SITE OF FORT JOHNSON, _James Island_: The first fortification erected for the defense of old Charles Town was at the northeast end of James Island, within the present-day Quarantine reservation. It was devised to meet the threatened invasion by the French under Le Feboure and was named Fort Johnson in honor of the then Governor, Sir Nathaniel Johnson. In 1759 a second fort of tabby (or tapia) was built on the site and this was the Fort Johnson of the Revolution—“in plan triangular, with salients bastioned and priestcapped, the gorge closed, the gate protected by an earthwork, a defensible sea wall of tapia extended the fortification to the west and southwest.” In 1765 stamped paper was transferred from a British sloop-of-war and stored in Fort Johnson while in Charlestown excitement prevailed, resulting in seizure of the stamped paper by three companies of volunteers under Captains Marion, Pinckney and Elliott. The British garrison was placed under guard and preparations made to resist any attack from the sloop-of-war. At this time was displayed the first form of the South Carolina State flag—a blue field with three white crescents. The naval commander agreed to carry the stamped paper from Charlestown and the incident passed off without clash at arms. This was ten years before the Battle of Concord. In 1775, the spirit of liberty gaining strength, Fort Johnson was again seized by order of the Council of Safety, as a precaution against the last of the Royal Governors, Lord William Campbell, British troops being expected. In November of this year (1775) three shots were fired from Fort Johnson on the British sloops-of-war _Tamar_ and _Cherokee_, which were engaged in blocking Hog Island Channel. June 28, 1776, Fort Johnson was commanded by Colonel Christopher Gadsden, but had no opportunity of engaging Sir Peter Parker’s fleet, which was repulsed by soldiers under Colonel William Moultrie at Fort Sullivan, known afterward and now as Fort Moultrie, on Sullivan’s Island. In 1780 Sir Henry Clinton reported Fort Johnson “destroyed.” In 1793 the third work at this site was built, but in 1800 a tropical storm so damaged it that it was abandoned, being restored in the War of 1812. At the site of Fort Johnson the Confederate forces defending Charleston located a mortar battery from which to bombard Fort Sumter. It now became “an extensive entrenched camp of considerable strength and capacity.” The Confederates evacuated this fort February 17, 1865, and the works were allowed to fall into decay. Latterly there has been an earnest effort at restoration.