 Union ships sailed south and blocked off one port after another.As early as November, Union troops occupied the Sea Islands in the Beaufort area, establishing an important base for the men and ships who would obstruct the ports at Charleston and Savannah.When the plantation owners, many of which had already gone off with the Confederate army elsewhere, fled the area, the Sea Island slaves became the first "freedmen" of the war, and the Sea Islands became the laboratory for Union plans to educate the African Americans for their eventual role as full American citizens.