USA > South Carolina > The history of South Carolina in the Revolution, 1775-1780 > Part 41
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
at discretion was the only condition which should after- ward be attended to; but that as the motives which had before influenced them were still prevalent, he now informed Lincoln that the terms then offered would still be granted. A copy of the articles would be sent to Lin- coln as soon as prepared, and immediately after they were exchanged a detachment of grenadiers would be sent to take possession of the hornwork opposite the main gate of the town. Every arrangement which might induce to good order in occupying the town would be settled before ten o'clock to-morrow, and at that time the garrison should march out.1
About eleven o'clock A.M., on the 12th of May, writes Moultrie, we marched out, between fifteen and sixteen hundred Continental troops, leaving five or six hundred sick and wounded in the hospitals, and piled our arms on the left of the hornwork. The officers marched the men back to the barracks, where a British guard was placed over them. The British then asked where our second division was. They were told these were all we had except the sick and wounded. They were astonished, and said we had made a gallant defence. The militia were marched out the same day and delivered up their arms at the same place. The Continental officers went into town to their quarters, where they remained a few days to collect their baggage and sign their paroles, and then were sent over to Haddrell's Point. The British do not seem to have been satisfied with the delivery of the arms by the militia, for they were ordered the next day to parade and to bring all their arms with them, - guns, swords, pistols, etc., - and those that did not comply were
1 Moultrie's Memoirs, vol. II, 97; Ramsay's Revolution in So. Ca., vol. II, 40 ; Year Book of the City of Charleston, 1897 (Smyth), 389, 393.
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IN THE REVOLUTION
threatened with having the grenadiers turned in among them. This threat, says Moultrie, brought out the aged, the timid, the disaffected, and the infirm, many of whom had never appeared during the whole siege, but which swelled the number of militia prisoners to at least three times the number of men who had ever been on duty. Moultrie was very much surprised when he saw the column march out, for many of them, he says, had been excused from age and infirmities; but they would do, he observes, to enroll on a conqueror's list.
A terrible disaster occurred to the British in storing the arms they had taken. Though warned that many of them were loaded, they were carelessly put into wagons and taken to a storehouse, or magazine, in the town,1 and though several were discharged before the explosion took place, they were still more carelessly thrown from the wagons into the storeroom, which contained about four thousand pounds of fixed ammunition. In this way fire was at last set to the powder, and the magazine exploded, blowing up the whole guard of fifty men and many others standing by; their carcasses, legs, and arms were scattered over several parts of the town. One man was dashed with such violence against the steeple of the then new Inde- pendent Church 2 that the marks of his body were left upon it for several days. The houses in town received a great shock, and the window shutters rattled as if they would tumble out of the frames. And though most of the mili- tia, who were still together after delivering up their arms, went in a body to assist in extinguishing the fire, which had communicated to the neighboring house, the British,
1 This magazine was on what is now Magazine Street, between Arch- dale and Mazyck streets.
2 This building stood at the corner of Archdale and West streets, where the graveyard still remains.
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
not aware of the facts, were naturally greatly alarmed, and believed that the explosion was some device of the rebels to destroy them. All their troops were turned out under arms, and General Moultrie himself with several other men put under guard for a time. As soon, how- ever, as General Leslie, the commandant of the troops in the town, learned of his arrest, he sent one of his aides with an apology, saying that his arrest was con- trary to orders.
The loss of life and the injuries received during the siege were much less than might have been expected, in view of the fact that every part of the town was under fire, and that there was no spot in it safe from shells and can- non-balls. The circle of fire was nearly complete. On the east the town was under the guns of the fleet, on the south under the batteries on James Island, on the west under those at Wappoo and the galleys there, and on the north under the guns of the advancing forces. It was only the northeast from which came no shot or shell. And yet in all the forty-two days of the siege only twenty of the inhabitants were killed. There was but very little loss, too, in the militia and among the sailors, who were not stationed upon the lines. The Continentals and the Charlestown battalion of artillery bore the brunt of the fire, posted as they were on the lines in front of the besiegers. Eighty-nine of these were killed and 138 wounded. Among the killed were Colonel Parker, an officer who had often distinguished himself by his gallantry and good conduct, and Captain Peyton, - both of the Virginia line, - Major Gilbank, Philip Nyle, aide-de-camp to General Moultrie, Captains Thomas Moultrie, Mitchell, and Templeton. The battalion of artillery, though stationed at the hornwork, lost only three men killed, and the adjutant and seven privates
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wounded. About thirty houses in the town were burnt, and many others greatly damaged.1
The loss of the British during the siege amounted to 78 killed and 189 wounded. The loss of the garrison was thus not so great as that of the besiegers; but the number of slain was greater.2
Sir Henry Clinton first reported that the prisoners taken by him upon the capitulation made about 6000 men in arms.3 The return of prisoners as made by Major Andre, Deputy Adjutant General, amounted to 5684. But the return comprehended in the militia every adult freeman of the town, including the infirm, invalids, and disaffected, as described by Moultrie in the procession brought out by the British bayonets, including also 200 who issued an ad- dress of congratulation to Sir Henry Clinton and Admiral Arbuthnot upon their success. Moultrie states that be- tween 1500 and 1600 Continentals were marched out to surrender, leaving 500 or 600 sick and wounded in the hos- pitals. But in this estimate he is clearly mistaken. There were in the garrison certainly 800 South Carolina Conti- nentals, 400 Virginians under Colonel Heth, 700 North Carolinians under General Hogan, and 750 Virginians under General Woodford = 2650.4 The number of officers
1 Ramsay's Revolution, vol. II, 62.
2 Steadman's Am. War, vol. II, 186.
3 Tarleton's Campaigns, 43.
4 It is impossible from the American accounts to arrive at an exact estimate of the forces in Charlestown during the siege. When it began Lincoln had in the city the South Carolina Continentals, reduced and consolidated into three regiments, which were said not to exceed (Ram- say's Revolution, vol. II, 46) 800 He had also a detachment of Virginia Continentals, under Colonel Heth, estimated at (Memoirs of the War of 1776 [Lee], 145) 400
The Charlestown militia, battalion of artillery, and Simons's brigade 1000
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
surrendered was very great, out of all proportion to the rank and file. One major general, 6 brigadiers, 9 colonels,
2200
The North Carolina militia, General Lillington's Brigade (Ramsay's Revolution, vol. II, 52) 1000
3200
He was reenforced on the 11th of March by Hogan, North Carolina Continental Brigade (So. Ca. in the Revolution [Simms], 83, 84) 700
On the 18th Colonel Benj. Garden brought in South Carolina militia (So. Ca. in the Revolution [Simms], 88) 100
Making his force 4000
And this was the estimate made by John Wells, Jr., on the 24th (So. Ca. in the Revolution [Simms], 93). But on the 26th all Lillington's North Carolina left, except 178 . 822
Which reduced Lincoln's force, but still left on the 30th of March in garrison 3178
Yet in his letter to Washington, Lincoln writes that on the 30th of March "the whole number" in garrison, besides sailors, amounted to but ( Year Book of the City of Charles- ton, 1897, 375)
2225 =
It is possible that Lincoln intended by this to say that the whole number of effective men in the garrison amounted only to this number. Assuming then, as we must do, that Lincoln's actual force on the 30th of March was
3178
We must add the reinforcements of Woodford's Virginia Brigade of Continentals, which arrived on the 4th of April, and he estimated at . 750
And small parties of South and North Carolina militia, amounting possibly to . 250 1000
Making his force 4178
To these must be added sailors from the sunken vessels 1200
Total 5378
Again assuming that Lincoln's force when the siege began was, as above . 3200
In his letter to Washington he says that the only reënforce- ments received by him were : -
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IN THE REVOLUTION
14 lieutenant colonels, 15 majors, 84 captains, 84 lieu- tenants, and 32 second lieutenants and ensigns. The 3200
Of South Carolina militia
300
Of North Carolina militia 300 600
General Hogan's brigade 600 The Virginia line for the army 750 1350 1950
(Year Book of the City of Charleston, 1897, 355, 356.) Which would make his force 5150
The British return of the rebel force captured makes the number somewhat larger. They claim to have captured 5683 An analysis of their return shows the following : -
General and Staff
1970
Major General 1
Brigadier General
1
Engineers .
5
General Hospital Staff
25
Quarter Master Gen-
eral Department .
.
16
Commissary General
Department
6
54
South Carolina Troops
General officer
1
First South Carolina
Continentals .
.
North and South Caro-
lina militia
1231
4016
.
Virginia Troops
General officers .
2
First Virginia Conti-
nentals .
336
Second Virginia Conti-
nentals .
306
Third Virginia Conti-
nentals .
252
First Virginia Detach-
ment.
258
Pulaski's Light Dra-
goons
.
41
Citizens in ranks
40
1916
North Carolina Troops
General officer
1
First North Carolina
Continentals
.
. 287
Second North Carolina
Continentals .
.
301
Third North Carolina
Continentals . .
.
162
Artillery, North Caro-
lina Continentals
64
815
231 Second South Carolina Continentals . . 246
Third South Carolina
Continentals .
259
Fourth South Carolina Continentals (artil- lery) . 93
First Battalion, Charles-
town militia
352
Second Battalion,
Charlestown militia. 485
Charlestown Battalion
of Artillery
168
Second Virginia
De-
tachment .
232
1386
510
HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
commanders of the militia from the country, men of the first rank, influenced by a sense of honor, repaired to the defence of the town, though they could not bring with them a number of men equal to their respective
1386 4016
5449
Fourth Virginia Conti-
Miscellaneous
nental officers. . Fifth Virginia Conti- nental officers . . .
6
Cannoneers (these were,
6
it is believed, South Carolina militia, but
Sixth Virginia Conti-
they are not other-
nental officers . .
10
wise designated) 167
Seventh Virginia Con- tinental officers
6
Georgia officers 6 216
Eighth Virginia Conti- nental officers . .
4
Troops surrendered .
5665
Tenth Virginia Conti- nental officers . .
9
Total
5683
Eleventh Virginia Con- tinental officers
6 1433
5449
French company . 43
Civil officers
18
Mr. Sabine makes the extraordinary statement upon evidence which he says he has examined that "South Carolina with a Northern army to assist her could not, or would not, even preserve her own capital " (The Am. Loyalists, 30, 32). Besides General Lincoln, his aides, Major Clarkson (Massachusetts) and Colonel Anthony Walton White, who was so unsuccessful in his career in the South, there was not another Northern soldier at the siege of Charlestown so far as we are aware. There were no troops from any other States but Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia. The troops spoken of as coming "from the northward " were those from North Carolina and Virginia, those States being north of South Carolina. There were several excellent bodies of Northern troops who fought in South Carolina during the Revolution, as will hereafter appear, but they all fought on the British side. They were Tory provincials. They were as follows: Tarleton's, or the British Legion, raised in New York ; the King's Third American Regiment, or New York Volunteers (Turnbull's) ; the King's Fourth American Regi- ment, New York; Ferguson's American Volunteers, New York ; Lord Rawdon's Volunteers of Ireland, raised in Pennsylvania; the First Bat- talion, New York Loyalists, Lieutenant Colonel Cruger; the Second Battalion of same, Lieutenant Colonel Allen.
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IN THE REVOLUTION
commands. The Continental regiments were completely officered, though the number of privates was very small. This was particularly the case with the Virginia regi- ments, in several of which there were no enlisted men, only commissioned officers. The supernumerary regular officers without command were retained in the garrison from an apprehension that if they were ordered out it would dispirit the army, and from an expectation, confi- dently indulged in the early days of the siege, that their services would be wanted to command the expected large reinforcements of militia.1 In addition to the loss of the army, the Americans also lost, in prisoners, about 1000 sailors, including the French, 157 guns in the batteries, and about 50,000 pounds of powder.2
Moultrie tells of a conversation with a British officer, who was receiving from him the returns of the artillery stores, in which the officer said, "Sir, you have made a gallant defence, but you had a great many rascals among you " (and mentioned their names) "who came out every night and gave us information of what was passing in your garrison."3 This incident is more remarkable for the want of vigilance and discipline in the garrison which it illustrates, than for the fact that there were those in the town who would give such information. For it must be remembered that the besieged town contained many people who were opposed to the whole war; many who regarded their fellow-citizens who had brought it on as rebels, just as the British did; many who had never, in heart at least, renounced allegiance to his Majesty, had never recognized the stars and stripes as their flag, but still looked upon the British standard as their own; and many others who, having gone into the Revolution to resist oppression and
1 Ramsay's Revolution, vol. II, 61.
2 Moultrie's Memoirs, vol. II, 106-107.
8 Ibid., 108.
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
maintain the right of representation, had considered the end gained when Lord North proposed his conciliatory measures. To both of these classes the Declaration of Independence and the war for its maintenance was the treason - not the opposition to Congress. And yet dur- ing the whole siege only twenty soldiers -regulars and militia -deserted to the British;1 while, still more remarkable, several deserters came into the besieged town, with its inevitable fall before them, and brought their information of what was going on in the British camp.2
Ramsay, the historian, says that much censure was un- deservedly cast on General Lincoln for risking his army within the lines, and undertakes a defence of his conduct in doing so. This is the least Ramsay should do, for he was one of those who were largely responsible for Lin- coln's course; he was one of Gadsden's Council who dic- tated to Lincoln throughout the siege what should be done, and who threatened mutiny if he attempted to abandon the town. But it is clear that all of Lincoln's officers, excepting Colonel C. C. Pinckney, and, in some degree, General Moultrie, were opposed to standing a siege. The engineer officers advised against its practica- bility, and General McIntosh, one of the bravest and ablest of the general officers in the garrison, was from the time of his entering it open in his advice to evacuate the town. Washington, as we have seen, was of opinion that when Lincoln decided to abandon the bar he should likewise have abandoned the town. It was the opposition of Gads- den and his Council, including Dr. Ramsay, which alone prevented Lincoln's attempt to save his army. Lincoln, in his letter to Washington, states that the first reason
1 Ramsay's Revolution, vol. II, 61.
2 So. Ca. in the Revolution (Simms), 80, 107, 108, 111 ; Moultrie, vol. II, 66.
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IN THE REVOLUTION
assigned by the council of his officers on the 21st of April against the attempt to evacuate was that the civil authori- ties would not allow it. Herein was Lincoln's greatest weakness: that from the first he subordinated his mili- tary policy to the opinions and wishes of civilians ; and in doing so he lost not only their confidence, but their respect, and incurred insult and defiance.
Nor did Gadsden possess any authority to which he should have listened. He was not left in the garrison to exercise authority. The constitution of the State allowed the Lieutenant Governor to succeed to the office of Gov- ernor only in the absence of the Governor from the State. 1 Governor Rutledge was not absent from the State, and there could not be two Governors at the same time. He was not therefore the supreme magistrate of the State in the town as he claimed, nor was he at the head of the militia officers in their civil capacities or in any other. He was left in the town to encourage the people, "more to satisfy the citizens than because of the propriety of the measure; "2 not to interfere with the military authorities. The General Assembly upon the eve of adjournment had delegated power to Governor John Rutledge, and such of his Council as he could conveniently consult, to do every- thing that was necessary; but that was a personal trust, they had not given the power to the Lieutenant Governor in his absence. While Rutledge was alive and in the State Gadsden was without any authority whatsoever. The mere fact that he was separated from the Governor by the siege could not invest him with power to act in his place. The fact of the siege placed the government abso- lutely in the hands of the military. South Carolina had joined the confederacy and had submitted her army to the
1 Article VIII, Statutes of So. Ca., vol. I, 138.
2 John Lewis Gervais, So. Ca. in the Revolution (Simms), 121. VOL. III. - 2 L
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
command of Continental officers appointed by Congress. The necessities and rules of war make the military com- mandant absolute in a state of siege; and with the con- duct of General Lincoln and his council Gadsden and his associates should never have been allowed to interfere.
Lincoln should not in the first instance have drawn his army within the town; and when his officers advised him to evacuate it, he should have arrested Gadsden and his Council for their threatened opposition, and made the effort to save the troops under his command.
Great was the rejoicing in England over the fall of Charlestown. The King was out riding on horseback when the joyful tidings were brought to him by the Earl of Lincoln, Sir Henry Clinton's aide, whom he had dispatched with the news. The whole troops of the line, consisting of four thousand men, were drawn up in Hyde Park and fired a feu de joie, accompanied by a triple dis- charge of artillery. The Foot Guards observed the same ceremony in St. James's Park, and twenty-one field-pieces were fired opposite the Horse Guards; and all the troops were reviewed. Dublin was illuminated and the friends of America in that city and in Paris were greatly depressed.1
1 Rivington's Royal Gazette, Oct. 4, 1780; Siege of Charlestown (Munsell), 206, 209.
CHAPTER XXIV
1780
UPON the capture of Charlestown Sir Henry Clinton at once advanced Lord Cornwallis 1 into the interior with a part of the army, which was to remain under his command
1 Lord Cornwallis, whose prominent career in the South now began, was of a very ancient and honorable family, and seems to have been intended from his earliest youth for the army. We find him in 1758, when only twenty years of age, captain of a light company, under the title of Lord Broome. Three years after he accompanied the Marquis of Granby to the Continent as aide-de-camp, and under the most skilful generals of the time acquired the rudiments of the art of war. In 1761 he obtained the rank of Lieutenant Colonel of the Twelfth Regiment, and was a member of Parliament. On the death of his father in 1762 he vacated his seat in the House of Commons and appeared in the House of Peers, under the title of Earl of Cornwallis. In 1765 he became one of the Lords of the Bedchamber, an aide-de-camp to his Majesty with the rank of colonel. His political conduct was nevertheless marked by its inde- pendence ; he supported the rights of the colonists in the struggle over the Stamp Act, and opposed the government in the Wilkes controversy. Lord Mansfield is said to have rallied the venerable Earl Camden on one occasion by an allusion to Lord Cornwallis's youth : " Poor Camden, could you get only four boys to support you ?" In 1766 he obtained the colonelcy of the Thirty-third Regiment of Foot. Notwithstanding his political views, he came to America with Sir William Howe, with the rank of Major General, and as we have seen took part under Sir Henry Clinton in the expedition against Charlestown, in June, 1776, and had since served in the campaigns in the Jerseys and Pennsylvania, com- manding a considerable part of the army at Brandywine. He was about now to enter upon a distinguished career, which was to end at Yorktown. After the Revolution he became Governor General of India, and subse- quently viceroy of Ireland, where he was engaged in a second business of putting down a rebellion, in which he was more successful than he had been in the first. - British Military Library, vol. I, 41-46.
515
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HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
for the security and extension of the conquest of the State and for further ultimate operations. Sir Henry had received information that a French armament with trans- ports and troops might be expected on the coast of America to cooperate with General Washington, and he was anxious to return at once to New York lest if he delayed he might be intercepted on his way. He busied himself therefore in establishing civil regulations for further securing the British interests in South Carolina, while he directed Lord Cornwallis to capture Governor Rutledge and his Council if possible, to clear the State of the few remaining hostile troops, to overawe the inhab- itants, and to establish military posts on the frontier.
On the 18th of May Lord Cornwallis left his ground in Christ Church Parish, and with upward of twenty-five hundred men marched to Lenuds's Ferry, where he crossed the Santee on his way to Camden. Two other divisions, after leaving Charlestown and reaching Dorchester, sepa- rated; the first, under Lieutenant Colonel Brown, moved up the Savannah to Augusta, while the second, under Lieutenant Colonel Balfour, passed along the Congaree to Ninety-Six. Neither of these parties encountered the slightest resistance. Augusta, Ninety-Six, and Camden were soon possessed, fortified, and garrisoned.
Cornwallis was somewhat delayed in crossing the San- tee, the Carolinians having concealed or destroyed all the boats within their reach to retard his progress. But here again information was derived from the negroes, who dis- covered where some were secreted, and his light troops were not long in crossing. As soon as the British legion and a detachment of dragoons had passed, Colonel Tarle- ton received instructions to march to Georgetown to dis- perse the opponents of the British government there, and to receive the allegiance of the well affected. This, during
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IN THE REVOLUTION
the passage of the other troops across the river, Tarleton performed without opposition. On the 22d Cornwallis moved his army upon the same road by which Colonel Buford had retreated a few days before; that is, along the eastern bank of the Santee to Nelson's Ferry. From this point Cornwallis detached Tarleton, with a corps consist- ing of 40 of the Seventeenth Dragoons, 130 of the legion, and 100 mounted infantry, to pursue Buford's party, who were now so far advanced as to be beyond the reach of his main body. The detachment left the army on the 27th and followed the Americans with great rapidity, losing, however, in doing so, a number of horses, disabled by the exertion and the heat. On the march Tarleton came very near capturing Governor Rutledge, together with Daniel Huger and John L. Gervais, the two of his Council who accompanied him. These gentlemen, entirely off their guard, were being hospitably entertained at Clermont 1 by Colonel Rugeley, an Englishman professedly opposed to the American cause, but who, true to his guests, at mid- night awoke them, advising them of Tarleton's approach, and with some difficulty persuaded them to escape. At daylight Tarleton arrived at Clermont, but his prey had flown.2
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