the Battle of the Crater in Petersburg, Va, July 30, 1864.

9. Statue of Thomas Heyward
Location: near Waterfront Park Beaufort, SC 29902
Description: Thomas Heyward, Jr. was a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence and of the Articles of Confederation as a representative of South Carolina. He was born in St. Luke's Parish, South Carolina and educated at home, then traveled to England to study law where he was a member of the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple. He was elected to the Continental Congress in 1775 and signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Heyward returned to South Carolina in 1778 to serve as a judge. In command of a militia force, he was taken prisoner by the British during the siege of Charleston. He continued to serve as a judge after the war, retiring from the bench in 1798.

10. Battery Saxton
Location: on Boundary Street – US 21 Beaufort, SC 29902
Description: Battery Saxton, constructed here in 1862, was in the second line of earthworks built by Federal troops occupying Beaufort during the Civil War. Laid out by the 1st New York Engineers with the assistance of black laborers, it held 3 8 inch siege howitzers and was occupied 1862-65 as one of two batteries anchoring a line from Battery Creek to the Beaufort River, the remnants of which are visible here just south of U.S. Hwy. 21 (known as Shell Rd. during the war). Battery Saxton was named for Brig. Gen. Rufus Saxton (1824-1908), a native of Massachusetts. Saxton, an ardent abolitionist, served for most of the war in and around Beaufort in the Union Dept. of the South. As military governor of the Ga. and S.C. sea islands 1862-65 he led the way in educating freedmen and in raising and training black units for service in the U.S. Army. Saxton was later assistant commissioner for the Freedmen's Bureau for S.C. and Ga. & Fla., 1865-66.

11. Mather School
Location: Campus of Technical College of the Lowcountry Beaufort, SC 29902
Description: Shortly after the Civil War, Mather School was founded here by Rachel Crane Mather of Boston. In 1882 the Women's American Baptist Home Mission Society assumed support of the venture, operating it as a normal school for black girls. With some changes, the school continued until 1968, when it was closed and sold to the state for the educational benefit of all races.

12. Union Church
Location: 11^th Street Port Royal, SC 29935
Description: Built in 1878 it was active until the mid-1970s and shared by Presbyterians, Baptists and Methodists, who rotated Sundays.

13. The John Mark Verdier House (Museum)
Location: 801 Bay Street Beaufort, SC 29902
Description: The Verdier House is Beaufort's only historic house regularly open to the public as a museum. The house was saved from demolition in 1945 by a group of concerned citizens, out of which grew Beaufort's historic preservation movement. The Verdier House is open for tours Monday through Saturday from 10:00 am until 4:00 pm (last tour at 3:30). There is a guided tour, with an admission fee of $5 which supports the ongoing interpretation of the house. A free exhibit on the ground floor documents the Union occupation of Bay Street in Beaufort during the Civil War.

14. John Ribaut Monument
Location: Parris Island
Description: This monument commemorates Charlesfort, built 1562 by Jean Ribaut for Admiral Coligny. A Refuge for Huguenots and to the glory of France. It was erected in 1925 by the Government of the United States of America to mark the first stronghold of France on this Continent.


15. War Memorial
Location: Parris Island
Description: This memorial is sometimes referred to as the Iwo Jima Memorial.

16. Parris Island – United States Marine Corps Museum
Location: Parris Island
Description: Every artifact holds a story: Come explore the long and rich legacy of the Marine Corps as well as the exciting history of the Port Royal region at the Parris Island Museum. Thousands of artifacts, images, and other materials illustrate the varied stories within the exhibit galleries. Located on Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island. The museum is open daily to the public and free of charge.

17. Penn Center – York Bailey Museum
Location: 16 Penn Center Circle W. St. Helena, SC 29920
Description: Named for a Penn School graduate and the first African American Medical doctor to serve St. Helena and neighboring Islands, the museum is housed in the Historic Cope Industrial Building. It is comprised of four Galleries and a Book and Gift Store. Open to the public to take part in its Cultural Lessons and Demonstrations, Educational Program, view its exhibits, for public programming, or to simply experience the unique blend of history, education and culture. The permanent exhibit, Education for Freedom: the Penn School Experiment 1862-, showcases some of the oldest professional photographs of African American people, the original 1863 school bell, and artifacts related to Sea Island and African American history and culture.

18. Chapel of Ease
Location: Lands End Road St. Helena, SC 29920
Description: During the Colonial period, chapels of ease were constructed by rice and cotton planters as houses of worship because their plantations were located so far from the churches in Beaufort. This tabby walled church was constructed between 1742 and 1747 for the planters of St. Helena Island. A forest fire destroyed most of it in 1886. All that remain today are its tabby ruins and an adjacent cemetery.

19. Fort Freemont
Location: Lands End Road St. Helena, SC 29920
Description: Located at the southwestern tip of St. Helena Island in Beaufort County, Fort Fremont was constructed in 1899 to defend Port Royal Sound. The original site was developed in 1875 and included a wharf extending into Port Royal Sound, as well as a clapboard hospital structure to support the Parris Island Naval Base. At the onset of the Spanish-American war, the wooden hospital was demolished and replaced with a concrete building and the existing fortifications. The first battery (un-named or unknown) was emplaced by 1898. Battery Jessup and Battery Fornance were added in 1899. The hospital section includes a square, two-story colonial revival structure, subsequently incorporated into part of a private residence. Earthen bulwarks protect the harbor side of the masonry buildings that rest on a granite foundation. The roof is designed to collect rainwater for storage in a large cistern. An extensive duct system is used to ventilate the structure.