crowd--Colonel Moultrie had struck his flag! "Forward!" cried one among them, and they marched to the water's edge to fight for their homes. Within the little fort one William Jasper, a sergeant, saw that a ball had cut down the flag and it had fallen over the rampart. "Colonel," he said to his commander, "don't let us fight without a flag." "What can you do?" demanded Colonel Moultrie, "the staff is broken." Sergeant Jasper was a man of few words and many deeds. He leaped through an embrasure, walked the whole length of the fort in a heavy fire from the ships, caught up the flag, brought it safely back, and fastened it to a sponge-staff. Then, in the midst of cheers,--in which I fancy the British also joined,--he fastened the rescued banner upon the bastion. The following day the Governor came to the fort, asked for Sergeant Jasper, presented him with his own sword, and gave him hearty thanks in behalf of his country. Then he said, "I will gladly give you a lieutenant's commission," but the honest man refused. "I am only a sergeant," he said. "I don't know how to read or write, and I am not fit to keep company with officers." Colonel Moultrie then gave him a roving commission, and he often made some little trip with half a dozen men and returned with a band of prisoners before any one realized that he had gone. The wife of Major Elliot presented the regiment with a pair of beautiful silken colors, which were afterwards carried in the assault upon Savannah. The standard-bearers were shot down; another man seized them, but he was also shot; then Sergeant Jasper caught them and fastened them on the parapet, when he too was fatally wounded by a ball. "Tell Mrs. Elliot," he said, "that I lost my life supporting the colors she gave to our regiment." A tablet in honor of the brave sergeant was long ago placed in Savannah.