Fort Moultrie is on Sullivan's Island, situated at the entrance to Charleston harbor, South Carolina. It was first built of palmetto-logs and earth, mounting 26 guns, and was unsuccessfully attacked by a British fleet of nine vessels, mounting 270 guns, in 1776. It was afterward rebuilt in masonry. In the Civil War it fell into the hands of the Confederates, when Major Anderson abandoned it for Fort Sumter in December of 1860.