Castle Guardians Use New Dock for the First Time to Work at Castle Pinckney

June 20, 2026

Charleston, S.C. ─ Castle Guardians used the newly-constructed dock at Castle Pinckney in Charleston Harbor for the first time on Saturday, June 20, to access the fort and conduct a workday at the historic site.

“I’m happy to report that the dock made it much easier and safer for us to enter and exit the fort, and to conduct another successful workday,” said Matthew Locke, who led the Castle Guardians, all of whom were volunteers. “I’m also happy to report that we accomplished an important task once we completed our work and before we left the fort at the end of our workday.

“We lowered the Charleston 9 Memorial Flag, which the Castle Pinckney Historical Preservation Society had flown over Castle Pinckney during the past two weeks to commemorate the tragic loss of nine Charleston firefighters in 2007,” Locke added. “We then replaced it with a South Carolina State flag that was custom-made to match the historically accurate design adopted for the flag by the State of South Carolina on January 28, 1861.”

The South Carolina flag, with its “horns up” crescent orientation, remained the official design until the angle of the crescent was adjusted in 1910. But the original official pattern of the state flag has not been followed since it was repealed in 1940. In fact, today the only requirement is that the South Carolina flag be “Blue” and “have a Palmetto in the middle and a crescent in the upper left.”