Point of Interest
Brunswick Town
8884 St. Philip’s Road SE, Winnabow, NC 28479
The serene setting of Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson Historic Site near Southport on NC’s southern coast belies its layered history as host to multiple armed conflicts, including being one of the first sites of armed revolt against British taxation. Some eight years before the Boston Tea Party, the people of Brunswick Town, fed up with British tax stamps, took up arms to stop them from being enforced. The town was no stranger to conflict, having been ransacked by Spanish sailors in 1748. As payback for the tax revolt, much of the town was burned by British troops in 1776 and never rebuilt.
Brunswick had originally been a major port and political center but was in decline by the time of the Revolutionary War. The site was later used during the Civil War when the Confederates built Fort Anderson atop the old village. Visitors today can see the colonial foundations and the earthworks of the Confederate fort on the site’s trail tour and see exhibits on both the site’s Revolutionary War and Civil War history at its visitors center. Miraculously, the walls of the St. Philips Church survived both wars. The Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson Historic Site is a popular stop on North Carolina’s Civil War Trail.
