On June 28, 1776, just days before the Declaration of Independence was signed, nine British warships carrying nearly 300 cannons attacked an unfinished fort of palmetto logs and sand at the mouth of Charleston Harbor. This deep dive explores how Colonel William Moultrie, backed by South Carolina president John Rutledge, held his ground even after General Charles Lee called the fort a slaughter pen and moved to replace him.

The British suffered one blunder after another. General Henry Clinton’s 2,200 troops found a channel over seven feet deep instead of a shallow ford, the bomb vessel Thunder broke its own mortars with overloaded charges, and three frigates ran aground on an uncharted sandbar. Spongy palmetto logs absorbed cannonballs, slow and precise American fire shredded the flagship Bristol, Admiral Peter Parker lost part of his breeches, and Sergeant William Jasper rescued the fallen crescent flag.

• Why the British turned from Cape Fear to Charleston
• How palmetto logs and sand neutralized naval cannon fire
• The failed land crossing and the Thunder’s broken mortars
• The Actaeon aground and Sergeant Jasper’s flag rescue
• How the victory kept Charleston free and shaped South Carolina’s flag