The five shorter flagpoles around the American flag represent the flags flown over Fort Sumter during the Civil War. The first official Confederate flag, the "Stars and Bars" or "First National," was raised in April 1861 when Southern forces occupied Fort Sumter at the start of the war. The thirty-three-star United States flag was the flag of the Union garrison that occupied the fort from December 1860 until Confederate bombardment forced its surrender in mid-April 1861. The South Carolina state flag reflects important events in the state's military history: early South Carolina regiments wore blue uniforms with a silver crescent on their caps, and in 1776 a flag with a silver crescent on a blue field flew over the palmetto log fort on Sullivan's Island, now the site of Fort Moultrie, where a small garrison repulsed an attack by British warships in a key Revolutionary War battle; the white palmetto tree on the blue field commemorates that battle. The flag was officially adopted in 1861 and remains in use. The second official Confederate flag, the "Second National," replaced the first in 1863 and flew over the fort until Confederate troops withdrew from all Charleston harbor defenses in February 1865. A thirty-five-star United States flag was raised in February 1865 when Union forces reoccupied the fort at the end of the Civil War, reflecting the wartime admission of Kansas and West Virginia to the Union.
