CHAPTER 6.
1777-8-9.
From the Battle of Fort Moultrie to that of Savannah-- Anecdote of Jasper--His Death.
The battle of Fort Sullivan was of immense importance, not merely to Carolina, but to all the confederated colonies.

It saved the former, for three years, from the calamities of invasion; a respite of the last value to a country so greatly divided in public feeling and opinion.
The battle preceded the declaration of Independence, and, though not generally known to have taken place before that decisive measure was resolved upon, it came seasonably to confirm the patriots in those principles which they had so solemnly and recently avowed.

Its farther effect was to dissipate that spell of invincibility, which, in the minds of the Americans, seemed to hover about a British armament;--to heighten the courage of the militia, and to convince the most sceptical, that it needed only confidence and practice, to make the American people as good soldiers as any in the world.

The Carolina riflemen were not a little elated to discover that they could handle twenty-six pounders as efficiently as the smaller implements of death, to which their hands were better accustomed.

To the defenders of the fortress, their victory brought imperishable laurels.