Sergeant William Jasper was a soldier, hero, scout, and the namesake of Jasper, Alabama. During the June 28, 1776, defense of Charleston against the Royal Navy, he retrieved the fallen standard of the 2nd South Carolina Regiment after a British cannon severed the flagstaff. Under intense fire, he leapt from the parapet wall of Fort Sullivan, now Fort Moultrie, recovered the flag, attached it to a cannon sponge staff, and remounted it on the fortress wall. In recognition of his bravery, his commanding officer presented him with a sword and offered him a commission as a lieutenant, which he refused. The victory at Fort Sullivan in the defense of Charleston was vitally important to the Patriot cause and was the first significant colonial victory since the skirmish with the British at Concord on April 19, 1775. In the following years of the war, he served under Francis Marion, the "Swamp Fox," in the struggle against the British and Southern Tories. He was killed in action in 1779 during the Patriot attempt to regain Savannah, Georgia, from the British.