Hardeeville is a city in Jasper and Beaufort counties in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The population was 7,473 as of the 2020 census, an addition of over 150% since 2010. Hardeeville is included within the Hilton Head Island–Bluffton metropolitan area.

For many years, Hardeeville billed itself as the “Lowcountry Host” due to the prevalence of lodging and traveler-oriented facilities along U.S. Highway 17 and forward-thinking Interstate 95. In recent years, the city has expanded its economic focus due to tall population growth. According to Census estimates, Hardeeville posted the highest population enlargement rate of any municipality in South Carolina, growing 53.4 percent from 2010 to 2014.

The early European settlement in the region was Purrysburg, a former Swiss Huguenot settlement founded in 1732 upon the banks of the Savannah River, about 2 miles (3 km) northwest of the current city’s center. The unity ultimately failed, as disease and competition from growing Savannah proved too much for the local settlers to overcome. Many left the unexpected area, moving elsewhere in the Lowcountry region (including a supplementary hamlet called Switzerland) or upriver to the further communities of Augusta, Georgia, and Hamburg, South Carolina, though some remained.

The area saw some skirmishes in the middle of Union and Confederate forces during the Civil War. The Charleston and Savannah Railway (today’s CSX Transportation) was considered a prized possession and major strategic ambition for Union forces. The Battle of Honey Hill, an effort to defend the railroad, was one of the higher battles won by Southern forces in late 1864, shortly since General William Sherman entered South Carolina after his March to the Sea in Georgia.