William Moultrie
(1730-1805)
Revolutionary War Major General;
South Carolina Senator
Lieutenant Governor, Governor
William Moultrie was born in Charleston on November 23, 1730. Though raised
to be a planter, Moultrie devoted much of his life to public service. He served
in the South Carolina House of Representatives from 1783 to 1784. He went on to
become Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina in 1784 and Governor in 1785. Among
his accomplishments as Governor were the creation of the county court system,
and the agreement to move the capital from Charleston to Columbia in 1786. He
was elected to the South Carolina Senate in 1787 and was again elected Governor
in 1792. During his second term as Governor he established the Orphan House opened
in Charleston, increased cultivation of cotton leading to large cotton exports and
recruited privateers for an expedition to Louisiana to regain lands in North
America for France. Moultrie retired from public office in 1794. Moultrie also
had a distinguished military career. He was promoted to brigadier general and was
second in command of Charleston's defenses. He was taken prisoner when Charleston
fell in 1780. In 1802 he published Memoirs of the American Revolution as two
volumes of letters and accounts of the American Revolution in the Carolinas and
Georgia. He died on September 27, 1805 in Charleston and is buried there. Fort
Moultrie on Sullivan's Island and Lake Moultrie in northern Berkeley County were
named for him. William Moultrie National Portrait Gallery.
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