Battle of Sullivan's Island

Battle of Sullivan's Island (Fort Sullivan)
Part of American Revolutionary War
Date June 28, 1776 Location Sullivan's Island, South Carolina 34°44′31.03″N 80°37′32.85″W Result Patriot victory
Belligerents
Province of South Carolina	Great Britain
Commanders and leaders
William Moultrie	Sir Peter Parker Henry Clinton William Campbell
Strength
435 Patriot militia	1,500 regulars nine warships
Casualties and losses
12 killed 26 wounded	64 killed 141 wounded one ship lost

The Battle of Sullivan's Island was a battle on June 28, 1776 in 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 commerce city which also was part of a springboard for recruitment of 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 as well as manufacturing supplies such as clothing, tools, and horse saddles for the Patriot army.

British operations

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, 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 an outline of his expedition plan with him. 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 first notice that the British were going to the area.

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 wiped out at Moore's Creek Bridge two weeks earlier. He also received please 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 had resulted in hostilities.)

Parker's fleet had an extremely difficult crossing. Beset 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.

Patriot defenses

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 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 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 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, 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 Lee, who Washington had sent to defend 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 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 feet wide and filled with sand, which rose 10 feet 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 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 50-gun Experiment and FrigatesActaeon, Active, Solebay, Syren, Sphinx, Friendship, and the bomb vessel Thunder, all mounting nearly 300 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 or 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 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. By 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, (later states), support vital campaigns in the north. Most importantly, the victory of Fort Sullivan helped to keep 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 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. 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