FOCUS: Sullivan’s Island celebrates a different kind of Carolina Day

Officials walk with a Moultrie flag to raise it on Sullivan’s Island, celebrating the 244th anniversary of Carolina Day. Photos by Rob Byko.

By Rob Byko, special to Charleston Currents  |  Sullivan’s Island townsfolk, a few visitors and a smattering of stoic fans of South Carolina and Revolutionary War history on Saturday got together to commemorate Carolina Day, the 244th anniversary of the Battle of Sullivan’s Island. The annual event, co-sponsored by Sullivan’s Island and the Battery Gadsden Cultural Center (BatteryGadsden.com), was held at the Sullivan’s Island Town Hall Plaza. The move from last year’s venue, Fort Moultrie National Park, was necessitated by ongoing concerns over the spike in COVID-19 cases reported across the state. Masks and social distancing were adequately observed by a majority of those in attendance, though not by all.

While the morning lacked much of the flash and bang of last year’s event, which featured Revolutionary War reenactors and the several rounds of cannon fire in the open field beyond the old fort, this year’s program’s master of ceremonies, Chuck Galis, kept the regimen in order and forged ahead. An invocation by the Rev. Lawrence McInerny preceded the town’s Carolina Day proclamation, delivered by Mayor Patrick O’Neil. The presentation and raising of the Moultrie flag by members of town council and the Battery Gadsden Board of Directors followed.

Maggie Adams, first vice regent for the Fort Sullivan Chapter of the National Society Daughters of the Revolution, remarked on the significance of the day. Then the president of Battery Gadsden Cultural Center, Mike Walsh, gave a historical reading entitled, “Who was William Moultrie?” which delighted the crowd and brought the ceremony to close. McInerny returned to deliver the benediction.

Those in the plaza then dispersed. Dog-walkers, passers-by and Saturday cyclists went about their day. A few masked faces were overheard saying they were looking ahead to next year’s commemoration, hopeful for a return to normalcy –life without masks — and to once again experience the flash and bang of cannon-fire on the open field at Fort Moultrie.