A British fleet under Admiral Sir Peter Parker attacked the unfinished palmetto-log Fort Sullivan guarding Charleston harbor, expecting an easy conquest of the rebellious South. Colonel William Moultrie's garrison, though outgunned, found that the fort's spongy palmetto logs absorbed cannonballs rather than splintering. After a nine-hour bombardment, the British fleet withdrew badly damaged, and the victory gave South Carolina's Palmetto flag its enduring symbol.
In June 1776, with independence still weeks from being declared, the British launched a Southern campaign aimed at Charleston, South Carolina's wealthiest port and a hoped-for loyalist stronghold. Admiral Sir Peter Parker's fleet of nine warships approached Sullivan's Island, where an unfinished fort of palmetto logs and sand, manned by fewer than 500 South Carolina and North Carolina militia under Colonel William Moultrie, awaited them.
What should have been a rout became a humiliation for the Royal Navy. The palmetto logs, soft and fibrous, absorbed British cannonballs instead of shattering into deadly splinters, while the fort's cannons pounded the anchored ships at close range. The frigate Actaeon ran aground and had to be burned by her own crew. At one point, the fort's flag was knocked down; Sergeant William Jasper dashed out under fire to raise it again, becoming an instant hero of the Revolution.
By nightfall, the British had suffered roughly 200 casualties to the Americans' dozen, and Parker's fleet limped away, delaying any serious British move on the South for over two years. Charleston celebrated June 28 (the actual battle date) as a local holiday for generations, and the battle gave South Carolina its lasting emblem: the palmetto tree on its state flag.
Key people: William Moultrie, William Jasper, Peter Parker