US State of South Carolina Flag

On 26 January 1861, the South Carolina legislature adopted a palmetto flag, blue with a crescent in the canton (upper left) and a white oval in the center bearing a gold palmetto tree. Two days later another resolution changed it to the present design. The colors and symbols go back to America's Revolutionary War. When Colonel Moultrie took possession of Fort Sullivan, South Carolina, he needed a flag. His troops’ were uniformed in blue, and they had silver crescents on their caps. He had a blue flag sewn, with a crescent in the upper corner, and the word Liberty. In Moultrie’s words, “This was the first American flag displayed in the South.” The Palmetto also comes from Fort Sullivan, which had been fortified with palmetto logs. When the British attacked the fort, the cannonballs bounced off without exploding. (A longer history of this flag is sent with each order.)

Many other flags are associated with South Carolina such as the Gadsden Flag.

In 1861, the design of the South Carolina state flag was amended to include a palmetto tree, but the position of the crescent remained at the flagstaff end. The flag’s blue color is a nod to the uniforms of the Revolutionary War soldiers, and the palmetto tree symbolizes the palmetto logs used in the construction of Fort Moultrie, which played a crucial role in a Revolutionary War battle .