Sergeant Jasper at Fort Moultrie

On June 28, 1776, nine British warships under Commodore Sir Peter Parker opened fire on an unfinished fort of palmetto logs and sand on Sullivan's Island, at the mouth of Charleston harbor. Inside were about 400 men of the 2nd South Carolina Regiment under Colonel William Moultrie, and a blue flag with a white crescent.

Early in the bombardment a shot cut the flagstaff and the colors fell outside the wall. Sergeant William Jasper went over the parapet under fire, picked up the flag, tied it to a sponge staff from one of the guns and planted it back on the rampart.

The soft palmetto logs swallowed the British shot. The fleet drew off after nightfall with two hundred casualties. The palmetto is on the state flag today.

Jasper fills the frame from the palmetto logs to the top edge, gripping a rough pole with the torn blue flag whipping out over his shoulder. The crescent is the first thing the eye finds; his face, turned toward the ships, is the second. Below him a gun crew works in the shadow of the parapet. Out on the water, small and white, the British squadron is a row of smoke puffs. The sky is high summer — big clouds, hard light, no cover.