BEAUFORT ARSENAL

The Beaufort Arsenal was built in 1798 to house the Beaufort Volunteer Artillery after it fought with the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. It served as an arsenal, storage facility, and local meeting place to hold banquets and other events. During November, 1861, most of the city's white residents fled their homes as Union forces sailed into Port Royal Sound. For the rest of the war, the Union troops made Beaufort their headquarters, transforming many of the antebellum mansions into hospitals for the wounded. After the Civil War, the local government took over the running of the Arsenal, and during the 1920s, the facilities were turned into a museum by the Beaufort County Historical Society.