In 1776 South Carolinians prepared for a British invasion by building a fort on this site, a key position on Sullivans Island beside the main ship channel that protected the entrance to Charleston Harbor. The fort was designed as a 500-foot square with a bastion at each corner, and thousands of palmetto logs were cut and rafted to Sullivans Island to build its double log walls, which stood 10 feet high, 16 feet apart, and were filled with sand, giving the structure the look of an “immense pen.” Charleston-born Colonel William Moultrie supervised the hurried construction and believed it would protect his men, though when the British fleet arrived in June 1776 only half of the fort was complete, the 400-man garrison had little ammunition, and only 31 cannon faced nearly 300 British guns. On June 28, Colonel William Moultrie and the garrison successfully defended Charleston against the British fleet. Later, Moultrie was promoted to general, and the fort was renamed to honor him. The fort stood near the site of the present-day Fort Moultrie III, but its exact location remains unknown. The South Carolina state flag, adopted in 1861, uses a blue field, white crescent, and palmetto tree to represent the 1776 battle fought here, with the tree recalling the fort’s palmetto logs and the crescent and blue color symbolizing elements of the soldiers’ uniforms.