Battle of Sullivan's Island

Battle of Sullivan's Island
Part of American Revolutionary War
A map made following the engagement.
Date June 28, 1776 Location Fort Sullivan, Sullivan's Island, South Carolina, Atlantic Ocean 34°44′31.03″N 80°37′32.85″W Result Colonial victory
Belligerents
South Carolina	Great Britain
Commanders and leaders
William Moultrie	Peter Parker Henry Clinton William Campbell
Strength
435 militia, 31 artillery pieces, 2 shore batteries, Fort Sullivan	Land: 1,500 infantry Sea: 2 fourth-rates, 6 frigates, 1 bomb vessel
Casualties and losses
12 killed, 26 wounded, 1 shore battery destroyed, Fort Sullivan damaged	64 killed, 141 wounded, 2 fourth-rates severely damaged, 2 frigates moderately damaged, 1 frigate grounded
The British frigate HMS Actaeon was scuttled a few days after being grounded during this battle.

The Battle of Sullivan's Island or the Battle of Fort Sullivan took place on June 28, 1776, during the American Revolutionary War, also known as the American War of Independence. It took place near Charleston, South Carolina, during the first British attempt to capture the city from American rebels. Because of this it is sometimes known as the First Siege of Charleston, owing to a later more successful campaign in 1780.

Background

During 1775, the first year of the American Revolution, the city of Charleston in the colony of South Carolina was a rising center of commerce that was also a point of recruitment for the colonial rebels. While militia men skirmished with British and Loyalist bands through the southern colonies, the people of Charleston worked to support the rebellion by funneling recruits through the city, and by manufacturing supplies such as clothing, tools, and horse saddles for the Continental Army.

British operations

Sir Peter Parker

British army forces in North America were primarily tied up with the Siege of Boston in 1775. Seeking bases of operations where they had more control, the British planned an expedition to the southern colonies. Major General Henry Clinton, then in Boston, was to travel to Cape Fear, North Carolina, where he would join with largely Scottish Loyalists raised in the North Carolina backcountry, and a force of 2,500 men from Ireland under the command of Major General Charles Cornwallis.

The plan was beset by difficulties from the start. The Irish expedition, originally supposed to depart at the beginning of December 1775, was delayed by logistical difficulties, and did not depart until February 13, 1776, escorted by 11 warships under the command of Admiral Sir Peter Parker. Clinton left Boston on January 20 with two companies of light infantry, and first stopped at New York City to confer with William Tryon, the royal governor there. While in New York, he exchanged letters with Charles Lee, who was then overseeing the defensive preparations of the city for the Continental Army. Apparently attempting to induce Lee, a former British officer, to return to the fold, Clinton shared with him an outline of his expedition plan. Lee forwarded this communication on to George Washington. This was not even Washington's first notice of the expedition; a communication intercepted in December had already provided intelligence that the British were planning to go to the South.

Clinton arrived at Cape Fear on March 12, with his fleet carrying the royal governors of North and South Carolina, Josiah Martin and William Campbell. When he arrived there he learned not only that the convoy from Europe had not yet arrived, but that the recruited Scottish Loyalists had been defeated at Moore's Creek Bridge two weeks earlier. He also received pleas for assistance from the royal governor of Georgia, James Wright, who had been arrested by Patriot leaders on the arrival of a British fleet sent there from Boston to purchase provisions. Clinton was unable to assist Wright, and the situation in Georgia resulted in hostilities.

Parker's fleet had an extremely difficult crossing. Battered by storms and high seas, the first ships of the fleet did not arrive at Cape Fear until April 18, and Cornwallis did not arrive until May 4. After several weeks there, in which the British troops raided Patriot properties, Clinton, Cornwallis and Parker concluded that Cape Fear was not a suitable base for further operations. Parker had sent out some ships on scouting expeditions up and down the coast, and reports on the Charleston defenses were sufficiently promising that the decision was made to go there.

American defenses

William Moultrie

John Rutledge, a member of the Continental Congress, arrived in Charleston with information of a British move against the southern colonies. 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 entrance to Charleston Harbor, as a place well suited to build a fort that could protect the entrance from intruding enemy warships.

Sullivan's Island was chosen because at the time 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 shoals lying about 8 miles (13 km) 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 the channel into Charleston Harbor. The construction moved slowly; Captain Peter Horry of the Patriot naval detachment described the site as a "an immense pen 500 feet long, and 16 feet 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.

British arrival

During late May, some of Admiral Parker's frigates arrived to scout the area and observe the construction of the fort on Sullivan's Island. The main British fleet arrived outside Charleston Harbor on June 1. Moultrie noticed a British scout boat apparently looking for possible landing points on nearby Long Island, just a few hundred yards from Sullivan's Island. General Lee, sent by Washington to lead Continental Army troops in the south, 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 demanding that the Patriot rebels lay down their arms or face military action; Rutledge rejected the demand. With the fort on Sullivan's Island only half complete, Admiral Parker was confident that his warships would blast the fort into pieces.

Square-shaped Fort Sullivan consisted only of the completed seaward wall, with walls made from palmetto logs 16 feet (4.9 m) wide and filled with sand, which rose 10 feet (3.0 m) above the wooden platforms for the artillery. A hastily erected palisade of thick planks helped guard the powder magazine and unfinished northern walls. An assortment of 31 cannon, ranging from 9- and 12-pounders to a few English 18-pounders and French 26-pounders, dotted the front and rear walls.

The British fleet was composed of nine man-of-war ships, with the flagship being the 50-gun Bristol, as well as the 50-gun Experiment and frigates Actaeon, Active, Solebay, Syren, Sphinx, Friendship, and the bomb vessel Thunder, in total mounting nearly 300 cannon. Clinton had landed most of his troops on nearby Long Island intending to cross the shallows between it and Sullivan's Island to attack the fort from the rear while the fleet bombarded it.

Battle

At around 9:00 am, on June 28, the British fleet fired a signal gun indicating all was ready 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 (2.4 km) from the fort while Parker took the Active, Bristol, Experiment and Solebay to a closer position about 400 yards (370 m) off Sullivan's Island. He held the frigates Sphinx, Syren, and Actaeon in reserve less than a mile (1.6 km) 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 began hitting the fort. The fort's gunners worked furiously to return the British fire. Three poorly protected 12-pound guns a few yards from the fort were abandoned, but the remaining 28 cannon kept returning fire. The fort's construction fortuitously benefited the defenders, as the sand and palmetto logs of the fort's walls stood up well to the cannonade, smothering most of the British cannonballs before they could explode. Most of the American casualties came from direct hits through the embrasures.

During the bombardment, the three British ships held in reserve sailed past the fort north toward The Cove to take up positions from which they could attack the fort's flanks, only to run onto an uncharted sandbar. The British managed to refloat the Sphinx and Syren, but the Acteon remained grounded, having moved too far onto the submerged sandbar.

Fort Sullivan looking into Charleston Harbor during the American Civil War. The fort has been known as Fort Moultie since the Colonel William Moultrie's victory in 1776.

In the meantime, Clinton had tried to cross the landing force over to Sullivan's Island. He quickly discovered that the water in the narrow strait between Long Island, where he had landed his troops, and Sullivan's Island, was six to seven feet (about 2 meters) deep, instead of the 18 inches (0.46 m) that had been expected. Patriot militiamen on Sullivan's Island and the nearby mainland opened fire on Clinton's men as they attempted to cross the strait, and eventually forced them to give up the effort.

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 hit the quarterdeck, slightly wounding Parker in the knee and thigh. The shot also tore off part of his britches, leaving his backside exposed. 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, which was hit more than 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 Acteon off the sandbar, set fire to the ship to prevent her from falling into enemy hands. Patriots in small boats sailed to the burning ship and removed a few of its cannons before withdrawing back to the shore. The grounded warship exploded after the fires reached the powder magazine.

Aftermath

The British did not attempt to take the fort again. Within days of the battle, Charlestonians learned of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia, a sign of their capacity to oppose British arms. In mid-July the British fleet withdrew northward to help the main British army in its campaign against New York.

The victory on June 28 stood as the Southern colonies' own physical Declaration, stymying British plans in those colonies, and helping to win uncommitted Americans to the struggle for independence from Great Britain. It also enabled the Southern colonies to support the military campaigns in the north. Most importantly, the victory kept Charleston free from British occupation for more than three years. Finally, this victory kept the British out of the South, preventing General Washington, in the Middle Colonies, from being attacked on two fronts; northern and southern.

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

References

• The Concise Illustrated History of the American Revolution. Eastern Acorn Press (1972).
• Stokely, Jim (1985). Fort Moultrie, Constant Defender. Division of Publications, National Park Service.
• Russell, David Lee (2000). The American Revolution in the Southern colonies. ISBN 9780786407835