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Flag of the Month August 2021 - Ft. Moultrie Flag

Started by Mrs. Smith, August 03, 2021, 12:47:19 AM

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Mrs. Smith

Fort Moultrie Flag

Iconic to the state of South Carolina as a symbol of freedom and the Revolution, eventually this was used as the foundation for the state's own flag. The flag was originally named the Liberty Flag. It is occasionally rendered with the word Liberty separately in white, along the lower center of the flag or with the word Liberty in the Moon.  The Fort Moultrie Flag was created by Colonel William Moultrie when he was ordered to take over Fort Johnson on James Island in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina in 1775. The South Carolina Council of Safety wanted to salute the British warships in the harbor with a flag to show them they were now in possession of the fort. Colonel Moultrie created this flag for the purpose. It was the first United States flag flown in the south.



In September of 1775, the South Carolina Council of Safety was growing more and more concerned with patrolling British warships in Charleston Harbor. The entrance of the harbor was guarded by Sullivan's Island on the north and James Island on the south. To try to get a better defensive position to guard the harbor, the Council of Safety ordered Colonel William Moultrie to take Fort Johnson, on the edge of James Island, and the small contingent of British soldiers who manned it.

Col. Moultrie sent Captain Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, Captain Bernard Elliott and Captain Francis Marion with 50 men each to take the fort. On the morning of September 15th, they rowed to the island, but were surprised to find the gates open and the fort abandoned. The British had apparently been warned an expedition was planned against the fort and they had removed all of their guns and cannon. Only 5 British soldiers remained who were then captured. Before long, the patriots had mounted their own cannons to defend the fort against British warships.

Later that day, the British sloop-of-war Cherokee arrived off Fort Johnson. Out of pride, the Council of Safety wanted to signal the British ship that they were now in possession of the fort. Since there was no official United States Flag or South Carolina Flag at this point, they instructed Col. Moultrie to design a flag and hoist it above Fort Johnson.



   In March 1776, Moultrie's troops began building Fort Sullivan on the southern tip of Sullivan's Island to further defend the entrance to Charleston Harbor. They built a wall of palmetto logs and sand that was far from finished when a British fleet from the north arrived on June 1.  The British Army had been confined in Boston during most of 1775 due to the colonists surrounding the town. General Henry Clinton needed to secure bases of operation where the British army would have more control, so he decided to launch an offensive against the southern colonies.

Ten warships sailed to Charleston and began a bombardment on Fort Sullivan on June 28, 1776. Once again, the soldiers raised the Fort Moultrie Flag, designed by Col. Moultrie. The bombardment lasted throughout the day. In his memoirs, Moultrie later wrote that it was like "one continual blaze and roar; and clouds of smoke curling over... for hours together." The British warships had 300 cannons between them, but remarkably, the furious cannonade against the fort did little damage because the soft palmetto logs tended to absorb the force of the balls like a sponge. The sand absorbed the rest of the impact.

During the bombardment, the pole holding up the Fort Moultrie Flag was broken by a cannon shot and the flag fell down outside the fort. Sergeant William Jasper, an illiterate youth, ran outside the fort for the flag, risking death from the bullets and cannon balls flying all around him, allegedly crying, "We cannot fight without a flag!" He replanted the flag on the walls of the fort, earning him a place of renown in the American Revolution.



Col. Moultrie's troops acted patiently and with precision fired back their own cannon at the ships facing them in the harbor. They severely damaged most of the ships, while a few grounded themselves on the sandbars. Finally, Sir Peter Parker, commander of the fleet, who was injured in the battle, called off the attack and retreated. It took Parker 3 weeks to repair his ships, at which point the fleet abandoned the southern campaign and sailed for New York. In the battle, the British warships lost 220 men dead or wounded, but the colonists lost only 12 men with 25 wounded, even though they were outnumbered 5 to 1!

The Battle of Sullivan's Island was a decisive victory for the colonists because it kept the British out of the south for another three years. It was the first major defeat at sea for the British in many years. Many loyalists in South Carolina changed sides and joined the patriots as a result of the victory, no longer afraid of the British army. The battle was fought less than a week before Congress' Declaration of Independence from Great Britain.

Fort Sullivan was renamed Fort Moultrie in honor of Col. William Moultrie who commanded the battle and this is how the Fort Moultrie Flag got it's name. Col. Moultrie was promoted to General and his troops joined the Continental Army. John Rutledge, president of the South Carolina Assembly, presented Sergeant William Jasper with his dress sword and an officer's commission, but Jasper turned down the commission, believing it was inappropriate for a man of his low social status.

Today, the flag of the State of South Carolina is based on the Fort Moultrie Flag. It is exactly the same as the original Fort Moultrie Flag, except that the word "Liberty" is removed from the crescent and it has a Palmetto Tree added in the center of the blue field. The Palmetto Tree was added by the state during the Civil War. Several variations appeared during that time, but the version with the palmetto added, to represent the palmetto logs that were used at Fort Moultrie, is the one that survived as the official flag of South Carolina.

The correct version of the Fort Moultrie Flag has the word LIBERTY on the crescent itself. Another flag is commonly sold as the Fort Moultrie Flag with the word "Liberty" at the bottom of the blue field, instead of in the moon. This is not an historically accurate flag, even though it is sold this way by many flag dealers. This version of the Fort Moultrie flag was adopted as the civic flag of the town of Liberty, South Carolina.

"Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't." - Margaret Thatcher

You can have peace, or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having both at once. - Robert A. Heinlein

"A generation which ignores history has no past, and no future." - Lazarus Long

"What we do now echoes in eternity." Marcus Aurelius

Waco 1-17       Waco 1-19     El Paso 7-19       Alamogordo 5-20     Albuquerque 7-21       Houston 8-21 (SBC)    Colorado Springs  2-22 (SBC)    Midland 8-22 (KDIBC)     Albuquerque 2-23      Harvard 5-23      El Paso 12-23 (PIBC)     Phoenix 2-24    El Paso 3-24

Palousie


SteelThunder

#2
I have an affinity for the Fort Moultrie flag and Sullivan's Island, as I grew up in Sullivan Illinois which was the county seat for Moultrie county (gee...I wonder why they paired those two words?).  There's a civil war cannon on our courthouse lawn that is reputed to be from Fort Moultrie...but a century later firing some of the first shots at Fort Sumter.

In researching the flag, there is some contention about why the crescent was selected.  It had, for some time, meant to represent a symbol of resistance to tyrannical rule...of course the question is why the crescent is viewed in such a way?  I haven't found a good source, so I'd welcome anyone with more info.

One explanation, which I don't know to be true or not, is that the crescent represents the gorget, or the piece of metal that protects a knight's throat.  In the British army, this continued but more as a stylized piece for officers.  Because many officers were second sons of noblemen (needing to take a career in the military vs being first in line to inherit the estate) and some, upon finding the New World appealing and building wealth in the Americas, settled down and became part of the core fabric of the new American society.

True?  I dunno.  But I like the story at least.
NRA Patron Member, SAF Life Member
NRA Certified Rifle Instructor, RSO
Warlord of the West

Ultima vox civis
"Learning occurs only after repetitive, demoralizing failures." - Pat Rogers
"Silence in the face of evil is itself evil; God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer
"So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart." - Tecumseh
"Never attribute to treachery, that which can adequately be explained by incompetence" - Bonaparte, Hanlon, et al

Mrs. Smith

I had been wondering about the symbolism of the crescent.  That's as reasonable a possibility as any other.  Thanks!
"Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't." - Margaret Thatcher

You can have peace, or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having both at once. - Robert A. Heinlein

"A generation which ignores history has no past, and no future." - Lazarus Long

"What we do now echoes in eternity." Marcus Aurelius

Waco 1-17       Waco 1-19     El Paso 7-19       Alamogordo 5-20     Albuquerque 7-21       Houston 8-21 (SBC)    Colorado Springs  2-22 (SBC)    Midland 8-22 (KDIBC)     Albuquerque 2-23      Harvard 5-23      El Paso 12-23 (PIBC)     Phoenix 2-24    El Paso 3-24

Mrs. Smith

#4
I found this story recently. It also comes out of the battle in June of 1776, and worthy of mention.

https://fee.org/articles/a-patriots-dying-words-do-not-let-liberty-expire-with-me-today/
"Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't." - Margaret Thatcher

You can have peace, or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having both at once. - Robert A. Heinlein

"A generation which ignores history has no past, and no future." - Lazarus Long

"What we do now echoes in eternity." Marcus Aurelius

Waco 1-17       Waco 1-19     El Paso 7-19       Alamogordo 5-20     Albuquerque 7-21       Houston 8-21 (SBC)    Colorado Springs  2-22 (SBC)    Midland 8-22 (KDIBC)     Albuquerque 2-23      Harvard 5-23      El Paso 12-23 (PIBC)     Phoenix 2-24    El Paso 3-24

Jerry Hall

Thank you Mrs. Smith for your commitment to the cause.  :bow:
"The significant problems we face today cannot be solved with the same level of thinking that we were at when we created them. Albert Einstein."

"One Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

Black Knight

Black Knight
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sstrykert

@SteelThunder, the sun never sets on the British Empire? So they got a "moon" for their efforts? :-P