28 June 1776, afternoon and night
Sullivan’s Island: the frigates aground
Around noon Parker sends the frigates Sphinx, Syren and Actaeon round the shoals to a position west of the fort, from where they could rake its gun platform and cover the garrison’s escape. All three run onto an uncharted sandbar. Sphinx and Syren get off, but Actaeon stays fast, and none of them reaches its station.
Sergeant William Jasper raises the fallen flag on the fort’s wall, engraving after Johannes Oertel, 1858Wikimedia Commons, Johannes Oertel, Public domain (Battle of Sullivans Island.jpg)
The fort’s guns batter Bristol and Experiment, shooting away much of Bristol’s rigging and wounding Parker. When the flag on the wall is shot down, Sergeant William Jasper raises it again. In mid-afternoon the garrison runs short of powder until Lee sends more from the mainland. The firing goes on until about 9 p.m., when the fleet withdraws out of range. Bristol has 40 killed and 71 wounded and Experiment 23 killed and 56 wounded, while the Americans report 12 killed and 25 wounded. The next morning the British burn the grounded Actaeon.
Sources
- David Lee Russell, Victory on Sullivan’s Island (2002).
- Christopher Ward, The War of the Revolution (1952).
Prev: Sullivan’s Island: the fleet against the fortNext: New York falls, and the retreat across New Jersey