This Day in History: February 3

The Battle of Beaufort (also known as the Battle of Port Royal Island) was a battle in the American Revolutionary War that took place on February 3, 1779 near Beaufort, South Carolina. The British commander of forces at Savannah, Georgia, General Augustine Prevost, sent 200 British regulars to seize Port Royal Island at the mouth of the Broad River in South Carolina. American General Benjamin Lincoln, the American commander in the south, sent General William Moultrie from Purrysburg, South Carolina with a mixed force composed mainly of militia, but with a few Continental Army men, to meet the British advance. The battle was largely inconclusive, but the British withdrew first, eventually returning to Savannah. [More]