54. The Capture of Charleston

When Clinton, in New York, learned of D’Estaing’s defeat and withdrawal, on the other hand, he determined to seize Charleston and use it as the southern British base. With the French at sea, the British securely in charge of Savannah, and little aid being sent by Washington or Congress to the South, the time certainly seemed auspicious.

He left Knyphausen in charge of New York and sailed south on December 26, 1779, with 8,000 troops. After a stormy voyage he arrived off Charleston on February 1 and landed on John’s Island, south of the city, on February 11. He moved with the excessive caution and timidity that had now become traditional in British operations in the Revolutionary War. He inched his way north, captured James Island, and finally, on March 29, crossed the Ashley River near Charleston. By early April, reinforcements had swelled the British troops to 10,000 men and 5,000 sailors, while Lincoln had only 5,000 men in the city. Instead of using Clinton’s sloth to make good his escape, Lincoln absurdly concluded that Charleston could be successfully defended in an open confrontation with the British forces.

After crossing the Ashley, Clinton proceeded eastward to the Cooper River, virtually cutting off Charleston by land. Meanwhile, in early April 1780, the British fleet sailed into Charleston Harbor. Charleston was now completely surrounded, except for one escape route: across the Cooper River and up the Cooper to Monck’s Corner where Gen. Isaac Huger was stationed with 500 men to guard the route. But Lincoln, despite his inferior numbers and encircled position, did not consider using this out, and the bombardment of hapless Charleston began on April 13. The resolute Gen. Lachlan McIntosh pleaded with Lincoln to withdraw and save the American army in the south, but Lincoln allowed himself to be swayed by the pleas of the Charleston populace to remain and defend the town.

While Lincoln hesitated, the British Col. Banastre Tarleton, commanding the British Legion of mounted Tories, struck swiftly and suddenly at Huger’s force in the middle of the night of April 14. The Americans were shattered and dispersed, suffering heavy losses of nearly 90 men, while the British lost virtually none. Tarleton marched south toward Charleston, totally cutting off Lincoln’s path of retreat.

Lincoln finally began to consider withdrawing from his untenable situation, but now the South Carolina Council warned that if the troops tried to withdraw, the citizens would wreck the army’s boats and open the gates to the enemy. Meanwhile, Clinton drew the net tighter, and a ferocious British bombardment on May 9 quickly broke the none too hardy spirit of the Charlestonians, who insisted on surrendering the city. This demand for surrender was quickly seconded by Lieutenant Governor Gadsden and the South Carolina Council, and the militia began to abandon their posts. Lincoln had now but one alternative—to surrender. And surrender he did on May 12. The Americans thereby lost not only the great port of Charleston, but also the entire southern army of nearly 5,500 men, along with many ships and huge amounts of stores and ammunition. This was to be the largest surrender of American forces until the Civil War.

The surrender at Charleston did indeed bring out Tory sentiment in Georgia and South Carolina. Clinton’s pullout of most of the British troops from Savannah and Augusta had at first disheartened Georgia Tories, who were subject to rebel raids within a few miles of Savannah. But now all this was changed. Two hundred citizens of Charleston congratulated Clinton on his seizure of the city; the defeated militia quickly took an oath of allegiance to the king and happily marched off to their homes. News of the surrender caused one back-country militia regiment to mutiny, seize their officers, and march into Charleston to yield the officers to the British.

Hundreds of South Carolinians flocked to join Tory regiments, and some of the leading conservative members of the council found no difficulty in collaborating with the British. The dejected rebels seemed everywhere ready to yield to British rule, and those rebel leaders who had escaped now came in to surrender. Rumors that Washington would abandon the South added to the defeatism in that region.

In these circumstances the occupation and reduction of back-country South Carolina proved unexpectedly easy. General Cornwallis, in charge of this occupation, established a string of strongly held posts across northern South Carolina from Cheraw, in the east, through Camden and Rocky Mount to Ninety-Six, as well as fortifications on the seacoast from northern South Carolina through Charleston, Beaufort, and Savannah. Camden was the major post, with 2,500 men under Lord Rawdon; units were also stationed at Augusta. All these British posts were established without opposition; the last remnants of organized armed groups quickly surrendered at Beaufort, Camden, and Ninety-Six, and the remaining militia dispersed quickly and scattered to their homes.

The last remaining American armed force in the lower South was a regiment of over 350 Virginia Continentals under Col. Abraham Buford. Buford had come as far south as the Santee to help out Charleston, but when the city surrendered he was ordered to retire as fast as possible to North Carolina. But the amazing Colonel Tarleton, marching fewer than 300 men over 150 miles in 54 hours, caught up with Buford on May 29 at Waxhaws, near the North Carolina border. Buford poorly deployed his men for a cavalry attack, placing them on an open plain instead of behind fortifications, and held his fire too long. Tarleton’s cavalry charge smashed the American defenses, and when the Americans surrendered, his troops fell upon the disarmed and wounded Americans with bayonets. The prisoners thus slaughtered, from that time on “Tarleton’s quarter” was a phrase that described any massacre of disarmed prisoners. Buford and a hundred men had escaped, but over 260 men were killed or badly wounded and over fifty taken prisoner. In contrast, Tarleton lost only a handful of men.

Georgia and South Carolina were now fully occupied and pacified by the British and the contented Clinton prepared to take a third of his troops back to New York, leaving Cornwallis and 8,300 men (approximately half British and half Tory) in charge of the South. Before leaving, Clinton tried to settle the administrative system to be imposed upon the conquered states. He rejected the advice of British Adm. Marriot Arbuthnot to reestablish the royal civilian regime immediately in South Carolina, and instead, the state remained under military rule for the remainder of the war. More fateful was Clinton’s July 3 proclamation. He had issued decrees for the reconquered subjects, pledging full protection and support for all those faithful to the crown. This and his offer of a full and free pardon to all rebels who would take the oath of allegiance made a very good impression upon the people of South Carolina and moved them closer to support of Great Britain. The effect of these decisions was wholly offset, however, by his proclamation that all prisoners on parole would be released and restored to their full rights except that all who later failed to take an oath of allegiance to the crown would be considered in rebellion. This harsh edict forced those who had been happily neutral to take aggressively one side or the other. Deprived of the choice of neutrality, they tended to shift to the rebel cause. The stern proclamation of June 3 revivified a revolutionary cause that had almost died in South Carolina.