On the morning of June 28, 1776, the half-finished fort on Sullivan's Island was, by any conventional military measure, an absurdity. Its walls were incomplete. Its garrison was outnumbered. Its commander had been told by a superior officer to abandon it. And yet what happened there that day produced one of the most consequential American victories of the entire Revolutionary War—a victory that saved the South for the patriot cause, gave a fledgling nation a desperately needed symbol of resistance, and planted the palmetto tree permanently in the identity of South Carolina. The story of Fort Moultrie is not simply a story of a single battle; it is a story about improvisation, defiance, and the strange alchemy by which a military embarrassment for the British became a founding myth for the Americans.
PEOPLE
General Henry Clinton
British General, Land Force Commander, Future Commander-in-Chief
Commodore Sir Peter Parker
Royal Navy Commodore, British Fleet Commander, Charleston 1776
Colonel William Moultrie
Continental Army Colonel, Fort Sullivan Commander, General and Governor
John Rutledge
President of South Carolina, Governor, Patriot Leader
KEY EVENTS
STORIES
HISTORICAL VOICE
The Flag
The cannonball that brought down the flagstaff was not the most dangerous thing that happened at Fort Sullivan on June 28, 1776. There were hundreds of more dangerous moments in a ten-hour bombardment...
MODERN VOICE
The Accidental Armor
The most important material decision in the Battle of Fort Sullivan was made for practical reasons, not strategic ones. Palmetto logs were what was available on the South Carolina coast in large quant...