1703 – Fortifications

Sir Nathaniel Johnson

Sir Nathaniel Johnson was appointed governor. He urged the Assembly to pass an act for repairing the existing fortifications and building new works to surround the town. It specified:

 the severall forts, halfe moons, platforms, batterys and flankers, built . . . on the front wall [i.e., East Bay Street], shall have gabions [walls built on a slope to protect against erosion] fixed upon them, and shall also be well piled, for their preservation against the sea.

The act also stipulated that the fortifications “shall be [made] by intrenchments, flankers and parapets, sally ports, a gate, drawbridge and blind necessary for the same.” This plan created a ring of fortification, including four corner bastions linked by a curtain walls and punctuated by eight redans, surrounding sixty-two acres of high land.

1778 – American Revolution.

Alexander Gillon, a Dutch merchant from Charlestown, was appointed Commodore of the South Carolina navy.