Battery White Battery White was an artillery battery constructed by the Confederates during the American Civil War . Built in 1862 – 63 to defend Winyah Bay on the South Carolina coast , the battery was strongly situated and constructed ; however , it was inadequately manned , and was captured without resistance during the final months of the war . The battery is listed in the National Register of Historic Places . It is located on private land , but is open to the public . Island fortifications . Even before the outbreak of the Civil War , the secessionist government of South Carolina was concerned with the possibility of attack by sea in Georgetown County . Shortly after the December 20 , 1860 passage of the Ordinance of Secession , an aide - de - camp to governor Francis Pickens urged Lowcountry planters to " aid in the erection of Batteries to protect and defend the entrance of Winyah Bay and the Santee River " . The area offered a tempting target to Union forces . Winyah Bay would furnish a sheltered anchorage large enough for the entire United States Navy of 1861 . The city of Georgetown on the bay was the largest on the South Carolina coast north of Charleston . Georgetown County produced nearly half of the rice grown in the United States , amounting to some 54 million pounds ( ) in 1860 ; Georgetown exported more rice than any other port in the world . This production and shipping could be disrupted by gunboats moving up the Black , the Pee Dee , the Waccamaw , and the Sampit rivers , which flow into the bay ; and the two distributary channels of the Santee River , whose mouths lie just below the bay . Curtailing rice production would not only damage the local economy , but would impair the Confederacy ' s ability to feed its armies . In May 1861 , General P . G . T . Beauregard ordered the development of coastal defenses for South Carolina , including batteries situated on three islands flanking the mouth of Winyah Bay : North Island , South Island , and Cat Island . The Federal capture of Port Royal in November 1861 lent urgency to the construction and improvement of these works , which was done under Robert E . Lee , the newly appointed commander of the Department of South Carolina , Georgia , and East Florida , with Colonel Arthur Middleton Manigault in charge of the district that included Georgetown and Horry counties . The island fortifications were never tested against a major Union attack . However , they served a useful purpose in dealing with grounded ships , both Confederate and Federal ; in protecting the entrance to the bay ; and in maintaining Confederate possession of the islands . Withdrawal . Matters changed in early 1862 . In March of that year , Lee was recalled to Richmond as military advisor to President Jefferson Davis . He was replaced by General John C . Pemberton , who ordered the withdrawal of troops and artillery from the positions around Georgetown , apparently in order to concentrate his limited manpower on shorter defensive lines . Union naval forces were quick to take advantage of this new vulnerability . In May 1862 , the USS " Albatross " and the USS " Norwich " noted that the island forts were unoccupied . They landed troops to occupy North Island , which became the principal local Union base for much of the war ; and they destroyed the fortifications on South and Cat Islands . They also sailed some up the Waccamaw River , where they raided a mill and carried off 80 slaves . Settled on North Island , these freed slaves formed the nucleus of a colony of " contrabands " that grew to more than a thousand before being removed to Port Royal for fear of Confederate raids leading to their recapture or massacre . The Federal forces made no attempt to seize territory up the rivers ; and their expeditions were limited by the draft of their vessels . Nevertheless , they conducted a number of raids in which they damaged facilities , seized rice , and released slaves ; and these raids severely disrupted the region ' s economy . Rice production in particular suffered , since it depended on a labor force of skilled slaves performing carefully timed tasks . Pemberton still refused to move artillery and men to the Georgetown area , maintaining that all of his resources were necessary for the protection of Charleston . However , his superiors ordered him to construct new fortifications at Winyah Bay . Since the Union now controlled the islands , it was necessary to find sites further up the bay . On August 3 , 1862 , Pemberton visited the area and selected Mayrant ' s Bluff and Frazier ' s Point as the sites for the new batteries . Later in August 1862 , Pemberton was promoted to lieutenant general and sent to the Department of Mississippi and East Louisiana , where he would eventually surrender Vicksburg . He was replaced in the Department of South Carolina and Georgia by Beauregard , who assumed command on September 24 , 1862 . The new commander supported the fortification of Winyah Bay : on October 8 , 1862 , he assured Governor Pickens that he had ordered the construction of a battery of five or six pieces of artillery at Mayrant ' s Bluff ; on November 10 , he wrote Colonel James Chesnut , Jr . that the battery was " armed and completed " , and that he had sent a new regiment of the State Reserves to General James H . Trapier , in command of the Georgetown District . Trapier was less than pleased with the troops and artillery that he had been given . The new regiment , he noted , arrived at the battery without arms and ammunition ; and as Reserves , would only be in service for 90 days , not enough time to make effective solidiers of them even had they been armed . He had also been given fairly light guns ; what he wanted was Columbiad s , suitable for defending the battery and the bay against incursions by ironclads . Despite the paucity of men and weaponry , the new battery proved effective . On November 11 , 1862 , two Union gunboats entered Winyah Bay and began firing on the Mayrant ' s Bluff works . The Second South Carolina Artillery , which had set up nine guns in the fortification , responded ; and within a few minutes , the Federal vessels were forced to retire . In February 1863 , Trapier reported that the Mayrant ' s Bluff fortification , now named Battery White , was occupied by only 53 men and nine guns . Even this small force sufficed to stop Federal incursions up the rivers of Winyah Bay . However , rice production in the Georgetown area did not recover : the raids had destroyed too much of the physical plant , carried off too many of the slaves , and created too much uncertainty for planters to return to anything near full production . The battery continued to lose manpower , despite Trapier ' s ongoing calls for more troops and guns . In October 1864 , a body of eleven deserters from the Confederate German Artillery reached the USS " Potomska " ; they reported that there was great discontent among the troops , and that many would desert were they not so strongly guarded . They also reported that there were ten guns at the battery ; the captain of the " Potomska " concluded that the bay was too well defended for him to render aid to prospective deserters . Capture . In November 1864 , Trapier was ordered to bring most of his forces to Mount Pleasant , just north of Charleston . Only a company of the German Artillery was left to defend the Georgetown district . By the end of January 1865 , only a small crew commanded by a lieutenant remained at Battery White . In January and early February 1865 , Union forces under General William Tecumseh Sherman moved northward from Georgia into South Carolina . On February 2 and 3 , they defeated a Confederate force in the Battle of Rivers ' Bridge , clearing their pathway into the state . After a feint at Charleston , they marched to Columbia , which they entered on February 17 ; on the same day , Charleston was evacuated , and on the 18th , it was surrendered . From Charleston , Union naval forces under Admiral John A . Dahlgren moved up the coast to Georgetown , which Dahlgren thought might be a useful point of communication with Sherman ' s land forces . On February 23 , deserters told the captain of the USS " Mingoe " that Battery White had been or would soon be evacuated . The " Mingoe " fired four rounds into the battery . When no response was made , a party was sent ashore ; they found the battery abandoned and its guns spiked . The USS " Pawnee " and the USS " Nipsic " continued up the bay and landed a party of Marines to take possession of Georgetown ; the intendant and wardens of the city formally surrendered it on February 25 . Soon thereafter , Dahlgren inspected the battery , and was impressed . The fortification , he wrote , was well situated and designed , laid out to defend against both shipborne bombardment and attack by landing parties . Eleven guns bore on the channel , including two Columbiads . Additional guns in outlying works covered the approach up the beach . The rear was defended by a " formidable " rampart and ditch ; in the fort were numerous traverses and magazines . " If the works had been sufficiently manned " , wrote Dahlgren , " it would have required good troops to take the work . " Sinking of the USS " Harvest Moon " . By the fall of 1864 , the Union fleet had effectively closed Winyah Bay to blockade runners . Accordingly , the Confederate command had elected to lay mines , at the time known as " torpedoes " , in the bay . Eighteen mines had been constructed in Georgetown by Captain Thomas West Daggett and Stephen A . Rouquie , and placed strategically in the bay . As early as January 1865 , Union sympathizers in Georgetown had warned Dahlgren ' s forces about the existence of mines in the channel . While approaching Battery White , the " Mingoe " had sent its boats out to sweep for such devices . However , their efforts may have been perfunctory : according to Dahlgren ' s report , " . . . so much has been said in ridicule of torpedoes that very little precautions are deemed necessary , and if resorted to are probably taken with less care than if due weight was attached to the existence of these mischievous things . " On the morning of March 1 , 1865 , Dahlgren ' s flagship USS " Harvest Moon " sailed from Georgetown toward Battery White , which Dahlgren intended to inspect . En route , the vessel struck one of Daggett and Rouquie ' s mines , which blew a large hole in it , killing one sailor ; the boat quickly sank in two and a half fathoms of water . Battery White today . For over a century after the Civil War , the grounds on which Battery White stood were part of the Belle Isle Plantation . During the late 19th century , extensive landscaping was undertaken on the plantation . The United Daughters of the Confederacy erected a memorial stone on the site in 1929 . In about 1946 , the plantation gardens , including the battery , were opened to the public , and remained thus until 1974 . In the 1970s , the plantation was developed as a condominium complex . Portions of the complex of fortifications were lost to construction . However , the owners elected to preserve Battery White itself . In 1977 , a area encompassing the battery was nominated to the National Register of Historic Places . In 2008 , the site was re - opened to the public . The battery ' s earthworks are for the most part well preserved . The powder magazines have deteriorated , owing to collapse of the earth mounds following decay of their wooden interior shoring . The two Columbiads have been re - mounted and once again point out over Winyah Bay . Three of the battery ' s guns have been placed in Georgetown . A 24 - pound gun has been mounted in front of the National Guard Armory , and two cannon are displayed in Constitution Park on the Georgetown waterfront . The " Harvest Moon " was never salvaged , and has gradually sunk deeper into the mud of the bay . In the mid - 1960s , the top deck lay under an estimated six feet ( ) of mud . A Georgetown group attempted to salvage and restore the vessel as a tourist attraction , and in 1964 the U . S . Navy formally abandoned it , rendering it eligible for private salvage ; but the attempt failed for lack of funds . The ship ' s boiler stack is still visible at low tide .