The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1903-05-07

Moultrie1" he asked one day, faint
sheer on his handsome iace, as he
glanced supefciliously about him.
"What fort" came the laconic query.
"Why, for your men to retreat over"
replied Lee, little dreaming of the
storm he had raised. There was silence
for second, and then With his eyes
flashing gray FIRE. Col. Moultrie thun-
dered in tones that drowned the roar
OF the surf, and made his men shake
with inward mirth: "My soldiers
know how to die, sir, but they haye
never learned to retreatl Governor
Rutledge told me to build this tort
and hold it, and Ill do it, though all
Europe tried to take it from me-"
The discounted general put his hat
on HE handsome head, and, muttering.
"You are mad, uttel ly mad ~ returned
to Charleston, while Col. Moultrie put
his pipe back in his mouth and went
on serenely digging his postholes.
1t was the latter part of June, 1776,
that eight vessels of the British fleet,
under command of Sir Peter Parker,
crossed the bar and anchoring three
hundred and fifty yards from the little,
unfinished fort, opened deadly fire
from over a hundred guns. Inside
Fort Moultrie were four hundred and
thirty five men, with only twenty-five
guns and scarce twenty-eight rounds
OF powder. edo all the damage you
can, and hold that fort |" had been the
governors last message, and after Or
dering his men to strip to the waist,
the better to Withstand the torrid heat,
Colonel Moultrie gave his final COM
mand before the battle, 'tShoot to kill,
and never give up" Three times the
great gums of the British war vessels
cent their thunder over the water, and
still no sign of life came from the pile
of palmetto logs, above which streamed
q white flag with a blue crescent.
Then as a cheer of triumph broke from
the English sailors, Col. Moultrie sent
his answering message over the waves
"a deadly answer that swept the deck
OF Sir Peters flagship from end to end,
and left dead and wounded in its wake.
For hours the battle ragged, the little
handful of South Carolinians fighting
as surely men never fought before.
Cut off from the city they were de-
tending, exhausted by the frightfuI
heat, almost out of ammunition, they
fought stubbornly on with GOODNESS
and determination that slowly, but
surely, won the day. Men with entire
limbs torn away loaded, aimed and
fired their guns and then fell dead on
the blood soaked sand, their last word
being "LibertyP' It was during this
battle that Sergeant Jasper made hie
name immortal by leaping outside the
wall and securing the flag which had
been shot away. Then, as the sun
went slowly down, the disabled Eng
lish feet moved sullenly back, and
with its wounded commander groaning
as his flagship slowly sailed away, and
for three years the South was free from
British inv aston.
Congress made Col. Moultrie brig.
adier-genera for his success, and named
the fort in his honor, while in the
Palmetto seal of his own State his vic
tory was lasting commemoration.
After the revolution the old fort grad
ua]ly fell into decay, until it was little
more than q pile of ruins. Then,
after many years, che government had
it restored on the old plan, and in 1860,
when the var cloud burst over the
South, it was occupied by a United
States force, under command of Mai.
Robert Anderson, who, feeling that he
would soon require stronger fortress,
removed on December rs, 1860, to
Fort Sumter.
Fort Moultrie is now but pile OF
ruins, with little to interest the tourist
save its tragic past and the tomb OF
Osce0la. This great Seminole chief
tain was treacherously seized while
under the protection OF q flag OF truce,
on October %. 1887, and sent a pris.
oner to Fort Moultrie. There he was
SO Frustrated by grief and wasted by
fever that he died January 80, 1888.
A monument was erected to his mem.
CRY near the entrance to the fort, and
few visitors fail to pause by the lonely
grave and pay the tribute of Sigh t.
the memory of the brave and haplesl
young chieftain, whose death meant
the final overthrow Of his nation.
3 Cents