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William Moultrie (; November 23, 1730 – September 27, 1805) was an American Planter class and politician who became a general in the American Revolutionary War. As colonel leading a state militia, in 1776 he prevented the British from taking Charleston, and Fort Moultrie was named in his honor.
After independence, Moultrie advanced as a politician; he was elected by the legislature twice within a decade as Governor of South Carolina (1785–1787, 1792–1794), serving two terms. (The state constitution kept power in the hands of the legislature and prohibited governors from serving two terms in succession.)
Moultrie fought in the Anglo-Cherokee War (1761). Before the advent of the American Revolution, he was elected to the colonial assembly representing St. Helena Parish.
In 1775, Moultrie was commissioned as colonel of the 2nd South Carolina Regiment of provincial troops. In 1776, Moultrie's defense of a small fort on Sullivan's Island (later named Fort Moultrie in his honor) prevented Sir Henry Clinton and Sir Peter Parker from taking Charleston. The Continental Congress passed a resolution thanking Moultrie. He was promoted to brigadier general and his regiment was taken into the Continental Army.
Moultrie successfully led a repulse of the British at Port Royal in February 1779. That spring when Major General Benjamin Lincoln took the bulk of the American force towards Augusta, Georgia, Moultrie was stationed at Black Swamp with a small contingent to watch the British on the other side of the Savannah River. When the British suddenly crossed the Savannah en masse and move towards Charleston, Moultrie executed a tactical retreat across the Coosawhatchie and the Tullifiny Rivers and all the way back to Charleston where he held off a short British siege. He refused to surrender at a time when the civilian authorities in Charleston felt somewhat abandoned by the Continental Congress and were almost ready to give up.
Moultrie was captured when Charleston surrendered to the British in 1780. He was left in command of the American prisoners of war and frequently negotiated on their behalf with British commandant Lieutenant-Colonel Nisbet Balfour. Lord Charles Montagu made an unsuccessful attempt to persuade Moultrie to switch sides during his imprisonment. Moultrie was exchanged for British prisoners in 1782. The same year, he was promoted to major general, the last man appointed by Congress to that rank.
After the war he was elected by the new state legislature as 35th Governor of South Carolina (1785–1787). The state constitution prohibited men from serving two successive terms as governor, an effort to keep power in the hands of the legislature. Moultrie was re-elected by the legislature in 1792, serving into 1794. He ran one last time for governor in 1798, but lost decisively to fellow Federalist Edward Rutledge.
William Moultrie was the first president of the Society of the Cincinnati of the State of South Carolina and served in that capacity until his death.C. L. Bragg, Crescent Moon Over Carolina: William Moultrie and American Liberty (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2013, 219–25.
In 1802 he published his Memoirs of the Revolution as far as it Related to the States of North and South Carolina.
Moultrie County, Illinois is also named in his honor. Ochlockoney, Georgia was renamed in 1859 as Moultrie when it was incorporated by the Georgia General Assembly.
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