William Jasper

William Jasper (circa 1750 – October 9, 1779) was a noted American soldier in the Revolutionary War. He was a sergeant in the 2nd South Carolina Regiment.

Jasper distinguished himself in the defense of Fort Moultrie (then called Fort Sullivan) on June 28, 1776. When a shell from a British warship shot away the flagstaff, he recovered the South Carolina flag in the Battle of Sullivan's Island, raised it on a temporary staff, and held it under fire until a new staff was installed. Governor John Rutledge gave his sword to Jasper in recognition of his bravery.

In 1779, Sergeant Jasper participated in the Siege of Savannah, led by General Lincoln, which failed to recapture Savannah, Georgia, from the British. He was mortally wounded during an assault on the British forces there.

Sgt. Jasper's story is similar to that of Sgt. John Newton. Several states have adjacent counties named Jasper and Newton, as these were remembered as a pair, due to the popularity of Parson Weems' memorializing early American history. Several other states have a Jasper County with a county seat of Newton, or vice versa.

William Jasper (named Johann Wilhelm Gasper at the time) came to America in 1767 on the ship Minerva. He and other immigrants hailed from Germany and landed in Philadelphia. He was 16 at the time, but he had decided that whatever the new land held, he would accept it with open arms.

He arrived in Philadelphia in the fall and was fed some warm soup and then put in a line to take an oath of allegiance and sign his name. When it was his turn, though, Jasper did not know how to read or write, so he could not even write his name on the list. He had to just put an X down where he should have put his name and next to it the colonist who had signed him in wrote John William Jasper. He then completed a few years of indentured servitude and moved south to find some land of his own.

William Jasper was motivated when he settled down in the South; he had left his girlfriend in Pennsylvania. To pay for her journey to come live with him, he joined the military; by this time, the colonists had already rebelled. Although the pay was not great, he soon became a sergeant, earning enough for Elizabeth to join him in Georgia, where they were soon married.

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