On the 20th of June, 1776, a day ever memorable in the annals of Carolina,
the British ships of war, nine in number,*1* commanded by Sir Peter Parker,
drew up abreast of the fort, let go their anchors, with springs
upon their cables, and commenced a terrible bombardment.
The famous battle which followed makes one of the brightest pages
in our history. Its events, however, are too generally known
to make it necessary that we should dwell upon them here. A few, however,
belong properly and especially to our pages. The subject of this memoir
was a conspicuous sharer in its dangers and in its honors.
The fire of the enemy was promptly answered, and with such efficiency of aim
as to be long remembered by the survivors. Having but five thousand pounds
of powder, with which to maintain a conflict that raged for eleven hours,
with unabated violence, it became necessary, not only that
the discharge from the fort should be timed, but that every shot
should be made to do execution. In order to do this the guns were trained
by the field-officers in person; hence, perhaps, the terrible fatality
of their fire. The Bristol, 50 gun ship, Commodore Sir Peter Parker,
lost 44 men killed and thirty*2* wounded. Sir Peter himself lost an arm.
The Experiment, another 50 gun ship, had 57 killed and 30 wounded.*3*
To these two vessels in particular, the attention of the fort was directed.
The words, passed along the line by officers and men, were --
"Look to the Commodore -- look to the fifty gun ships."*4*
The smaller vessels suffered comparatively little. Their loss of men
was small. The injury to the vessels themselves was greater,
and one of them, the Acteon, run aground, and was subsequently burnt.
The Carolinians lost but twelve men killed and twice that number wounded.
One of the former was the brave fellow Macdonald, of whom we have
already spoken. When borne from the embrasure where he received
his mortal wound, he cried out to those around him -- "Do not give up --
you are fighting for liberty and country." The want of powder