Charlesfort

Charlesfort was a short-lived French Huguenot colony established in 1562 by Jean Ribaut. It was located on the southern tip of Parris Island, near Port Royal Sound in present-day South Carolina. Ribaut, a French naval officer, led an expedition to found a colony in Florida, but he sailed north and established Charlesfort.123

The settlement was abandoned less than a year later due to France's religious wars, which prevented reinforcements and supplies from reaching the colonists. The ruins of Charlesfort later became the site of a Spanish fort, San Felipe, in 1566.12