On June 28, 1776, nine British warships under the command of Sir Peter Parker weighed anchor and began moving toward Sullivan’s Island outside of Charleston, South Carolina. Col. William Moultrie, commanding the 2^nd South Carolina Regiment in an unfinished palmetto log fort, ordered his men to their posts to prepare for a defense. The first four British ships moved into position and anchored 400 yards from the fort. In an amazing display of British firepower, the British ships began to fire broadsides, simultaneously firing all the cannon from one side of the ship. The broadsides were deafening as hundreds of British cannonballs screeched through the air and slammed into the palmetto walls of the fort. Local newspapers later described the cannonade as “one of the most heavy and incessant cannonades perhaps ever known.”

As the walls of the fort shook violently, Moultrie’s men coolly manned their cannon and returned the fire as best they could. A continuous roar of cannon fire from hundreds of artillery pieces belched forth, quickly filling the harbor with the sight of white smoke and the smell of burning sulfur. The crash of the cannonballs mixed with the screams of wounded men filled the air.

As the British cannon boomed away, their solid shot hit the walls of the palmetto fort. But the soft, spongy wood of the palmetto (and the 16 feet of sand behind them) absorbed the shock and the balls either buried themselves into the wall or bounced off and fell harmlessly to the ground. Meanwhile, the British ships endured terrible damage from the American shore batteries. American cannonballs smashed into the oak of the British ships, causing havoc and bloodshed.

As the British front four ships continued to trade shots with Moultrie’s men, three other British ships started a planned movement around Sullivan’s Island to fire into the unprotected rear of the fort. However, the British pilots did not know the configuration of the harbor; thus, they maneuvered toward the vulnerable rear, they ended up grounding on a shallow sand bar known as the “Middle Ground.” All three ships became stuck on the sand and were now out of the battle. This costly error stole from the British their best option for driving Moultrie and his men from the fort.

As the British navy realized they were in for a long-drawn-out fight, the British army north of Sullivan’s Island attempted to cross the Breach Inlet and land soldiers on Sullivan’s Island but were driven back. One Patriot remembered that the American artillery “spread Havock [sic], Devastation, and Death, and always made them retire faster than they advanced.” The battle now depended entirely on the action occurring at the unfinished fort.

A surgeon with the British fleet noted that the British ships were “raked fore and aft” by American artillery. He wrote that “perhaps an instance of such slaughter cannot be produced; twice the quarter-deck was cleared of every person except Sir Peter.” In the maelstrom on the British flagship, the Bristol, British officers and sailors quickly fell. The captain of the Bristol, John Morris, had his arm ripped off by an American cannonball and died a week later. The former royal governor of South Carolina, William Campbell, was also on board the Bristol and suffered a wound to his side and eventually died from it two years after the battle. Sir Peter Parker, commander of the British fleet, himself was wounded slightly in the fighting—his breeches were torn apart, and his thigh and knee were cut and bloody and needed to be helped below deck. One British officer on the Bristol noted that “no slaughterhouse could present so bad a sight, with blood and entrails lying about, as our ship did.”