On June 28, 1776, British Admiral Peter Parker, confident of victory, led a fleet of nine warships in an attack on the palmetto log fort. Parker’s ships anchored only 400 yards away and fired thundering broadsides during a nine-hour battle, but the fort’s walls of spongy palmetto logs and sand absorbed hundreds of projectiles from the fleet’s nearly 300 heavy guns. Inside the fort, Colonel Moultrie’s 400 patriots concentrated the return fire of their 31 cannon on the largest ships, inflicting heavy damage and casualties. As darkness fell, the battle ended with the crippled fleet pulling up anchor and drifting out of range on an ebbing tide. Charleston’s defenders celebrated victory in the first major seacoast engagement of the Revolution. Admiral Peter Parker had commanded the British naval force sent to restore the king’s authority to South Carolina, and despite his defeat by the patriots, he was knighted and later became Admiral of the Fleet.