Battle of Sullivan's Island

The battle of Sullivan's Island was a battle on June 28, 1776 in the American Revolution.

History

During 1775 of the first year of the American Revolution, the city of Charleston in the colony of South Carolina was a rising commerce city which also was part of a springboard for recruitment of the Colonist rebels. While militia men skirmished with British and Loyalist band through the southern colonies, the people of Charleston worked to support the rebellion by funneling recruits through the city as well as manufacturing supplies such as clothing, tools, horse saddles for the Patriot army. While the British were attempting to stem the rebellion up north, a small force was detached to secure the southern colonies which included Charleston. Maj. Gen. Henry Clinton was selected to lead the Southern Expedition, and Admiral Sir Peter Parker was named to command the expedition's Royal Naval Force gathering in Cork Harbour, Ireland.

In late January of 1776, Clinton sailed from Boston, bound for Cape Fear, North Carolina. In Charleston, John Rutledge, a member of the Continental Congress, arrived in Charleston with information of a British move into South Carolina. Named as the newly appointed president of the General Assembly that remained as the backbone of South Carolina's revolutionary government, Rutledge organized a defense force under the command of 46-year-old Colonel William Moultrie, a former militiaman and Indian fighter. Moultrie saw Sullivan's Island, at the mouth of the entrance to Charleston Harbor as a good place suited to build a fort to protect the entrance from intruding enemy warships.

Sullivan Island was chosen because at the time because it was a geographic obstacle that shielded the harbor. A large vessel sailing into Charleston first had to cross Charleston Bar, a series of submerged sand banks lying about eight miles southeast of the city. Moultrie and his 2nd South Carolina Regiment arrived on the island in March, 1776 and began construction of a fortress to defend the island and channel to Charleston Harbor. The construction moved slowly in which an observer, Captain Peter Horry of the Patriot naval detachment, described the site as a "an immense pen 500 feet long, and 16 feed wide, filled with sand to stop the shot". The workers constructed gun platforms out of two-inch planks and nailed them together with wood spikes.

During late May, British frigates arrived to scout the area and observe the construction of the enemy fort on Sullivan's Island. The main British fleet arrived outside of Charleston Harbor on June 1. Moultrie observed British scout boat observing possible landing points on nearby Long Island (now called Isle of Palms) just a few hundred yards from Sullivan Island. General Charles Lee, the commander of the South Carolina patriot troops, arrived a few days later and was put in command of the land forces around Charleston. On June 8, after most of the British fleet had crossed the bar and anchored in Five Fathom Hole, Clinton sent a proclamation to the patriot rebels to lay down their arms or face military action, which Rutledge rejected the demand. With the fort on Sullivan Island only half complete, Parker was confident that his warships would blast the fort into pieces.

The square-shaped Fort Sullivan made up of only the completed seaward wall, with walls made from Palmetto logs 16 feed wide and filled with sand, which rose 10 feed above the wooden platforms for the artillery. A hastily erected palisade of thick planks helped guard the powder magazine and unfinished northern walls. A assortment of 31 hard-to-get cannon ranging from 9- and 12-pounders as well as a few English 18-pounders and French 26-pounders dotted the front and rear walls.

The British fleet to attack the fort made up of nine man-of-war ships, with the flagship being the 50-gun "Bristol", as well as the ships-of-the-line "Experiment", "Actaeon", "Active", "Solebay", "Syren", "Sphinx", "Friendship", and the bomb-vessel "Thunder", all mounting nearly 300 heavy cannon. Meanwhile, Clinton had landed most of his troops on nearby Long Island to cross the shallow sandbar to attack Fort Sullivan from the rear during the upcoming attack.

The Battle

At around 9 AM, on June 28, the British fleet fired a signal gun to advance against the fort. Less than an hour later, the nine warships arrived at the fort. The "Thunder" and "Friendship" anchored about 1.5 miles from the fort while Parker took the "Active", "Bristol", "Experiment" and "Solebay", about 400 yards from Sullivan Island's waterline to open fire on the fort, with the frigates "Sphinx", "Syren", and "Actaeon" in reserve less than a mile behind the four main ships. At 11:30 AM, the 13-inch bomb batteries aboard the "Thunder" opened fire on Fort Sullivan, and minutes later the full broadsides of the British warships hit the fort. The fort's gunners worked furiously to return the British fire. Three of the poorly protected 12-pound guns a few yards from the fort were abandoned, but the remaining 28 cannon kept returning fire for the sand and palmetto logs of the fort's walls stood up well and smothered most of the British cannonballs before they could explode. Most of the American casualties came from direct hits through the embrasures.

During the cannonade against Fort Sullivan, the three British ships in reserve sailed past the fort north toward The Cove to take up positions to attack the fort from its flanks, only to run onto an uncharted sandbar. The British managed to refloat the "Sphinix" and "Syren", but the "Acteon" remained grounded having moved too far onto the submerged sandbar.

In the meantime, Clinton had tried to support the naval attack by landing on Sullivan's Island, but he soon discovered that the water in narrow straight from Long Island to Sullivan's Island, thought to be only 18 inches deep enabing his men to cross, was in fact close to six to seven feet deep. The American militia on Sullivan's Island and the nearby mainland opened fire on Clinton's men attempting to cross the strait forcing them to withdraw.

At the fort, Moultrie ordered his men to concentrate their fire on the two large man-of-war ships, the "Bristol" and "Experiment", which took hit after hit from the fort's guns. On the "Bristol", one round from the fort hit quarterdeck, slightly wounding Parker with a knee and thigh wound, which tore off part of his britches, leaving his backside bare. The defenders were well supplied as the bombardment drew into the afternoon, as Lee brought more ammunition and gunpowder for the fort, continuing to fire back at the British ships. With the extra powder, the patriots continued firing defiantly at the British ships, until sunset when the fleet finally withdrew out of range.

Counting casualties, Parker reported 40 sailors killed and 71 wounded aboard the "Bristol", having been hit over 70 times with much damage to the hull, yards, and rigging. The "Experiment" was also badly damaged with 23 sailors killed and 56 wounded with similar damage. The "Active" and "Solebay" reported 15 casualties between them. The American patriots reported their casualties at only 17 killed and 20 wounded. The following morning, the British, unable to drag the grounded "Actaeon" off the sandbar, set fire to the ship to prevent her from falling into enemy hands. The patriots in small boats sailed to the afire "Actaeon" removing a few cannons, before withdrawing back to the shore when the grounded warship exploded after the fires reached the powder magazine.

Aftermath

The British did not attempt to renew the battle to try to take the fort again, and by mid-July, the fleet withdrew northward to help the main British army in the campaign against New York. Within days of the battle, Charlestonians learn of the singing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia which was a sign of their capacity to oppose British arms. The victory on June 28 stood to them as their own phsyical Declaration, which stymied British plans in the southern colonies and helped win uncommitted Americans to the struggle for independence from Great Britain. It also enabled the Southern colonies (later states) to support vital campaigns in the north. Most importantly the victory of Fort Sullivan helped keep Charleston free from British occupation for more than three years. One commonly overlooked fact is that such a victory kept the British out of the South, which in turn kept Gen. Washington in the Middle Colonies from being attacked on two fronts (northern "and" southern).

Fort Sullivan was renamed Fort Moultrie shortly after the battle in honor of Colonel William Moultrie for his successful defense of fort and the city of Charleston.

References

"The Concise Illustrated History of the American Revolution"; 1972. Eastern Acorn Press.

"Fort Moultrie, Constant Defender"; Jim Stokely, 1985. Division of Publications, National Park Service.