Fort Charlotte, a British fort built in 1766 and named for the wife of King George III, stood on the South Carolina side of the Savannah River about one and one-half miles below the mouth of the Broad River near Vienna, where the river was shallow and about 660 feet wide. Originally garrisoned by British troops, it was abandoned in 1768 and turned over to the colonial administration. Debate followed over whether to dismantle it or convert it to public use, but when Fort Prince George was judged unsafe and ordered abandoned, its ordnance stores, arms, and ammunition were sent to Fort Charlotte, greatly increasing the fort’s importance. Commanded by Capt. George Whitefield with 15 troops, it became the target of action ordered by the Council of Safety created by the Provincial Congress on June 1, when Major James Mayson was directed to lead a Patriot force of two companies of Rangers from Ninety Six, 53 men in all under Capt. John Caldwell and Capt. Moses Kirkland, to seize the munitions there. On July 12, 1775, Whitefield peacefully surrendered the fort and all its possessions to Mayson, after which it was placed under Caldwell’s command with a company of 15 men. The seizure of Fort Charlotte was the first overt act of the American Revolution in South Carolina. The Third South Carolina Regiment (Rangers), established by the South Carolina Provincial Congress in June 1775 as mounted riflemen who rode horses for transportation but fought on foot, included a lieutenant colonel commandant, a major, 9 captains, 18 lieutenants, a surgeon, a paymaster, an adjutant, and a quartermaster, and each of its 9 companies had 2 sergeants, a drummer, and 50 privates. Placed on the Continental Establishment in September 1776, the regiment’s complement was increased the next month to 600 men in 12 companies, with the commanding officer, the major, and the senior captain each promoted one grade. Recruited in the backcountry and on the frontiers, it usually served in multi-company detachments; one took over Fort Charlotte in July 1775, another was bloodied at Ninety Six in November 1775 and in the Snow Campaign that followed, and in June 1776 the full regiment defended the eastern end of Sullivan’s Island during the British amphibious assault in the naval attack on the fort later named Fort Moultrie.