or liberty and country."
The want of powder was severely felt. But for this, judging from the
effects of the fire from the fort, the British Commodore must have
struck, or his fleet must have been destroyed. So slow, at one time,
were the discharges--so great the interval of time between them,--that
the British were of opinion that the place was abandoned. But a new
supply of powder was obtained by Marion, who, with a small party,
leaving the fort, proceeded to the armed schooner Defence, lying in Stop
Gap Creek, and seized upon her powder, by which the fire was kept up
until a supply of five hundred weight was received from the city.*5*
This caused a renewal of the conflict in all its fury. The garrison
fought with a coolness which would have done honor to veterans. The
day was very warm, and the men partially stripped to it. Moultrie says,
"When the action begun (it being a warm day), some of the men took off
their coats and threw them upon the top of the merlons. I saw a shot
take one of them and throw it into a small tree behind the platform. It
was noticed by our men, and they cried out, "look at the coat!" A little
incident that speaks volumes for their coolness. Moultrie himself and
several of his officers smoked their pipes during the action, only
removing them when it became necessary to issue orders. In the hottest
fire of the battle the flag of the fort was shot away, and fell
without the fort. Jasper, with whom we have already brought the reader
acquainted as one of Marion's men, instantly sprang after it upon the
beach, between the ramparts and the enemy, and binding it to a sponge
staff, restored it to its place, and succeeded in regaining his own in
safety. We shall hear more hereafter, of this gallant fellow.*6* The
coolness--nay the cavalier indifference--displayed by the Carolinians
throughout the combat, is not its least remarkable feature. There is
something chivalric in such deportment, which speaks for larger courage
than belongs to ordinary valor. Mere bull-dog resolution and endurance
is here lifted, by a generous ardor of soul, into something other than a
passive virtue. The elasticity of spirit which it shows might be trained
to any performance within the compass of human endowment.

*1* Two ships of fifty guns; five of twenty-eight; 1 of
twenty-six and a bomb-vessel. Moultrie, vol. 1 pp. 174-5.

*2* Weems says 100. *3* British account.

*4* Moultrie, Memoirs, Vol. 1, NOT