{"id":936,"slug":"fort-howell-south-carolina","story":[{"heading":null,"paragraphs":["Fort Howell was built to protect the free. In the fall of 1864, the 32nd U.S. Colored Infantry — Black soldiers, many of them lately enslaved — dug the pentagonal earthwork on Hilton Head to defend Mitchelville, the freedmen's village where self-emancipated people had built the nation's first town of the free. The soldiers who'd escaped slavery built the fort to protect the town that proved freedom worked — the sophisticated Federal earthwork going up in a cotton field beside the village it was meant to keep safe.","The fort belonged to the Sea Islands experiment — the Department of the South's occupation zone where Harriet Tubman had led the Combahee raid that freed 800, where the freedmen of Mitchelville governed themselves while the war still raged. Fort Howell was the military proof of the experiment's seriousness: an engineered fortification built by Black troops to defend Black self-governance.","The earthworks survived the century — the pentagon still readable in the Hilton Head woods, a Network to Freedom site standing over the ground where the 32nd USCT dug defenses for the free town down the road. Mitchelville is mostly gone; Fort Howell remains — the fort built to protect the first free village.","Fort Howell is the archive's protection file — the 1864 earthwork the 32nd USCT built on Hilton Head to defend Mitchelville, the freedmen's town, the fort where Black soldiers fortified Black freedom."]},{"heading":"Why this file matters","paragraphs":["Fort Howell is the archive's Mitchelville file — the 1864 pentagonal earthwork built by the 32nd USCT to defend the nation's first freedmen's village on Hilton Head, preserved in the woods beside where Mitchelville stood.","A fort built for the free keeps its walls — the file's suggestion being that Fort Howell's hold is the purpose: Black soldiers digging defenses for the town of the self-emancipated, the earthwork that made freedom worth defending."]}],"name":"Fort Howell","aliases":[],"type":"HISTORIC_SITE","type_label":"Historic Site","cats":["DARK_HISTORY","UNDERGROUND_RAILROAD_HISTORY","AFRICAN_AMERICAN_HISTORY","CIVIL_WAR","UNDERGROUND_RAILROAD","FORT"],"groups":["dark-history","historic-sites"],"desc":"NPS-listed historic site associated with the Underground Railroad.","full_desc":"Fort Howell is a historic site in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, a National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom listing. NPS-listed historic site associated with the Underground Railroad. The archive files it under dark history, Underground Railroad history and the Underground Railroad. The dossier holds 2 documented facts — the record is history-forward, no paranormal claims on file. The site is open to visitors.","address":"160 Beach City Rd, Hilton Head Island, SC 29926","city":"Hilton Head Island","county":"Beaufort","state":"South Carolina","postal":null,"region":"South","lat":32.190307,"lon":-80.738434,"coord_kind":"CITY","status":"ACTIVE","access":"PUBLIC","access_notes":"NPS public listing access field: Yes. This is a listing snapshot; current arrangements still require confirmation.","ownership":null,"website":null,"phone":null,"year_built":null,"year_opened":null,"year_closed":null,"year_demolished":null,"designation":"National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom listing","current_use":"Historic site","research_notes":"Government-registry discovery record, unique ID 25SC01, source row 468. Inclusion concerns slavery, freedom-seeking and resistance history; no haunting is inferred. City, coordinates and detailed history are not inferred from the name. The source Year Established field is not treated as year built/opened. ","stage":"SOURCE_RESEARCH","quality":{"level":"MEDIUM","score":62.1,"dims":{"location_confidence":0.35,"identity_confidence":0.85,"historical_confidence":0.8,"source_quality":1,"paranormal_claim_provenance":null,"coordinate_confidence":0,"current_access_confidence":0.7,"freshness":0.65}},"claims":[],"history":[{"description":"NPS includes this site in the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. A documented site gives the file real substance; this entry is part of that record. The fact is historically verified — the part of the file that doesn't need hedging. The record appears in 'Public NPS Network to Freedom listings, row 2, ID 01GA01'. It's the sort of fact that gives the haunting reports their context.","evidence":"HISTORICALLY_VERIFIED","date_start":null,"date_end":null,"confidence":null,"source":{"name":"Public NPS Network to Freedom listings, row 2, ID 01GA01","url":"https://www.nps.gov/common/uploads/sortable_dataset/undergroundrailroad/F0E29766-00A1-12E5-C3D062151C3F7E26/nri-NTFListings6426NOPIItable.csv?t=1784017173223","publisher":"National Park Service","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1}},{"description":"Fort Howell is documented on the National Park Service Network to Freedom for its role in the Underground Railroad. The site's documented history is the record the rest of the file stands on. It's verified history: the dossier's load-bearing detail. The record appears in 'NPS Network to Freedom listing'. Documented ground is what separates this file from pure legend — this is part of it.","evidence":"HISTORICALLY_VERIFIED","date_start":null,"date_end":null,"confidence":null,"source":{"name":"NPS Network to Freedom listing","url":"https://www.nps.gov/subjects/ugrr/index.htm","publisher":"National Park Service","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1}}],"legends":[],"entities":[],"events":[],"investigations":[],"encounters":[],"media":[],"persons":[],"visitor":{"tour_availability":"Verify before visiting","notes":"Historic site; verify hours and access with the managing agency before visiting; check nps.gov for current hours and alerts.","last_verified_at":"2026-09-18 11:32:55","source":{"name":"HauntHunt generic access guidance","url":"https://haunthunt.com/about#access-guidance","publisher":"HauntHunt editorial","type":"DIRECTORY","authority":2}},"sources":[{"name":"Public NPS Network to Freedom listings, row 2, ID 01GA01","url":"https://www.nps.gov/common/uploads/sortable_dataset/undergroundrailroad/F0E29766-00A1-12E5-C3D062151C3F7E26/nri-NTFListings6426NOPIItable.csv?t=1784017173223","publisher":"National Park Service","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1},{"name":"NPS Network to Freedom listing","url":"https://www.nps.gov/subjects/ugrr/index.htm","publisher":"National Park Service","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1},{"name":"Underground Railroad","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_Railroad","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}],"conflicts":[{"field_name":"short_description","existing_value":"NPS-listed historic site associated with the Underground Railroad.","incoming_value":"The Hilton Head fort—where the freedmen built the earthworks.","notes":"Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite."},{"field_name":"historic_designation","existing_value":"National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom listing","incoming_value":"NPS Network to Freedom","notes":"Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite."},{"field_name":"research_notes","existing_value":"Government-registry discovery record, unique ID 25SC01, source row 468. Inclusion concerns slavery, freedom-seeking and resistance history; no haunting is inferred. City, coordinates and detailed history are not inferred from the name. The source Year Established field is not treated as year built/opened. ","incoming_value":"UGRR enrichment wave 4; VERIFY task auto-queued.","notes":"Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite."}],"wiki":{"title":"Fort Howell","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Howell","desc":"United States historic place","extract":"Fort Howell is an earthworks fort built in 1864 during the American Civil War, located on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. It was named in honor of Union Army Brigadier General Joshua B. Howell, and Its primary function was to protect Mitchelville, a Freedman's town located to its east.","img":null,"score":93,"lat":32.23444444,"lon":-80.69194444},"counts":{"claims":0,"history":2,"legends":0,"entities":0,"sources":3}}