There was no photography, and the painting is pretty worn out.

It was a quarter Millennium yesterday.
Colonel Moultrie led his boys in the fray.
Fort Sullivan had Palmetto logs for style.
They could catch a cannon ball from half a mile.

So let me introduce to you,
from Charles Towne cross 250 years.
It's William Moultrie and those British tears....

British vessels were spotted in late May taking soundings and gathering intelligence. On May 31, a Patriot horseman arrived at Rutledge’s headquarters to inform him that a massive fleet had been spotted on the horizon.

On June 1, the British armada arrived and dropped anchor outside the harbor. For the next several days, they searched for accessible crossing channels among the shallow sandbars.

On June 4, Lee arrived with his staff and assumed command. When he inspected Fort Sullivan, he called it a “slaughter pen” and predicted its destruction by naval artillery within half an hour. He ordered the fort to be abandoned and for the men to fall back to the mainland. [South Carolina President John] Rutledge, however, instructed Moultrie to disobey those orders and to continue working on the fort.

On June 8, Clinton issued a formal proclamation to the city, demanding its immediate surrender. His timing proved unfortunate because Lee’s vanguard of roughly 2,000 Continental soldiers from Virginia and North Carolina arrived on the same day.

After his proclamation was ignored, Clinton deployed more than 2,500 redcoats onto Long Island, now known as Isle of Palms. The island was one mile northeast of Sullivan’s Island, separated by a waterway known as Breach Inlet. Lee responded by redeploying Thomson and 780 men to fortify the beaches facing the waterway.

I don't know if there were any telephoto lens tricks involved here, but I can tell you it's very crowded there.

On the morning of June 28, Parker found sea and weather conditions ideal for an attack. He signaled the fleet to weigh anchor, loosen their sails, and begin their advance, setting in motion Moultrie’s frantic dash back to the fort.

HMS Thunder dropped anchor and fired the opening shots. Within minutes, all nine warships unleashed a thunderous cannonade at the unfinished fort.

The bombardment, however, produced an unexpected result. Instead of splintering into deadly shards, the soft, sponge-like palmetto logs absorbed the cannon’s impact. British officers later acknowledged that the unusual construction made the fort far more resilient than anticipated.

Historic Fort Moultrie today:

Moultrie’s men fired slowly and deliberately to avoid using up the fort’s limited supply of powder. Their carefully aimed shots inflicted heavy damage on the attacking ships, especially Parker’s flagship, HMS Bristol, which suffered extensive casualties. Nearly every officer on its quarterdeck was killed or wounded. Parker was among the wounded when an American shot tore away part of his uniform, leaving his backside exposed.

Also wounded aboard Bristol was Lord William Campbell, South Carolina’s deposed royal governor, who had volunteered to serve with a gun crew. Struck by flying splinters, Campbell never fully recovered from his wounds, dying in England two years later.

Enemy fire severed the fort’s flagstaff during the battle. Sgt. William Jasper climbed over the ramparts, recovered the fallen colors under fire, and fastened them to a sponge staff, raising them once more above the fort. His actions became one of the enduring images of the entire war.

Residents in Charles Town had spent the day anxiously awaiting news. When word arrived that Fort Sullivan still stood, celebrations erupted throughout the city. Even Lee, who had doubted the fort’s chances, praised the defenders. He visited the fort during the battle, observed the men’s calm bravery, and fired several rounds himself before returning to the mainland.

Americans suffered 37 casualties. British casualties approached 220.