war, and the marine of South Carolina, under Commodore Whipple; and, with this slight addition to their land defences, the people of Charleston awaited the attack of the British force.

After staying some time at Savannah, to repair the injuries to his army and fleet, Sir Henry Clinton proceeded north, and landed on St. John's Island, thirty miles south of Charleston, on the 11th of February. Thence he moved to the island of St. James, sending forward part of his fleet to blockade the harbour of Charleston, and advancing cautiously until the reinforcements which he had ordered should arrive. This slowness of approach gave Governor Rutledge and General Lincoln time to repair the fortifications of the town, and to take other military measures. Some rather elaborate works of defence were thrown up in front of the city, and between the rivers Ashley and Cooper; and Lincoln hoped that, if he could delay the besiegers for a little while, reinforcements would arrive from the main body of the Continental army, and compel the enemy to abandon his attempt. The fortifications were constructed under the direction of M. Laumoy, a French engineer in the American service, and were sufficiently good to compel the English General, when he at length began the siege, to make his approaches in regular form. Clinton did not hasten his advance, but erected forts and formed magazines at proper stations as he proceeded, and secured his communications with those forts and with the sea. On the 1st of April, the General arrived before the walls of Charleston; and on the 9th, Admiral Arbuthnot anchored within reach of its seaward guns. The American naval force under Commodore Whipple retired before the English fleet, and his vessels, being obviously incapable of resistance, were dismantled, and made to contribute, by their artillery and seamen, to the land-defences of the beleaguered city. When Clinton had finished his first parallel, which was on the day of Arbuthnot's arrival with the fleet, and had mounted his guns, he summoned General Lincoln to surrender the town. The American refused to forsake his charge, and his adversary at once opened fire.

Rutledge and half of his council now took advantage of the country to the north being still open, and left the city, that they might carry on the government of the State elsewhere, and might at the same time rouse the local militia, who, however, declined to be roused. In this northerly direction, party of the American cavalry, under General Huger, had taken post at Monk's Corner, thirty miles above Charleston, in the hope of checking the British foragers, and of protecting supplies on their

371

way to the town. Posts of militia were also established between the Cooper and the Santee, to cover the retreat of the Charleston garrison, if they should be obliged to retire. It was not long, however, ere Clinton resolved to block up that avenue as well as the others. He therefore called in the troops whom he had posted to the south of the capital, and directed Lieutenant-Colonel Tarleton, commanding a corps of light dragoons, to dislodge the American posts beyond the Cooper. That officer was conducted during the night of April 14th, by a negro slave, through unfrequented paths to the scene of action, where, suddenly bursting upon the astonished Carolinians, he killed or captured several, and dispersed the rest. Charleston was now completely invested; the besiegers received a reinforcement of three thousand men from New York; the second parallel was completed, and the spirits of the garrison began to decline. An evacuation was talked of; but the idea was soon abandoned as impracticable. The investing lines were soon after strengthened, and on the 21st of April terms of capitulation were offered, but rejected. A third parallel was commenced, and the despairing garrison made a sortie, but without any important results.

On the 7th of May, the garrison of Fort Moultrie, where the works had been suffered to fall into decay, surrendered themselves prisoners of war, immediately on being summoned to do so by Admiral Arbuthnot. The cavalry which had escaped from Monk's Corner, and which had by this time reassembled, were again surprised and defeated by Tarleton on two occasions; and the condition of the defenders of Charleston was now so forlorn and hopeless-the troops being exhausted by incessant duty, many of the guns dismounted, and the supplies of food almost consumed—that terms of capitulation were once more proposed on the 8th of May, but without success, as, in the opinion of General Clinton, too many concessions were required. He knew that he had the town in his power, and could afford to wait. The batteries of the third parallel did terrible execution. Shells and carcasses, in one unresting storm, were thrown into several parts of the town, and many houses were set on fire. The besiegers' works were within a hundred yards of the walls; and, in addition to the cannon and mortars, the rifles of the Hessian Chasseurs produced such effect that few escaped who showed themselves above the lines. The American engineers had some time before given it as their opinion that the lines could not be defended ten days longer; and when, on the 11th of May, the British crossed the wet ditch by sap, and commenced preparations for

lation was signed on the following day, and Charleston passed into the possession of the Royal troops.

The terms granted by Clinton were generous, considering how completely he was the victor. He stipulated that the town and fortifications, the shipping, artillery, and all public stores, were to be given up as they then were; but, as regarded the surrender of the troops, he waived all humiliating circumstances. The garrison were to march out

were to

might dispose of their horses by sale. All civil officers and citizens who had borne arms during the siege, and even the citizens generally, be prisoners on parole, but without molestation to their property. The French consul, and the subjects of France and Spain, with their houses, papers, and other movable effects, were to be protected and untouched; but they also were to consider themselves prisoners, though with a certain liberty, on giving their word of honour not to

a hundred and five miles in fifty-four hours, and came up with the enemy at a place called the Waxhaws. A demand that Buford should surrender, on the same terms that had been granted to the garrison of Charleston, was at once sent in, and refused; and Tarleton, who during the truce had been so disposing his men as nearly to surround the enemy, made a furious onslaught, for which the Americans were evidently not prepared. Most

of them threw down their arms, and cried for quarter; but a few continued firing, and Tarleton was in no mood for mercy. Buford himself, and a few horsemen, forced their way through the opposing lines, and escaped: the greater number were killed on the spot, badly wounded, or seized as prisoners.

The Americans have always denounced in strong language the ferocity of Tarleton on this occasion; and it does in truth appear that the firing was kept up much longer than it should have been.* The English found it necessary to justify their conduct, which they did by asserting that the Americans themselves renewed the battle after a pretended submission; but this the Americans denied.

Resistance terminated with the defeat of Buford. The spirit of the people was completely broken. Many of them voluntarily took the oath of allegiance, or gave their parole not to bear arms against the mother country. Clinton, however, stationed military detachments in various parts of the conquered provinces, and on the 3rd of June issued a proclamation, in which he discharged from their parole all the militia who had been made prisoners, excepting those who had surrendered at Fort Moultrie and Charleston, and restored them to the rights and duties of citizens. He solicite! the inhabitants to take military service under the Crown, that they might secure the King's Government, and deliver the country from the anarchy which had long prevailed; and he declared that such as should neglect to return to their allegiance would be treated as enemies and rebels. The effects of this proclamation were not happy. The South Carolinians were above all things desirous of peace. They were willing for the sake of quiet to submit to Royal sway; but the majority still cherished their resentments, and were not at all inclined to encounter the perils of war for the sake of still further repressing a cause to which, on the whole, they felt friendly. For the present, they professed loyalty: but it was with a secret reservation in favour of the patriots, whenever the opportunity should arise.

SIR HENRY CLINTON designed to follow up his conquest of South Carolina by a series of operations against the sister province; but his intentions

Gordon and Stedman-both English historians of the war -condemn the conduct of Tarleton on grounds of humanity: the former by implication; the latter very explicitly. Stedman had served with the English army in America during the war.

in this respect were frustrated by the receipt of information that a French fleet, with troops on board, was expected very shortly on the America coast. The English Commander-in-Chief therefore thought it prudent to return to New York wit the greater part of his army, leaving four thousand men, under Lord Cornwallis, to hold what had b

won, and, if that could be effected, to extend the victories of the British arms into other parts of the south. On the 5th of June, Clinton sailed from Charleston, and Cornwallis at once turned his thoughts to an active prosecution of the campaign. But, owing to the great heat of the weather, and the want of magazines, he was unable to make any direct movement until the approach of autumn. In the meanwhile, he took steps for enlisting the loyalists of South Carolina and Georgia into the Royal army, and for forming companies of militia. He also communicated with the supporters of the British cause in North Carolina, and advised them to remain quiet until the King's forces advanced to their support. Unfortunately, however, they made various attempts at insurrection before the right time, and were for the most part crushed by the local authorities, though one party, consisting of eight hundred men, succeeded in reaching a detachment of the English army at Camden, in South Carolina. The command at that spot was given to Lord Rawdon-a young nobleman, then barely twenty-six years of age, but who had already, five years before, distinguished himself by his courage at the Battle of Bunker's Hill. In subsequent years, Lord Rawdon, as the Earl of Moira, and ultimately as the Marquis of Hastings, acquired renown in India, where he acted as GovernorGeneral, and also in a military capacity. At present he was comparatively unknown; but he soon had an opportunity of showing that the confidence of Lord Cornwallis in his abilities as a soldier was not misplaced.

While still at Charleston, Cornwallis attended to the government of the subjugated province, but, it is to be feared, in a spirit much too despotic. He He issued a succession of proclamations, abridging the privileges of the prisoners of war; and he established a board of police for the administration or justice, which acted with great partiality towards the loyal, and great harshness towards all who had been concerned in the insurrection. Several of the latter were imprisoned at a distance from their families; and fear of consequences induced many to make a hypocritical profession of loyalty when they were in truth only awaiting an opportunity to resume the war. Those who had suffered from their devotion to the national cause were encouraged by the sympathy of the South Carolinian ladies, who refused to attend the concerts and public receptions of the victors, and preferred to visit their unhappy countrymen in the prisons where they languished. Yet even this influence did not counteract to any great extent the feeling of depression which had spread over the

375

land, and which lasted for some weeks after the fall of Charleston. A more courageous spirit ultimately set in, and an occasion presently arose for once more raising the standard of revolt in the southern portions of the Union.

At the end of March, Washington sent a reinforcement to the Carolinas, consisting of Delaware and Maryland troops, with a regiment of artillery, under the command of Baron de Kalb, a German officer. Their despatch had been delayed for want of funds, and, when at length they started, they had a long and tedious way before them. Being unprovided with magazines, they were obliged to spread themselves in small parties over the country in order to collect corn and other necessaries. It was July before they reached North Carolina, and at Deep River they were compelled to halt for some time. On the approach of this force, a number of South Carolinian refugees, who had sought protection in the northern province and in Virginia, assembled, to the number of two hundred, under the lead of Colonel Sumpter, whose family had been treated with great cruelty by the English military authorities, military authorities, and who in consequence cherished a feeling of fierce resentment.

He now

burst into South Carolina, determined to do as much mischief on a small scale as he could. Popular support and assistance were not found wanting by his followers. Village blacksmiths forged for them rude instruments of war out of those which had been used for husbandry; private families gave up their pewter dishes, to be melted down into bullets. Even then, the supply of weapons was most inadequate; yet these courageous men sought out small detached parties of militia or of Royal troops, and fought them with varying success. In time, their stock of arms was increased by what they took from the bodies of the dead on the field of battle; and the fame of their exploits caused others to join their ranks, so that they soon numbered six hundred men. Then some companies of Royal militia deserted, and went over to Sumpter; one of them under circumstances which cannot escape the imputation of peculiarly bad faith. Lisle, the commander, who had recently accepted military rank as a Royal officer, concealed his intention until his men had been supplied with clothes, arms, and ammunition, and then carried them to the little army of guerillas. Although these men were on two occasions defeated with loss, the partisan warfare of Colonel Sumpter, and the advance of the American army from the North, were facts sufficiently serious to oblige Cornwallis to draw in his outposts, and mass his scattered troops. The English forces had up to this time