The remnants of Battery Brayton are located in downtown Beaufort. It was constructed as a Union gun battery overlooking Battery Creek, situated to protect the Union troops occupying Beaufort after the Battle of Port Royal. Other batteries built for the Union defense of Beaufort included Fort Duane, Battery Burnside, Battery Seymour, Battery Saxton and Battery Taylor. It was armed with two 24-pound howitzers and one 10-pound Parrott gun. In 1863, Sergeant C. D. Holmes of the Third Rhode Island Heavy Artillery used Battery Brayton to drill men from the Seventy-forth Pennsylvania Infantry on the use of heavy guns.

Battery Brayton was named in honor of Captain Charles R. Brayton of the Third Rhode Island Heavy Artillery. Brayton served under Quincy Gillmore during the siege on battery Wagner on Morris Island. He was the first Union soldier to enter Battery Gregg on the morning of September 7, 1863, after the evacuation overnight by the Confederates. Brayton ultimately became Chief of Artillery for the Department of the South.

Battery Brayton was a large earthworks fortification constructed with a large ditch in front facing Battery Creek. In the 1880s the Port Royal Railroad laid a track that divided the extant battery in two sections. The western portion of the battery is privately owned. Title of the eastern portion of the Battery Brayton was conveyed to the South Carolina Battleground Preservation Trust by Theodora Keyserling and family.