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“F” is for Fort Moultrie

“F” is for Fort Moultrie. This was the site of the June 28, 1776 American victory in the Revolutionary War. Fort Moultrie I (the Revolutionary War fort) was replaced by Fort Moultrie II in 1798 and later by Fort Moultrie III (1809), which served as a U.S. military post until 1947. The original fort was a square with corner bastions, its palmetto log walls were five hundred feet long, more than ten feet high, and sixteen feet apart, with the space in between filled with sand. On June 28, 1776, Col. William Moultrie commanded the half-completed—and unnamed--fort that successfully withstood a nine-and-one-half bombardment by nine British warships. The American victory was an important one for the new nation. After the battle, the fort was named Fort Moultrie in honor of its courageous commander.

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Dr. Walter Edgar has two programs on South Carolina Public Radio: Walter Edgar's Journal, and South Carolina from A to Z. Dr. Edgar received his B.A. degree from Davidson College in 1965 and his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina in 1969. After two years in the army (including a tour of duty in Vietnam), he returned to USC as a post-doctoral fellow of the National Archives, assigned to the Papers of Henry Laurens.