South Carolina: Palmetto State (nickname)

Entry in progress—B.P.
Sabal palmetto
     
Wikipedia: Seal of South Carolina
The Great Seal of the State of South Carolina was adopted in 1776. The seal is made up of two elliptical areas, linked by branches of the palmetto tree. The image on the left is dominated by a tall palmetto tree and an oak tree, fallen and broken. This scene represents the battle fought on June 28, 1776, between defenders of the unfinished fort on Sullivan’s Island, and the British Fleet. The standing palmetto represents the victorious defenders, and the fallen oak is the British Fleet. Banded together on the palmetto with the motto “Quis separabit?” (“Who Will Separate [Us]?”), are 12 spears that represent the first 12 states of the Union.
 
Wikipedia: Flag of South Carolina
The flag of the state of South Carolina has existed in some form since 1775, being based on one of the first Revolutionary War flags. South Carolina’s flag was ranked as the 10th best designed state or provincial flag in North America by the North American Vexillological Association in 2001.
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Civil War
The palmetto was added in 1861, also a reference to Moultrie’s defense of Sullivan’s Island; the fortress he’d constructed had survived largely because the palmettos, laid over sand walls, were able to withstand British cannons.
 
(Oxford English Dictionary)
Palmetto State  n. U.S. the state of South Carolina.
1835   Southern Lit. Messenger 1 772/2,  I found one of my elbows actually goring the side of a stout nullifier from the Palmetto State.
palmetto flag  n. (also Palmetto flag) U.S. the flag of the state of South Carolina, which bears a picture of a cabbage palmetto tree.
1848   W. G. Simms Lays of Palmetto 25 (title) ,  The palmetto flag in battle.
 
Google Books
5 August 1843, Supplement to the Courant (Hartford, CT), pg. 128, col. 3:
(State nickname list from the New-York American.—ed.)
South Carolina, Palmetto.
 
OCLC WorldCat record
Palmetto State waltz
Author: Nathan S Hart
Publisher: Charleston, S.C. : Geo. F. Cole, 1857, 196?
Edition/Format:   Musical score : English
 
OCLC WorldCat record
The palmetto state song.
Publisher: Charleston, S.C., Published by Henry Siegler, 1860.
Edition/Format:   Musical score : No Linguistic Content
 
7 April 1866, The Daily Cleveland Herald (Cleveland, OH), “Geographical Nicknames,” pg. 2, col. 2:
... South Carolina, Palmetto State; ...
 
OCLC WorldCat record
South Carolina : a guide to the Palmetto state
Author: Writers’ Program of the Work Projects Administration in the State of South Carolina.
Publisher: New York : Oxford University Press, ©1941.
Series: American guide series.
Edition/Format:   Print book : English