[Footnote: The boys of Boston were wont to amuse themselves in winter by building snow-houses and by skating on a pond in the Common. The soldiers having disturbed them in their sports, complaints were made to the inferior officers, who only ridiculed their petition. At last a number of the largest boys waited on General Gage. "What!" said Gage, "have your fathers sent you here to exhibit the rebellion they have been teaching you?" "Nobody sent us," answered the leader, with flashing eye; "we have never injured your troops, but they have trampled down our snow-hills and broken the ice of our skating-pond. We complained, and they called us young rebels, and told us to help ourselves if we could. We told the captain, and he laughed at us. Yesterday our works were destroyed for the third time, and we will bear it no longer." The British commander could not restrain his admiration. "The very children," said he, "draw in a love of liberty with the air they breathe. Go, my brave boys, and be assured, if my troops trouble you again, they shall be punished."] ATTACK ON FORT MOULTRIE (June 28).--Early in the summer an English fleet appeared off Charleston, and opened fire on Fort Moultrie. [Footnote: This fort was built of palmetto logs, which are so soft that balls sink into them without splitting the wood. Here floated the first republican flag in the South. In the early part of the action the staff was struck by a ball, and the flag fell outside the fort. Sergeant Jasper leaped over the breastwork, caught up the flag, and springing back, tied it to a sponge-staff (an instrument for cleaning cannon after a discharge), and hoisted it again to its place. The next day Governor Rutledge offered him a sword and a lieutenant's commission. He refused, saying, "I am not fit for the company of officers; I am only a sergeant."] So fearful was the response from Moultrie's guns, that at one time every man but Admiral Parker was swept from the deck of his vessel. General Clinton, who commanded the British land troops, tried to attack the fort in the rear, but the fire of the southern riflemen was too severe. The fleet was at last so badly shattered that it withdrew and sailed for New York. This victory gave the colonists great delight, as it was their first encounter with the boasted "Mistress of the Seas." The simple-hearted Sergeant Jasper died grasping the banner presented to his regiment at Fort Moultrie. D'Estaing refused to give further aid; thus again deserting the Americans when help was most needed. DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE (July 4, 1776).--During the session of Congress this summer, Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia, moved that "_The United Colonies are, and ought to be, free and independent states._" This was passed by a majority of one colony. A committee was appointed to draw up a DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. At two o'clock on the fourth of July, its report was adopted.