Battle of Sullivan's Island

28 June 1776, Charleston harbour, South Carolina

American victory; the attack on Charleston given up

A British expedition under Sir Peter Parker and General Clinton came to take Charleston. Parker's ships anchored off the unfinished fort on Sullivan's Island and bombarded it all day, but its walls of soft palmetto logs and sand absorbed the shot, and Colonel Moultrie's gunners, short of powder, fired slowly and well. Three frigates sent round to take the fort from behind ran aground on a shoal. Parker's flagship Bristol was badly hit and he was wounded. The British withdrew, and the South was left alone for more than two years. The fort was named Fort Moultrie, and South Carolina put the palmetto on its flag.