I have seen it named with a double "l" at the end of Mitchell and a single "l." Most likely it is a single "l" because that is how the Union commander's name for whom it was named in 1863 spelled it.
An estimated 50,000 people go to the site each year. To get there, you have to obtain a pass at the gate of Hilton Head Plantation which is a private community. The pass is only good to visit the fort and the Old Port Pub. There are two cannons on site, one a 24-pdr. howitzer.
The Plantation is asking for a grant of $55,000, about $20,000 of which will go to improve walkways and signage.
Hilton Head Island was the headquarters of the Department of the South, and important because of its proximity to Port Royal. Soldiers from Rhode Island and New Hampshire, mostly gunners, manned the fort which was named for General Ormsby Mitchel, who died of yellow fever in 1862.
A settlement named Mitchelville was nearby and was the first planned community for freed slaves.
Still Never Heard of It. --Old B-Runner
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