BEAUFORT, SOUTH CAROLINA—Archaeologists and volunteers say they have found the site of the Battle of Port Royal Island, fought on February 3, 1779, in which American troops led by General William Moultrie defeated British troops led by General Augustine Prevost. Archaeologist Daniel Battle of Cypress Cultural Consultants located “a big field fire,” including cannonballs and canister shot, while searching the area with a metal detector. “We started finding these large amounts of artillery—leaded shot ... we could literally look at patterns forming on the ground from this shot. We could draw a geometric line back to the position of where we could predict the American artillery sitting,” Battle told Bluffton Today. Now the researchers are working to protect the site, located in part on privately owned land. “It was not a strategically important battle, but it was definitely something the Americans needed very badly psychologically,” Battle explained. For more, go to "Off the Grid: Colonial Dorchester, South Carolina."
