Towards the end of 1777 he was appointed to the 50-gun , flagship of Rear-Admiral Sir Peter Parker. On 26 December 1777 Parker sailed from Portsmouth with a squadron of ships, carrying troops under the command of Earl Cornwallis, to launch an attack on Charleston, South Carolina. The squadron arrived off Cape Fear in May, and was joined by General Henry Clinton and his troops. The combined force advanced upriver until reaching the strongly fortified Sullivan's Island. In the subsequent battle on 28 June the British were unable to subdue the defenders or mount an attack by land. "Bristol" bore the brunt of the American fire and had 111 men killed and wounded. The British eventually withdrew, and sailed north to attack New York. Nugent was serving as an acting-lieutenant during the attack on Sullivan's Island, and in September 1777 he followed Parker into the . In December Parker and Clinton were sent north to capture Rhode Island, which was taken without resistance. At the beginning of 1778 Parker sailed to Jamaica to serve as commander-in-chief, and on 26 May promoted Nugent to the rank of commander, his promotion to lieutenant as yet still unconfirmed by the Admiralty, and thus his name first appears in the Navy List as a commander.