From staff reports
On Sunday, Aug.t 3, 2025, cadets from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point will participate in a panel discussion titled, “Digitizing History of Fort Fremont,” at 3 p.m. at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church at 1004 11th Street in Port Royal. The public is invited, free of charge.
The panel discussion is sponsored by the Friends of Fort Fremont, the Beaufort County Historical Society, and the Beaufort County Library. James Shinn, Assistant Professor of History at the University of South Carolina Beaufort, will moderate.
The Friends of Fort Fremont (FFF) is collaborating with the West Point Department of History Digital History Center (DHC) to develop a historical work of Fort Fremont including digital simulations of Homeland Coastal Defense at Fort Fremont at the turn of the 20th century. The project will apply state of-the-art technology to bring history to life through digital animation of the building and operation of Fort Fremont — information that is currently available only in manuals and textbooks.
West Point cadets will be at Fort Fremont from July 31 through August 5 to conduct an on-site survey and digital mapping, and primary- and secondary-source research. As part of their academic curriculum, they will study Fort Fremont as an example of how geography, international politics, and advanced military technology in the late 19th century helped shape America’s emergence as a global power following the Spanish-American War.
Fort Fremont was constructed in 1898 for coastal defense of the Port Royal Sound and the Naval Station at Parris Island during the Spanish-American War. It stands today as an artifact of an era that represents national security and homeland defense when the military threat was from modern naval forces of competitor nations.
Beaufort County purchased 18-acres of the original fort for use as a passive park. The site encompasses mixed hardwood forest with walking trails, a picnic pavilion, remains of historic batteries, and a History Center with a diorama and period artifacts. Fort Fremont is on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Fort Fremont Preserve is open to the public free of charge Monday through Sunday from dawn to dusk. The History Center exhibit hall is open Friday through Sunday and staffed by Friends of Fort Fremont volunteers. The Friends also offer docent-led walking tours by appointment.
The Friends of Fort Fremont work with Beaufort County to preserve and promote Fort Fremont’s educational, historical, natural, and cultural resources.
For more information visit www.fortfremont.org.
