nflict
ceased, this ship alone contained forty killed and seventy-one wounded
men. The other ships suffered nearly as severely. The twenty-eight-gun
ship "Actaeon" grounded during the course of the engagement; and when,
after ten hours' fruitless cannonading, the British abandoned the task
of reducing the fort, and determined to withdraw, she was found to be
immovable. Accordingly Admiral Parker signalled to her officer to
abandon the ship, and set her on fire. This was accordingly done; and
the ship was left with her colors flying, and her guns loaded. This
movement was observed by the Americans, who, in spite of the danger of
an explosion, boarded the ship, fired her guns at the "Bristol,"
loaded three boats with stores, and pulled away, leaving the "Actaeon"
to blow up, which she did half an hour later.

While the battle was at its hottest, and the shot and shell were
flying thick over the fort, the flagstaff was shot away; and the flag
of South Carolina, a blue ground, bearing a silver crescent, fell on
the beach outside the parapet. Sergt. William Jasper, seeing this,
leaped on the bastion, walked calmly through the storm of flying
missiles, picked up the flag, and fastened it upon a sponge-staff.
Then standing upon the highest point of the parapet, in full view of
the ships and the men in the fort, he calmly fixed the staff upright,
and returned to his place, leaving the flag proudly waving. The next
day the governor of the colony visited the fort, and seeking out the
brave sergeant, handed him a handsome sword and a lieutenant's
commission. But Jasper proved to be as modest as he was brave; for he
declined the proffered promotion, with the remark,--

"I am not fit to keep officers' company; I am but a sergeant."

The complete failure of the attack upon Charleston was a bitter pill
for the English to swallow. They had brought against the raw,
untrained forces of the colony some of the finest ships of the boasted
navy of Great Britain. They had fought well and pluckily. The fact
that Sir Peter Parker was in command was in itself a guaranty that the
attack would be a spirited one; and the tremendous loss of life in the
fleet affords convincing proof that no poltroonery lurked among the
British sailors. The loss of the British during the engagement, in
killed and wounded, amounted to two hundred and twenty-five men. The
Americans had ten men killed and twenty-two wounded. Moultrie, the
commandant of the fort, says