In the 16-hour battle on June 28, 1776, the flag was shot down, but Sergeant William Jasper ran out into the open, raising it and rallying the troops until it could be mounted again.

This gesture was considered to be so heroic, saving Charleston from conquest for four years, that the flag came to be the symbol of the Revolution, and liberty, in the state and the new nation.

[6] On January 26, 1861, the South Carolina General Assembly adopted a new flag by adding a golden palmetto encircled with a white background.

[9] At the beginning of the American Civil War a similar flag was flown at Morris Island by cadets from The Citadel as they fired upon United States supply ships.

William Moultrie states in his memoirs: "A little time after we were in possession of Fort Johnson, it was thought necessary to have a flag for the purpose of signals: (as there was no national or state flag at that time) I was desired by the council of safety to have one made, upon which, as the state troops were clothed in blue, and the fort was garrisoned by the first and second regiments, who wore a silver crescent on the front of their caps; I had a large blue flag made with a crescent in the dexter corner, to be in uniform with the troops ..."[10] Moultrie's original design placed the crescent vertically, with the opening directing upward.

A committee of the South Carolina Senate held a hearing on the issue in January 2018 but did not immediately advance a bill to standardize the design.

[14][15] However, as of 2023[update], legislation has been procedurally roadblocked, with State Senator Brad Hutto being a core oppositional force to design standardization.