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THE WAR IN SOUTH CAROLINA 

THE SIEGE OF CHARLESTON AND CIVIL WAR IN THE SOUTH

1780 Battle Page

"When (the British Commander) Sir Henry Clinton heard of d'Estaing's arrival at the mouth of the Savannah River in September 1779, he recalled to New York the 3,000 men that had been uselessly stationed at Newport for three years. When the French and Americans were defeated in their attempt upon Savannah and d'Estaing sailed away, leaving Georgia in the hands of the British, it seemed to Clinton that the time had arrived to attempt a subjugation of the Southern states by a campaign that should begin in South Carolina and move through North Carolina into Virginia. He hoped that he could arouse the numerous Loyalists in the Carolinas, that they would flock to the King's standard and so reinforce him that he would be irresistible in his march to complete victory over the Rebel forces in the South and that thus that great section would be restored to the crown. His plan was first to capture that most important city, Charleston, and establish a base there and then to proceed inland." On December 26, 1779, General Clinton turned over the command in New York to the Commander of the German mercenary troops fighting with the British and sailed south with Lord Charles Cornwallis as second in command. His fleet of ninety transports carried eight British Infantry Regiments, five German Regiments and five Corps of Tory Militia, besides detachments of artillery and cavalry: 8,500 rank and file soldiers in all. It was convoyed by five large warships and nine smaller ships with a total of six hundred fifty naval guns. The crews of all these vessels numbered about 5,000 men. In addition, the British forces called on to join the attack on Charleston from other Southern areas brought the total force up to some fifteen thousand men. The American Commander, General Benjamin Lincoln, with General Isaac Huger, commanded about 2,650 Continental Army regular troops and an equal number of militia to hold some three miles of fortified lines defending the city. The siege of Charleston began with the British forces moving toward the town on March 20, 1780. In the ensuing siege and battle, the British forces consisting of 15,000 British soldiers and sailors, supported by naval vessels, w on the unconditional surrender of General Lincoln and his troops on May 12, 1780. The American loss of Charleston, with troops, arms, ammunition and equipment was one of the greatest disasters suffered during the entire war. Charleston having been captured, the British General Clinton's next object was to attack the interior parts of North and South Carolina and subject them to British Control, as Georgia had been subjected. He sent out a series of detachments composed almost wholly of Tory Militia and for the next three months the Carolinas were the scene of the most furious and ferocious partisan warfare. Within that period, there were five engagements between American militia and their Tory opponents. British Regulars had little part in any of them. It was civil war and it was marked by bitterness, violence, hatred and malevolence such as only civil wars can engender, with brother fighting against brother, father fighting against son, and brutality on both sides. British troops were stationed in Charleston, Beaufort and Savannah. From Cheraw, South Carolina, a strongly held line of British outposts ran across the northern part of the state through Camden to Ninety-Six. This unopposed occupation of such an extensive territory is eloquent evidence of the complete subjugation of South Carolina at the time. After General Lincoln's army had been captured at Charleston, there were no organized troops left in the state to oppose the enemy. The few small bodies of patriot militia coming to the relief of the besieged town had hastily retreated to their homes to melt into the civil population as inconspicuously as possible. Buford's Massacre When Charleston surrendered, a regiment of three hundred fifty Virginia Continental troops with a small party of Colonel William Washington's cavalry, led by Colonel Abraham Buford, had retreated some forty miles from Charleston toward Hillsboro, North Carolina. Cornwallis sent Colonel Banastre Tarleton after them with two hundred seventy mounted troops and overtook the retreating Americans on May 29 at the Waxhaws, near the North Carolina border. Colonel Buford was surprised by the attack and in the ensuing battle was defeated and ordered his troops to lay down their arms and surrender. The British Colonel refused to accept their surrender and ordered his troops to kill the defenseless Americans, resulting in a massacre of almost all. From that time on, "Tarleton's Quarter" became the by-word to describe the relentless slaughter of surrendered and helpless men. That affair extinguished the last flickering flame of resistance in South Carolina at the time. British power throughout the state was thoroughly established. General Clinton went back to New York with about one-third of his troops, leaving Lord Charles Cornwallis and a mixed force of British, German and Tory troops, about 8,300 rank and file, in the South. Further Resistance to the Invasion With South Carolina and Georgia well under control, North Carolina was Cornwallis' next goal. The North Carolina Loyalists gave glowing accounts of their strength and urged Cornwallis to come and conquer, but the summer heat and scarcity of provisions inclined him to remain in camp until later in the year. The Tories decided not to wait. In the meantime, North Carolina Patriots were preparing to resist invasion by the British. General Griffith Rutherford called on the militia who mustered near Charlotte with Major William R. Davie, Colonel William L. Davidson, and Colonel Francis Locke. The Tory and Patriot Militia met at Ramsour's Mills resulting in a bloody encounter in which there were some three hundred casualties on both sides. "The fight . . . was a desperate hand to hand struggle, the crudity of the weapons equaled by the ferocity with which they were employed. The result was the crushing of the Tory element in that part of North Carolina." The other Patriot leaders were beginning to recover from the defeat at Charleston. A party of Tories near Winnsboro was defeated and dispersed and a similar Tory body of militia near Fishing Creek was similarly defeated, but Patriot militia under General Thomas Sumter lost a small engagement with the Tories at Rocky Mount. A short time later, at Hanging Rock, North Carolina, a large body of Patriots engaged in a battle with Tory militia, not a single British officer being present and in a battle lasting nearly four hours, fought with determination on both sides, the Tories were severely defeated, losing some two hundred killed or wounded out of five hundred engaged, a decisive American victory. BIBLIOGRAPHY This sketch was made from The War of the Revolution (2 Vols), by Christopher Ward (MacMillan Co., New York, 1952). References and quotations may be found therein.