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Show Released by Western Newspaper Union. Saviors of the Flag "VX'HEN a press dispatch carried ' the news recently that an army captain and three enlisted men had braved heavy Japanese fire to restore re-store the American flag atop a 100-foot 100-foot pole on siege-bound Corregidor, It sent the editorial writers scurrying scurry-ing to their history books to look up the name of a soldier who performed per-formed a similar heroic deed during dur-ing the Revolution. So the story of the defense of Fort Sullivan, during the month of June, 1776, was told again and once more Americans were reminded of one of their almost-legendary heroes. He was Sgt. William Jasper and beside his name in the annals of America are now written, as "saviors "sa-viors of the flag," the names of Capt Arthur E. Huff of St. Louis, Mo., Corp. Louis A. Roark of Gypsum, Gyp-sum, Kan., and Privates Roy O. Bailey of Kansas City, Mo., and Har-ley Har-ley H. Leaird of Durant, Okla. For their feat at Corregidor they were awarded the silver star decoration. What their fate has been is unknown at the time this article is written, for Corregidor no longer flies the flag which they rescued. They may be prisoners of the Japanese, or they may have died gloriously in that last batte, just as did Sergeant Jasper in his last battle. .Tasnpr was bnrn in Smith Parnlina about 1750 and soon after the outbreak out-break of the Revolution Rev-olution enlisted as a sergeant in the Second South Carolina Car-olina regiment, commanded by Col. William Moultrie. Early in June, 1776, when a British land and naval force under Sir William Moultrie Henry Clinton and Admiral Sir Peter Parker appeared off the Carolina coast to invest Charleston, Moultrie was trying to complete a fortress on Sullivan's island is-land at the mouth of the harbor. On the morning of June 28 five ships of the British armada sailed in close to the unfinished fort and opened a furious fire. Moultrie had only a limited supply of ammunition, ammu-nition, so his return fire was very light compared with that of the enemy. In the midst of the bombardment bom-bardment a shot struck the staff from which flew the South Carolina banner a blue flag, with a crescent The Flag moon in the upper up-per corner and it fell to the bottom bot-tom of the ditch I outside the entrenchments. en-trenchments. A great cheer went up from the British Brit-ish man-of-war when they saw the patriots' flag go down. But the next moment Sergeant Jasper had sprung from an embrasure, embra-sure, seized the flag, tore it from its shattered staff and tied it on to the staff of a sponge which he had been wielding as he helped serve one of the guns of the fort. Then ha sprang back to the parapet and, amid a hail of enemy fire, supported it there until un-til another flagstaff had been secured to take its place. And above the roar of the cannonade could be heard the cheers of the Americans acclaiming the sergeant's deed! All day the battle raged fiercely with the Americans conserving their ammunition and making every shot tell upon the huUs or the rigging of the British ships. Only one of the guns of the fort having been dismounted, dis-mounted, the enemy's fire began to slacken and that night the attack was abandoned. In recognition of his brave act, Sergeant Jasper was presented by Governor Rutledge of South Carolina Caro-lina with his own sword. The governor gov-ernor also offered him a lieutenant's commission but Jasper declined the honor because he could neither read nor write. However, Moultrie was so impressed with his daring that he gave the sergeant a roving commission com-mission and allowed him to select six kindred spirits to carry out raids against the British. Jasper proved to be a successful partisan leader. His daring career came to an end on October 9, 1779. During the assault on the Spring Hill redoubt in the attack on Savannah by the American and French forces, led by General Lincoln Lin-coln and Admiral D'Estaing, Jasper was mortally wounded while attempting at-tempting to fasten the regimental colors to the parapet. A square in the city of Savannah and a county in Georgia perpetuate his name. William Moultrie, his command- ing officer, was destined to have a longer and more distinguished career. ca-reer. In commemoration of his bravery in defending Fort Sullivan, the fort was later named Fort Moultrie. Moul-trie. Soon afterwards he was commissioned com-missioned a brigadier general in the Continental army and placed in charge of military affairs in Georgia and South Carolina where he repeat-; repeat-; edly distinguished himself in battle i against the British and Tories. In April, 1779, he again saved Charleston Charles-ton from being captured by a British force under General Prevost. |