The Battle of Charleston The Battle of Charleston Strength: 5,466 infantry, militia, artillery Casualties: 92 killed, 148 wounded and 5266 captured BRITISH FORCES Strength: 13,500 infantry, marines, sailors, militia and artillery Casualties: 76 killed, 182 wounded CONCLUSION Southern theater, 1775–82 The Siege of Charleston was one of the major battles which took place towards the end of the American Revolutionary War, after the British began to shift their strategic focus towards fighting in the southern colonies. As a defeat, it was the biggest loss of troops suffered to the revolutionary army in the war wherein the losses consisted essentially of the major part of the forces available to the revolutionaries. By contrast, General Washington avoided attempts to match force on force and adroitly avoided getting his forces pinned strategically so the superior British communications (SLOC) could assemble a crushing blow. At the same time, Washington, at the least with his aide and sub-commander General Lafayette, was cognizant of efforts to bring in the Kingdom of France against the British.

From 1777 to 1778, the British had considerable success in the southern colonies, namely in the Province of Georgia with the Siege of Savannah, whereas the waiting strategy of maneuver adopted by Washington leading the northern army, had the British freedom of action stymied, and with near parity of forces, the conflict was essentially a stalemate. The amount of battles won in the south by the British in 1779 immensely increased in the following year, when they victoriously swept up through South and North Carolina. In December 1779, Gen. Henry Clinton sailed himself sailed south bound for Charleston from New York City. The British fleet included 90 troopships and 14 warships with more than 8,500 soldiers and 5,000 sailors. Because they had been delayed several months in leaving, the fleet now sailed through stormy seas. The first storm hit on December 27 and lasted 3 days. On January 1, another storm hit and lasted 6 days. This pattern continued and the fleet was separated. After having been separated by constant storms, about 2/3 of the British fleet had regrouped.

However, they found themselves off the coast of Florida and had to sail back north. They went as far as Georgia where a diversionary infantry force was put ashore on February 4. The cavalry commanded by Lt. Col. Banastre Tarleton and including Maj. Patrick Ferguson also went ashore to find new mounts. During the voyage the horses had to be put overboard, because of serious injuries like broken legs. Click to Enlarge General Clinton then continued sailing north with the main body of his force. Back in 1776, Clinton had deferred to Admiral Sir Peter Parker whose choice of approach directly into Charleston Harbor had been a disaster. Clinton had learned his lesson from that defeat and chose to land his forces 30 miles south of Charleston and approach overland. While the army marched overland, the ships would sail up the rivers delivering provisions as necessary. The first men were put ashore on February 11. On February 4, a diversionary infantry force was put ashore in Georgia. The cavalry commanded by Tarleton and including Ferguson also went ashore to find new mounts. During the voyage, the horses had to be put overboard, because of serious injuries like broken legs.

Clinton had chosen to land his forces thirty miles south of Charleston and approach overland. The first men, English and Hessian Grenadiers and the 33rd Regiment of Foot, were put ashore on February 11, on the southern tip of John's Island. On February 14, these men set out in search of Stono Ferry, which was the crossing point to James Island. Later that day, they found the river, but the other bank with fortified and manned by militia. The British retreated without taking fire from the Americans. The next day, they discovered that the Americans had deserted their position overnight. On February 24, fortifications were completed at Stono Ferry and the British crossed over to James Island the next day. There was a Continental presence on the island. French Chevalier Pierre-François Vernier commanded the cavalry, while Francis Marion commanded the American infantry. They had been observing the British movements for several days. On February 26, they attacked a returning British scavenging patrol as it passed down a narrow way. The German Jägers came to their rescue and drove Vernier off.

In spite of the Continental presence and continued skirmishing with Chevalier Vernier and his cavarly, the British gained control of James Island by March 1. On March 10, Clinton's second-in-command Lt. Gen. Charles Cornwallis finally led the main force onto the mainland at Wappoo Cut. On March 11, naval ships finally came up the Stono River and delivered much needed supplies. From March 11-21, the British fortified their position which was located where the Wappoo Creek flowed into the Ashley River. They mounted artillery to shell American ships and keep the Ashley River secure. They then moved upstream and north, away from Charleston, slowly securing the plantations along the way while the Americans shadowed them from across the river. On March 29, under the cover of fog , the British crossed the Ashley River upstream from the heavily fortified Ashley Ferry and established themselves on Charleston Neck. When the Americans learned that the British were on the Neck, they abandoned their breastworks at Ashley Ferry. On April 1, the British had moved down into position to begin their siege works. While the British slowly closed in, naval maneuvering in Charleston Harbor for the Americans was a disaster.

In December 1779, 4 frigates had arrived under the command of Commodore Abraham Whipple and were joined by 4 ships from South Carolina and 2 French ships. There were 260 guns afloat and 40 guns at Fort Moultrie. However, even before the British arrived, Whipple informed Maj. Gen. Benjamin Lincoln that the flotilla could not defend the entrance to Charleston Harbor. Lincoln questioned Commodore Whipple's conclusion, but Whipple was backed up by a naval board. Whipple chose to first withdraw to the mouth of the Cooper River. Meanwhile the British began their approach on March 20. When Whipple saw the size of the British attack fleet, he scuttled the ships at the entrance of the river On April 2, siege works were begun about 800 yards from the American fortifications. During the first few days of the siege, the British operations were under heavy artillery fire. On April 4, they built redoubts near the Ashley and Cooper Rivers to protect their flanks. On April 6, a warship was hauled overland from the Ashley River to the Cooper River to harass crossings by the besieged to the mainland.

On April 8, the British fleet moved into the Harbor under fire only from Fort Moultrie. On April 12, Lt. General Henry Clinton ordered Tarleton and Ferguson to capture Monck's Corner, which was a crossroads just south of Biggins Bridge near the Santee River. Gen. Isaac Huger was stationed there 500 men under orders from Lincoln to hold the crossroads so that communications with Charleston would remain open. On April 13, during the evening, Tarleton gave orders for a silent march. Later that night, they intercepted a messenger with a letter from Huger to Lincoln and thus learned how the rebels were deployed. On April 14, at 3:00 A.M., the British reached the American post, catching them completely by surprise and quickly routing them. Following the skirmish, the British fanned out across the countryside and effectively cut off Charleston from outside support. South Carolina Governor John Rutledge left Charleston on April 13. On April 21, a parlay was made between Lincoln and Clinton, with Lincoln offering to surrender with honor. That is, with colors flying and marching out fully armed, but Clinton was sure of his position and quickly refused the terms.

A heavy artillery exchange followed. On April 23, Cornwallis crossed the Cooper River and assumed command of the British forces blocking escape by land. On April 24, the Americans ventured out to harass the siege works. The lone American casualty was Tom Moultrie, brother of Brig. Gen. William Moultrie. On April 29, the British advanced on the left end of the canal that fronted the city's fortifications with the purpose of destorying the dam and draining the canal. The Americans knew the importance of that canal to the city's defenses and responded with steady and fierce artillery and small arms fire. By the following night, the British had succeeded in draining some water. By May 4, several casualties had been sustained and the fire had been so heavy that work was often suspended. On May 5, the Americans made a countermove from their side, but by May 6, almost all of the water had drained out of the heavily damaged dam and plans for an assault began. On that same day, Fort Moultrie had surrendered. On May 8, Clinton called for unconditional surrender from Lincoln, but Lincoln again tried to negotiate for honors of war.

On May 11, the British fired red-hot shot that burned several homes before Lincoln finally called for parlay and to negotiate terms for surrender. The final terms dictated that the entire Continental force captured were prisoners of war. On May 12, the actual surrender took place with Lincoln leading a ragged bunch of soldiers out of the city. The senior officers, including Lincoln, eventually were exchanged for British officers in American hands. For all others in the Continental army, a long stay on prison boats in Charleston Harbor was the result, where sickness and disease would ravage them. The defeat left no Continental Army in the South and the country wide open for British taking. Even before Lincoln surrendered, the Continental Congress had already appointed Maj. Gen. Horatio Gates to replace him. The British quickly established outposts in a semicircle from Georgetown to Augusta, Georgia, with positions at Camden, Ninety-Six, Cheraw, Rocky Mount and Hanging Rock in between. Parole was offered to back country rebels and many accepted, including Andrew Pickens. Soon after securing Charleston, Clinton gave command of the Southern Theatre to Cornwallis and on June 5, he sailed north back to New York.

Clinton's one order to Cornwallis before he left, was to maintain possession of Charleston above all else. Cornwallis was not to move into North Carolina if it jeopordized this holding. Clinton also had ordered that all militia and civilians be released from their parole. But in addition, they must take an oath to the Crown and be at ready to serve when called upon by His Majesty's government. This addition angered many of the locals and led to many deserting or ignoring the order and terms of their parole. Meanwhile an active and bitter partisan warfare begun. The British advance had been marked by more than the usual destruction of war; the Loyalists rose to arms; the Whig population scattered and without much organization formed groups of riflemen and mounted troopers to harass the enemy. Little mercy was shown on either side. On April 14, 1780, Colonel Banastre Tarleton decimated a detachment of Lincoln's cavalry and followed it up by practically destroying Buford's Virginia regiment near the North Carolina border.

The British Take Charleston - May 12, 1780 The British take Charleston May 12, 1780 In June 1776, the British navy tried to capture the Charleston Harbor but failed. After losing the Battles at Saratoga , the British concentrated on the Southern Colonies. The British believed there would be a lot of loyalists in the South In 1779. General Sir Henry Clinton decided it was time to make the strength of the British forces known in the South. For the first time since being defeated in 1776, the British navy sailed toward Savannah , Georgia. They were able to force the small Continental Army there to retreat into South Carolina. After taking Augusta, the British had control of all Georgia. This encouraged Clinton who decided on a heavier assault to take control of Charleston, South Carolina. He sent General Charles Cornwallis and 8,500 to Charleston where they landed in February of 1780. In two months they had increased their forces to 10,000 men. The Patriots made up of both the Continental Army and militiamen only totaled about 5,000 men.

They were led by General Benjamin Lincoln of Massachusetts. When General Cornwallis' men attacked, the Patriots had no chance. Since the British had them surrounded, they could make no retreat and on May 12, 1780 General Lincoln surrendered to the British. The British took all the weapons, ammunition and supplies from General Lincoln. General Cornwallis let the colonists go free if they promised never to bear arms against the King or Queen of England again. General Washington had sent the Continental Army from Delaware and Maryland to Charleston under the lead of Major General Baron de Kalb, but that group of men had only reached the northern border of North Carolina by the time General Lincoln surrendered to Sir Henry Clinton and General Cornwallis. General Sir Clinton returned immediately to New York and left General Cornwallis in charge. The troops under Cornwallis were able to go out from the city of Charleston into the countryside. Since General Lincoln's men were the only Patriots in South Carolina, the British had no problem. They established bases in Camden, Cheraw and at Fort 96 near Greenwood. Revolutionary War in Georgia | New Georgia Encyclopedia Revolutionary War in Georgia Edward J.

Cashin , Augusta State University, 03/26/2005 Last edited by NGE Staff on 10/11/2016 Explore This Article Evacuation of Savannah Though Georgians opposed British trade regulations, many hesitated to join the revolutionary movement that emerged in the American colonies in the early 1770s and resulted in the Revolutionary War (1775-83). The colony had prospered under royal rule , and many Georgians thought that they needed the protection of British troops against a possible Indian attack. Georgia did not send representatives to the First Continental Congress that met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1774. The Congress asked all colonies to form a group, called the Association, to ban trade with Britain. Georgia delegates gathered in a James Wright provincial congress in Savannah on January 18, 1775, to discuss whether to join the Association, and to elect representatives to the Second Continental Congress. Those who were elected declined to go to Philadelphia, however, because the delegates were divided on the action to be taken. St. John Parish, acting alone, sent Lyman Hall to the Second Continental Congress.

News of the battles of Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts caused many Georgians who were wavering in their allegiance to join the radical movement. A group called the Sons of Liberty broke into the powder magazine in Savannah on May 11, 1775, and divided the powder with the South Carolina revolutionaries. Those who resisted royal government were usually called "Whigs," and those who remained loyal to the king were known as "Tories." Whigs were also referred to as "patriots," though the British thought of them as "rebels." Tories were also called "loyalists." Though Georgians continued to drink to the health of the king, they took government into their own hands when the Second Provincial Congress met in Savannah on July 4, 1775. The Congress named delegates to the Second Continental Congress already sitting in Philadelphia and adopted the Association's ban on trade with Britain. The single most important democratic action of the Congress was the establishment of local committees to enforce the Association's ban. Thus political power devolved upon artisans and farmers, considered by royal governor James Wright to be the "wrong sort" to be allowed in government. The Congress adjourned, leaving executive authority in a standing Council of Safety.

Violence in the Backcountry The heavy-handed tactics of the local committee in Augusta led to the first violence in the backcountry. On August 2, 1775, members of the committee confronted Thomas Brown at his residence on the South Carolina side of the Savannah River above Augusta. Brown had come to Georgia with seventy or so indentured servants in November 1774 in answer to Governor Wright's advertisement of the advantages of the newly Ceded Lands above Augusta and founded a settlement called Brownsborough. He attracted the anger of the Whigs by publicly denouncing the Association and summoning friends of the king to join a counterassociation. When he refused to swear to honor the Association, the crowd of Liberty men tortured him in various ways, scalping and fracturing his skull, burning his feet, and hauling him, unconscious, through the streets of Augusta as an object lesson to those who would denounce the Association. When he recovered, Brown retired into the Carolina backcountry, where he and other leaders enlisted hundreds of loyalists and threatened a march on Augusta. After much marching about and some skirmishing around the town of Ninety-Six, Brown and his friends heeded South Carolina governor Sir William Campbell's advice to await the arrival of the British.

Brown retreated to Florida and persuaded Florida governor Patrick Tonyn to allow him to recruit a corps of rangers who would lead Indians to fight on the frontiers in conjunction with the expected landing on the coast. Meanwhile, rumors of a British-instigated plot to enlist slaves and Indians to help defeat the American patriots alarmed Georgians and Carolinians. Though false, the rumors were generally believed, and John Stuart, the Indian Commissioner, fled in fear for his life from Charleston, South Carolina, to Florida. Battle of the Rice Boats The Georgia Signers of the Declaration of Independence arrival of British warships in the Savannah River in January 1776 caused the first crisis in Savannah. The Council of Safety, convinced that Savannah was the object of the British incursion, placed Governor Wright under house arrest and instructed Colonel Lachlan McIntosh to take charge of the defense of the city. There followed the so-called Battle of the Rice Boats on March 2-3, 1776, when British warships seized rice -laden merchant ships in the Savannah harbor. The seizure of crops was the British purpose, not the capture of Savannah. The fleet sailed with the rice and with the fugitive Governor Wright and his chief councilors.

In the absence of the governor , the next provincial congress met in Augusta and proceeded to draft a simple frame of government called "Rules and Regulations" that went into effect on May 1, 1776. The congress elected Archibald Bulloch president and commander in chief of militia. George Walton joined Lyman Hall and Button Gwinnett as Georgia delegates to the Philadelphia convention in time to sign the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. Three Invasions of Florida Lachlan McIntosh August Major General Charles Lee, military commander in the South, allowed himself to be persuaded by Georgians to stage an invasion of British East Florida. Lee had little hope of conquest, but he thought the military demonstration might impress the Indians. Unfortunately, he was recalled to the North, taking his Virginia and North Carolina troops with him, and the expedition got no farther than Sunbury, just south of Savannah, when South Carolina ordered her militia to return. Georgians under Lachlan McIntosh, who was recently promoted to brigadier general, skirmished with the Florida Rangers and their Indian allies on the Satilla River and then abandoned the southern borderlands. Congress recommended that the newly independent states adopt a permanent frame of government.

Accordingly, Georgians elected delegates to a state constitutional convention that met in October 1776 in Savannah. Radical leaders of local committees dominated the convention and produced one of the most democratic constitutions of any state. The electorate included all white men over twenty-one who possessed property worth ten pounds or were employed as artisans. A one-house assembly enacted legislation, and elected the governor, judges, and other officials. Georgia's constitution , adopted on February 5, 1777, created the state's first counties: Burke , Camden , Chatham , Effingham , Glynn , Liberty , Richmond , and Wilkes , all named for friends of the colonies in British Parliament, except Liberty, a title that honored St. John Parish's early zeal for American rights. Button Gwinnett acted as speaker of the convention. He and his fellow radical Whigs suspected many conservative Whigs of being secret Tories. Gwinnett's arrest of George McIntosh, the brother of General Lachlan McIntosh, fueled animosity between radical and conservative Georgians. At the height of the controversy, Gwinnett decided upon an invasion of Florida.

Gwinnett considered himself commander in chief of the Georgia militia and refused to cooperate with General McIntosh, who commanded the brigade of Continental soldiers. After the failure of the expedition, the two principals quarreled about which one was to blame. They fought a duel, both were wounded, and Gwinnett died. The radical Whigs raised such a cry against McIntosh that Congress transferred him out of Georgia for service under General George Washington at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. The first two failures did not dissuade Georgians from a third attempt upon Florida in 1778. This time Governor John Houstoun commanded the Georgia militia, Major General Robert Howe the Continentals, and General Andrew Williamson the Carolina militia. The expedition suffered from the same lack of coordination that doomed the previous assault on the southern borderlands. Howe's regulars managed to drive Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Brown and his East Florida Rangers from a fort on the St. Marys River. The Georgia militia skirmished with the Rangers and a company of Royal Americans on Alligator Creek. With that limited success, the invaders returned to Georgia.

Other than the three abortive invasions of Florida and the patrolling of the western frontier, the Whigs accomplished little during the first three years of independence except survival. However, they gained experience in self-government and a determination not to surrender their new independence, and that was no small achievement. The Indians would have created greater havoc in the backcountry as the result of the instigations of John Stuart and Thomas Brown, but for the efforts of Continental Indian Commissioner George Galphin . Galphin used his enormous influence to persuade many of the Lower Creeks to remain neutral. Return of the British Army By 1778 the war in the North had reached a stalemate. The British high command decided to try a southern strategy. Southern governors like Sir James Wright had assured Lord George Germain, the American Secretary in Britain, that hundreds of loyalists bided their time in the backcountry, waiting for the king's troops. General Sir Henry Clinton in New York ordered Lieutenant Colonel Archibald Campbell to invade Georgia with 3,000 troops, and to restore the state to British rule, thus setting an example for the restoration of other former colonies.

Prior to Campbell's attack upon Georgia, General Augustine Prevost conducted a cattle raid into the lower Georgia counties. As a diversion, Lieutenant Colonel Lewis Fuser demonstrated against Fort Morris at Sunbury. When Fuser demanded the surrender of the fort, its commander, Lieutenant Colonel John McIntosh bravely answered, "Come and take it!" Fuser withdrew and Georgia Plan of Savannah honored McIntosh as a hero. On December 28, 1778, Campbell's army landed unopposed on a bluff below Savannah, advanced through the swamps by an unguarded path, and overwhelmed General Robert Howe's defenders of Savannah. Campbell waited until January 12 for the arrival of Prevost's Royal Americans and Brown's Rangers from Florida, and on January 24 began a march with Brown's Rangers to Augusta in the backcountry. Except for a skirmish at the Burke County courthouse involving Brown's Rangers, Campbell was unopposed. Some ninety of George Galphin's slaves sought their freedom from Campbell and were escorted to Savannah. Campbell took possession of Augusta on January 31, 1779.

The southern strategy seemed to be successful when 1,400 men came in to Augusta to sign up in the royal militia. However, the British Indian allies were badly delayed, and on February 14 several hundred loyalists were cut off at Kettle Creek in Wilkes County by South Carolinians under Andrew Pickens and Georgians under Elijah Clarke and John Dooly. Alarmed by the approach of 1,200 North Carolinians under General John Ashe, Campbell withdrew from Augusta on the same day as the Battle of Kettle Creek . Ashe's troops, Samuel Elbert 's Georgia Continentals, and Andrew Williamson's South Carolina militia Battle of Kettle Creek Site followed the retreating British. On March 3 the British, now commanded by Lieutenant Colonel James Mark Prevost, turned upon the Americans and routed them at the Battle of Briar Creek. If Kettle Creek ensured the continued independence of upper Georgia, then Briar Creek meant that the lower part of the state returned to British rule. Campbell named Lieutenant Colonel James Mark Prevost acting governor until Sir James Wright's arrival. Campbell then took passage for England, having succeeded in his pledge to remove a star from the American flag.

General Benjamin Lincoln marched his Continentals to Augusta to support the organization of civil government there, whereupon General Augustine Prevost threatened an attack upon Charleston, drawing Lincoln down with all haste. Whig Government in Augusta John Wereat an ad hoc committee met in Augusta and appointed some of its members to a "Supreme Executive Council," whose purpose was to run the government until January, when a full assembly could meet. The Supreme Executive Council held its first meeting on July 24, and the following month the council elected John Wereat president. Wereat, a friend of the McIntoshes, had denounced Georgia's constitution as too radical. Militia colonel George Wells, who served on the committee that drafted the constitution and acted as Gwinnett's second in the fatal duel, refused to recognize Wereat's council and called for regular elections. In October George Walton Major General Benjamin Lincoln ordered George Walton to go to Augusta, hold an election, and create a constitutional government in order to qualify for a subsidy from the Continental Congress. Walton did so, thereby joining Wells and the radical faction. Elections were held and an assembly met in late November. They chose Walton as governor.

Wereat's Supreme Executive Council refused to recognize Walton's administration, so war-ravaged Georgia endured two Whig governments in Augusta and one royal regime in Savannah at a time when it could hardly afford one government. In the most controversial action of his short-lived administration, Governor Walton dispatched a letter to Congress asking for the second removal of General Lachlan McIntosh from Georgia. McIntosh had returned to the state during the summer to take charge of Georgia's Continental forces, but he resided at the house of a suspected Tory, Andrew McLean. The Assembly passed the resolution, but the Speaker, William Glascock, left Augusta before the clerk transcribed the letter. Walton never denied signing Glascock's name, and he sent another letter under his own name. However, Wereat and other friends of McIntosh's would later carry on an acrimonious investigation of the "forged letter" incident. The radical faction dominated the new Assembly that met in January 1780. The delegates elected Richard Howley governor and delegate to Congress.

The Assembly enacted legislation providing for the rapid growth of the backcountry, including a commission government for Augusta, a new town to be named Washington in Wilkes County, and generous land grants for entrepreneurs who would construct ironworks, grist mills, and sawmills. Howley and Walton traveled as delegates to Philadelphia, and George Wells, president of the executive council, acted as governor. The irascible Wells soon became embroiled in a quarrel with Major James Jackson , a friend of John Wereat's. They fought a duel, and Wells died. Thus the two leaders of the radical faction in Georgia, Gwinnett and Wells, were killed in duels. They launched Georgia, however, on a democratic course that had lasting effects on the state's history. Siege of Savannah Governor Sir James Wright returned to Georgia on July 14, 1779, and announced the restoration of Georgia to the crown, with the privilege of exemption from taxation. Thus Georgia became the first, and ultimately the only one, of the thirteen states in rebellion to be restored to royal allegiance.

Governor Wright had hardly settled to his duties when on September 3, 1779, a French fleet of twenty-five ships appeared unexpectedly off the Georgia coast . Count Charles Henri d'Estaing intended to oblige George Washington by stopping off on his way back to France to recapture Savannah. He disembarked his army of 4,000-5,000 men at Beaulieu on the Vernon River and proceeded to besiege Savannah. Major General Benjamin Lincoln hurried over from South Carolina with his army to join in the siege . D'Estaing demanded the surrender of Savannah on September 16, but General Augustine Prevost asked for twenty-four hours to give an answer. During that day, Lieutenant Colonel John Maitland brought his 800 redcoats in from Beaufort, South Carolina, to bolster the British defenses. Then Prevost declined to surrender. On October 9, 1779, the allies launched a grand assault upon the British lines and suffered 752 casualties, while the British defenders lost only 18 killed and 39 wounded.

Count Casimir Pulaski , a Polish nobleman who had volunteered to fight for the cause of liberty, died at the head of the men he led. Sergeant William Jasper, the hero of the 1776 Battle of Fort Moultrie, also died. The battered French army withdrew to its ships, and Benjamin Lincoln's troops returned to Charleston. Fall of Charleston Encouraged by the British defense of Savannah, General Sir Henry Clinton brought his army down from New York, made Tybee Island his base, and began the siege of Charleston. Lincoln failed to escape when he might have, and surrendered the city and its defenders on May 12, 1780. Clinton then returned to New York, leaving General Lord Cornwallis in charge of the subjugation of the South. Cornwallis sent units to take command of the backcountry posts, including Augusta, Camden, and Ninety-Six. Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Brown assumed command in Augusta. On July 10, 1780, the Royal Council in Savannah declared that peace had been restored in Georgia, and so it seemed, with a British garrison in Savannah under Lieutenant Colonel Alured Clarke, and British posts in the backcountry.

Some Whigs refused to surrender, however, and sought refuge in the mountain country. Two Battles of Augusta Elijah Clarke More important, Lieutenant Colonel Elijah Clarke came down from his haven in North Carolina, rallied 600 men who had taken a recent oath of allegiance to the king, and attacked Augusta on September 14, 1780. In a desperate four-day battle Clarke besieged Brown and his Rangers and Indian allies at the Mackay House outside town. Lieutenant Colonel John Harris Cruger and his New York loyalists from Ninety-Six came to the relief of Brown's garrison. Though tradition blames Brown for hanging thirteen prisoners, Cruger probably gave the order to carry out the punishment mandated by Cornwallis for those who took up arms after swearing allegiance to the king. Clarke beat a hasty retreat to North Carolina, hounded by Indians and loyalists. Cornwallis dispatched a force of loyalists under Lieutenant Colonel Patrick Ferguson to cut off Clarke's band. Instead, Clarke's friends from the mountains swarmed down under their own leaders, caught Ferguson on Kings Mountain, and scored a decisive victory on October 7, 1780. Clarke's raid upon Augusta triggered the events that led to Kings Mountain.

Alarmed Nathanael Greene by the resurgence of the Whigs under leaders like Clarke, Benjamin Few, and John Twiggs , Brown constructed Fort Cornwallis on the grounds of St. Paul's Church. In April Clarke returned to the Georgia backcountry to harass loyalists and threaten Augusta. Major General Nathanael Greene , the new Continental commander in the South, ordered General Andrew Pickens and his South Carolina militia, and Lieutenant Colonel Henry "Lighthorse Harry" Lee with his legion, to join Clarke in besieging Augusta. Lee captured valuable stores at Galphin's plantation at Silver Bluff, and with Pickens and Clarke, began the siege of Augusta on May 22, 1781. In the course of a two-week battle, Lee's engineers constructed a wooden tower from which a cannon could reach the interior of Fort Cornwallis. Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Brown had no choice but to surrender on June 5, 1781. The capture of Augusta gave American peace negotiators in Paris, France, reason to demand the independence of Georgia even though Savannah remained in British hands for the ensuing year.

Whig Government Restored Andrew Pickens the first time in more than a year, the scattered members of the legislature reassembled in Augusta on August 17 and elected Nathan Brownson governor for the remainder of the year. General Greene authorized the creation of 100 horse and 100 foot under the title of the "Georgia State Legion" with Lieutenant Colonel James Jackson in command. On January 9, 1782, Greene dispatched Brigadier General Anthony Wayne to Georgia with a regiment of dragoons. General Wayne conducted a war of attrition against the British defenders of Savannah. Andrew Pickens carried the war to the Cherokees , and John Twiggs's Georgians fought against the Creeks. On January 2, 1782, John Martin the legislature elected John Martin governor. He issued a proclamation pardoning all loyalists who pledged to support independence by joining the Georgia Legion or the militia. On May 4, 1782, the legislature passed the Confiscation and Banishment Act, declaring 277 people guilty of treason, and seizing their property. The property of loyalists who had left the state was also confiscated.

Governor Wright bitterly criticized the British military for not supporting the royal cause in Georgia. On June 4, 1782, he staged an elaborate celebration in Savannah to honor the king's birthday and to keep up the spirits of Georgia loyalists. On June 14, 1782, however, Wright received orders from General Sir Guy Carleton to evacuate Savannah. Thomas Brown had recruited a new regiment of rangers and on May 19 skirmished with Lieutenant Colonel James Jackson's Legion in the marshes outside Savannah. At Wright's request, Brown had sent a last, desperate appeal to the Upper Creeks to come to his aid. On June 23, the noted Creek leader Emistisiguo fought through the American lines to reach Savannah. Though most of his band joined Brown, Emistisiguo was killed. Evacuation of Savannah The British evacuated Savannah on July 11, 1782. Lieutenant Colonel James Jackson had the honor of leading Wayne's victorious troops into the city. Governor Martin convened the Georgia Assembly in Savannah on July 13, 1782.

As many as 2,000 white Georgians and twice that number of blacks resettled in British East Florida. About 400 whites and 5,000 blacks migrated to Jamaica, where Sir Archibald Campbell, who had restored Georgia to the crown, served as governor. The loyalists in Florida had hardly settled to their new life when they learned that the peace treaty of 1783 returned Florida to Spain. There occurred another mass migration to the Bahamas, Jamaica, and the other islands of the West Indies, as well as to Great Britain. On January 7, 1783, the Georgia General Assembly elected Lyman Hall governor. John Twiggs, now raised to the rank of general in the Georgia militia, and Elijah Clarke continued to harass the Cherokee and Creek Indians to ensure the possession of land, the great object of the revolution for many Georgians. News of the signing of the preliminary peace treaty reached Savannah in late May 1783 and caused a general celebration. The newly independent state of Georgia, though poor in every other respect, claimed a virtual empire of territory reaching to the Mississippi River.

The Georgians' immediate problem consisted in their inability to convince the Creek Indians, who actually possessed the land, of Georgia's right to this empire. You Might Also Like American Revolution in the South War in the South | Yorktown | Observations The seat of war was transferred to the South late in the year 1778. Even before the battle of Lexington the strife had begun south of Mason and Dixon's line. There was Dunmore's War, and the battle at Moore's Creek, and the valiant defense of Fort Moultrie . But the foe soon departed and the Southland had rest for nearly three years, when he came again and made it the scene of the final conflict. For nearly four years the power of the British had been thrown against the great states of the North. They had destroyed much property and taken many lives; they had overrun vast tracts. But the game had been a losing one; a fine army had been sacrificed in the Hudson Valley , and now at the end of the four years the British commander had not possession of a single foot of territory except Manhattan Island and Newport.

He therefore determined, while still holding New York as his base, to send his legions to the weaker communities of the South, to conquer Georgia , then the Carolinas , and perchance the Old Dominion , and to hold these until terms could be made with their powerful neighbors to the North. The plan is supposed to have originated in the brain of Lord George Germain. In December, 1778, a force of thirty-five hundred British regulars under Colonel Campbell landed near Savannah, Georgia. The American force there, commanded by General Robert Howe, was less than twelve hundred in number. The two forces met in battle; the Americans were routed, losing five hundred in prisoners, and the city of Savannah surrendered with its guns and stores. General Prevost soon arrived with British re�nforcements from Florida, and he and Campbell pressed their advantage with vigor; they captured Augusta and other points, and within ten days proclaimed their conquest of the state of Georgia. General Benjamin Lincoln was now made commander in the South, instead of Howe.

General Moultrie had just won a signal victory in defending Fort Royal, but the advantage was soon lost, for fifteen hundred men under General Ashe, who were sent by Lincoln against Augusta, suffered a crushing defeat at Briar Creek at the hands of the English. Prevost then crossed the Savannah River and began a march toward Charleston, spreading devastation in his trail; but his course was checked in a skirmish with Lincoln, and he turned back. The summer of 1779 passed, and the British as yet had no foothold north of Georgia. Early in September D'Estaing arrived at the mouth of the Savannah from the West Indies with a powerful French fleet, and American hopes in the South rose with a bound. The first thought was to recapture Savannah, and the siege was begun on September 23. For three weeks, day and night, Lincoln's artillery from the shore joined with that of the French commander from the harbor. But Prevost gave no sign of surrendering the city, and D'Estaing proposed a combined assault. This was made with desperate valor on October 9, but it failed. The French and Americans lost heavily, and, saddest of all, the brave Pulaski was numbered with the slain.

D'Estaing fearing the October gales, sailed away, and the coast was clear for two months, when another fleet hove into view. This fleet was not that of a friend; it bore Sir Henry Clinton from New York and Earl Charles Cornwallis with eight thousand soldiers for the subjugation of the South. Clinton landed at Savannah, but his aim was to capture Charleston, the chief seaport of the South. Adding the force of Prevost to his own, he began the march overland to Charleston, which was now occupied by Lincoln with 7000 men. Clinton began engirdling the city about the 1st of April, 1780, and a week later the British fleet ran by Fort Moultrie and entered the harbor. Soon after this Lord Rawdon arrived from New York with three thousand more troops, and the doom of the southern metropolis was scaled. Lincoln should have fled and saved his army, but he lacked the sagacity of a Washington or a Greene; he prepared for defense, while day by day the coil of the anaconda tightened about the doomed city.

Lincoln surrendered, and Charleston, with its stores, its Charleston, advantages, and the army that defended it, fell into the hands of the British commander. 1 The fall of Charleston was a sad blow to the patriot cause -- the most disastrous event of the war, except the fall of Fort Washington on the Hudson four years before. It gave Clinton control of South Carolina as well as of Georgia, and that offlaer now called away for New York, leaving Cornwallis in command with five thousand men. During the following months the scene in the Carolinas and Georgia was one of wild disorder and anarchy. A large portion of the people were loyalists, and scarcely a day passed without hand to hand encounters, bloodshed, and murder. The patriots were without an army, but bands of roving volunteers annoyed the British incessantly. The most daring and successful leader of these bands was Francis Marion, the "Swamp Fox." With a handful of followers he would creep like a tiger from the coverts of the woods or the fastnesses of the mountains, strike a deadly blow, and disappear again like a shadow.

Scarcely inferior to Marion was Thomas Sumter, the "South Carolina Gamecock," who was to outlive all his fellow-officers of the Revolution, and to leave his name upon that famous fort which was destined to be the scene of the opening of that greater war, to be fought by a later generation of Americans. After the war Sumter became a statesman, sat in the United States Senate, was minister to Brazil, and died in 1832 at the great age of ninety-eight years. Next to Sumter must be ranked Andrew Pickens, who also lived many years under the Constitution , and served his state in Congress. These and a few other kindred spirits kept alive the patriot cause in the South after the fall of Charleston, until a new army could be organized. The summer had not passed before the clouds began to break away. Washington had sent De Kalb, who was hastening southward with over fifteen hundred veterans; the call for militia from Maryland , Virginia , and North Carolina met with a considerable response; and a commander to succeed Lincoln was to be sent from the North.

Washington preferred Greene for this responsible duty, but the people called for Gates, "the hero of Saratoga," whom public opinion still clothed with the glamour of a great genius. Gates arrived upon the scene late in July, and again the hopes of the lovers of liberty rose -- to be ruthlessly dashed to the ground once more -- only once more. This final disaster was to occur at Camden, South Carolina, whither Gates hastened by forced marches. Reaching a point near the town, he found Lord Rawdon blocking his way with a force smaller than his own. Gates should have struck an immediate blow, but he hesitated for two days, and by that time Cornwallis with the main army had joined Rawdon. Now occurred an unusual coincidence. On the night of the 15th of August, Gates decided to march through a wood for ten miles and surprise the enemy at daybreak. It happened that Cornwallis, on the same night and at the same hour, began a march over the same route for the purpose of surprising Gates. The two armies met midway and both were equally surprised. They waited till daylight, and then came the battle of Camden.

The American force was largely composed of raw militia, who broke and fled at the first fire, throwing their loaded muskets to the ground. The regulars fought with great bravery, but the odds were against them, and the American army was totally routed. The noble De Kalb, bleeding from eleven wounds, fell into the enemy's hands and died soon afterward. Gates was borne from the field in the mad retreat, and he kept on galloping, and by night he had covered sixty miles. But he did not stop here; three days later he was at Hillsborough, North Carolina, nearly two hundred miles from the scene of the battle. His "northern laurels were changed to southern willows," as the cynical Charles Lee put it. Gates made an effort to recruit an army, but with little success. He saw that his career was over, and he made a piteous appeal to the commander in chief. Washington wrote him a consoling letter, expressing confidence, and even suggesting that he might be able to place Gates in command of one wing of the Continental army. The broken old general cherished this letter to the end of his days.

The writing of this by Washington, in the face of the memory of the Conway Cabal, dislayed a magnanimity with which few of the human race are gifted. A few days after the crushing defeat of the Americans at Camden, another disaster, but of minor importance, was added to it. Sumter, with four hundred men, had captured a British baggage train, but Tarleton overtook him, recaptured the baggage, and made prisoners of three hundred of his men. These were the darkest hours of the Revolution, save only the few weeks preceding the battle of Trenton . But soon the light began to dawn; and never again, from that hour until now, has it been so nearly obscured as in the dark days that followed the battle of Camden. Scarcely had Tarleton won his victory, when Colonel Williams defeated five hundred British and Tories with great slaughter; and a few days later, on the banks of the Santee, Marion, with a handful of men, dashed upon a portion of the British army, captured twenty-six, set one hundred and fifty prisoners free, and darted into the forest without losing a man. 2 This was a beginning; King's Mountain was soon to follow.

Cornwallis sent Major Ferguson, one of his best officers, with twelve hundred men, five sixths of whom were loyalists, to scour the back country, gather recruits, and strike terror into the hearts of the patriots. The news of his raid spread beyond the mountains, and the frontier settlements were soon roused to fury; and, like the farmers at Lexington and Bennington, these hardy backwoodsmen seized their muskets, and hastened to meet the foe. Without orders, without hope of reward, these men, led by such heroes as John Sevier and Isaac Shelby, William Campbell and James Williams, poured like a torrent from the slopes and glens of the mountains, more than a thousand strong. A motley crowd they were, Indian fighters and hunters, farmers and mountain rangers, dressed in their hunting shirts, with sprigs of hemlock in their hats, fearless and patriotic, and every man a dead shot with the rifle. So eager were they for the fray that the few hundred that were needed to guard the settlements had to be drafted for the purpose.

3 Ferguson heard of the coming of the "dirty mongrels," as he called them, and he planted his army on a spur of King's Mountain near the boundary between the Carolinas. The mountaineers, now numbering over thirteen hundred, came upon Ferguson on the afternoon of October 7, hungry and worn with an all-night march. They chose Campbell as their leader, but in truth the battle, like that at Lexington, was fought without a leader. Ferguson had chosen a strong position, but the pioneers were used to mountain climbing. They chose the only plan that could have succeeded: they surrounded the hill and, pressing up the slopes, attacked the British from every side. The latter fought with a courage worthy of a better cause. They fired volley after volley, they rushed upon the foe with the bayonet and pressed them down the hillside. But the Americans instantly re-formed and renewed the attack. At one moment the false cry ran along the American line that Tarleton was in the rear, and about to attack them.

It created a panic and several hundred started to run, when John Sevier, whose "eyes were flames of fire, and his words electric bolts," rode among the fleeing men, and, with the magnetic power of a Sheridan, turned them back to duty and to victory. Three times the assaulting columns surged up the hill only to be driven back at the point of the bayonet. But they always came again, and at length the British were exhausted; they huddled together on the hill, their ranks melting before the sharpshooters' bullets like snow beneath a summer's sun, Ferguson was a man of desperate valor. He refused to surrender. A white flag, raised by one of his men, he struck down with his sword. Then with foolhardy daring he made a dash through the encircling columns for liberty. Five sharpshooters leveled their pieces, and the British officer fell with five mortal wounds in his body. The remnant of the force surrendered; 456 4 of their number lay dead upon the field, to say nothing of the wounded, while but 28 of the Americans were slain.

The battle over, the men who had won it, taking their prisoners with them, hied away again to their crude civilization beyond the Alleghanies, disappearing as suddenly and noiselessly as they came. This was their only service in the war, but it was a noble service. At King's Mountain they turned the tide of the war, and insured the ultimate independence of America. During the following months Marion and Sumter were extremely energetic in their peculiar mode of warfare, and the latter gained a victory over Tarleton. But this was not all; Daniel Morgan came down from the North, -- Morgan, whose romantic career we have noticed, -- and at his hands the scourge of the South, Tarleton, was to suffer the most crushing defeat of his life. General Nathanael Greene was appointed to succeed Gates at the South. He arrived in December, 1780, and with the aid of Thomas Jefferson, Governor of Virginia, raised some two thousand men from that state, and these, with fifteen hundred whom Gates had collected after Camden, gave him a respectable army. Greene's first important move was to send the free lance, Daniel Morgan, to raid the back country.

Morgan, with nine hundred men, was soon confronted by eleven hundred under Tarleton. The two met at the Cowpens, not far from King's Mountain. Morgan's tactics were perfect; the battle was furious, and Tarleton's army was almost annihilated, he and a few followers alone escaping through the swamps on horseback. Greene had the services of some of the best men of the Continental army -- Steuben, whom he left in Virginia to watch the traitor Arnold , Kosciusko, and the brilliant cavalry leaders, Henry Lee and William Washington , the latter a distant relative of the commander in chief. Cornwallis was greatly weakened by the defeat at the Cowpens, and he determined to strike Greene as soon as possible and revive the waning spirits of the regulars and loyalists. Perceiving this, Greene decided to lure the British general as far as possible from his base of supplies, and then to give him battle. He began an apparent retreat northward. Cornwallis fell into the trap, destroyed his heavy baggage, and followed. The chase continued for two hundred miles.

At Guilford Courthouse, but thirty miles from the Virginia border, Greene, having joined Morgan's forces with his own, wheeled about, and, after some days of sparring for position, offered battle. 5 Greene placed his raw militia in front with orders to fire two or three volleys before giving way, after which the brunt of the battle was to be borne by the regulars. This plan had been adopted by Morgan at the Cowpens with great success, and Greene found it highly useful. At one time during the battle the Americans were on the point of being routed when they were saved by a cavalry charge of Colonel Washington. After the battle had continued for some hours the British planted their columns on a hill, from which they fought with great valor and could not be dislodged, and at nightfall they were left in possession of the field. From this cause the battle of Guilford has been considered a British victory. But the real victory lay with Greene. He had lured his enemy far from his base of supplies, and had destroyed one fourth of his army, six hundred men, himself losing but four hundred.

Cornwallis saw that he was entrapped, refused Greene's challenge for a second battle, and marched in all haste to the seacoast, leaving his wounded behind. By the flight of Cornwallis North Carolina was left in the hands of the Americans, and South Carolina was soon to share the same good fortune; for Greene, instead of pursuing the enemy toward Wilmington, turned to the latter state, and in three months he and his subordinates had driven the enemy from every stronghold -- Camden, Augusta, Forte Motte, Orangeburg, Ninety-six -- all except Charleston 6 and all the energy that the British had expended in two and a half years to possess those states came to naught. Footnotes 1 One regiment, not present at the surrender, was soon afterward captured by Colonel Banastre Tarleton. [return] 2 Gilmore's "Rearguard of the Revolution," p. 210. [return] 4 Sloane gives this number. [return] 5 Greene's flight was prompted also by the fact that he did not feel able, without re�nforcements, to fight Cornwallis. He offered battle only after making a detour into Virginia and gathering several hundred recruits.

[return] 6 Colonel Stewart, however, who succeeded Lord Rawdon, remained in South Carolina till September 8, when occurred the battle of Eutaw Springs. This has been pronounced a British victory; but, strange to say, the victors fled and were pursued for thirty miles by the vanquished. Source: " History of the United States of America ," by Henry William Elson, The MacMillan Company, New York, 1904. Chapter XIV p. 301-308. Transcribed by Kathy Leigh. Revolutionary War: Southern Phase, 1778-1781 - American Memory Timeline- Classroom Presentation | Teacher Resources - Library of Congress Map Collections: 1500-2003 The Continental victory at Saratoga in 1777 and the Treaty with the French in 1778 transformed the war, especially for the British. Increased French aid to the Continentals was very slow in coming; coordinated military activity between the two new allies was even slower to happen. Meanwhile, the British were immediately faced with a global conflict with France. As a result, the British changed their strategy yet again in 1778.

Rather than mounting a full-scale military campaign against the Continental Army, the British decided to focus their efforts on the loyalists, who they still believed were the majority of the American population. Believing the loyalists were strongest in the South and hoping to enlist the slaves in their cause--an objective that seems incompatible with a focus on Southern loyalists--the British turned their efforts to the South. In fact, the British had some important military successes in the South. They occupied Savannah, Georgia, in late 1778 and Charleston, South Carolina, in May 1779. They also struck a disastrous blow on General Horatio Gates' forces at Camden, South Carolina, in August 1780. Although the British were successful in most conventional battles, the fighting in the South, under the leadership of Generals Nathanael Greene and Daniel Morgan, turned toward guerrilla and hit-and-run warfare. Moreover, the British had overestimated loyalist sentiment in the South; their presence actually forced many, who had been sitting out the war, to take sides, most in favor of the Patriots.

At the same time, the British underestimated the logistical problems they would encounter, especially when their army was in the interior away from the supplies offered by their fleet. Patriot forces, on the other hand, were supplied and could hide among the local population. As a result, the British southern strategy was a dismal failure. For additional documents related to these topics, search American Memory using such key words as Henry Clinton, Charles Cornwallis, Nathanael Greene, Daniel Morgan, such battles as Camden, Cowpens, Guilford Courthouse, and individual southern states and cities. Search Washington's Papers and the Journals of the Continental Congress by date (of specific battles, for example), and use the terms found in the documents to the right of the page.

Charleston The British Siege & Occupation of Charleston, 1780-1782 From June 4 to January 21, 2004 The Charleston Museum presents a special exhibition entitled "Redcoats, Hessians and Tories: The British Siege and Occupation of Charleston, 1780-1782" Carl Borick, the assistant director and curator for this exhibition, is author of the recently-published "A Gallant Defense: The British Siege of Charleston, 1780" (University of South Carolina Press, 2003). The result of 4 years' preparation, this exhibition assembles for the first time, from repositories in the United Kingdom and the United States, objects which were utilized here by British forces during the Revolution. These range from logbooks of British warships (including that of the flagship, "Roebuck") to the original Articles of Capitulation, via which Americans surrendered the city, to the Ferguson Rifle. The last, belonging to Major Patrick Ferguson (who served here and died at King's Mountain), is the very first breech-loading rifle, designed by Ferguson and demonstrated before King George III.

"Redcoats" is accompanied by various educational programs including a 4-part lecture series, whose participants are: Mr. Mark Murray-Flutter (Senior Curator of Arms, The Royal Armouries Museum, Leeds, England), June 3, 2003; Dr. Donald Higginbotham (Professor of History, University of North Carolina), September 8; Dr. Ira Gruber (Professor of History, Rice University), October 13; and Dr. Clive Wilkinson (Research Officer, CLIWOC Project, University of Sunderland/National Maritime Museum, England), November 17. Charleston, SC: As part of a series of original and exclusive Charleston Museum exhibitions presented in association with museums outside the United States, The Charleston Museum will present Redcoats, Hessians and Tories: The British Siege & Occupation of Charleston, 1780-1782. The exhibit, focusing on one of the great sieges of the Revolutionary War and the ensuing occupation of one of the era's most important cities, will run from June 4 through December 14, 2003.

To tell this story, Redcoats, Hessians & Tories will feature a rich array of artifacts and images from museums and archives in England, Scotland, Canada, Germany and the United States. Many of the objects and documents on display were used by British forces in the Charleston area and are returning here for the first time. Carl Borick, exhibit curator and Museum Assistant Director, enumerates some of the artifact highlights from Redcoats, Hessians & Tories: "Visitors will see rare maps of British generals and the original articles of capitulation for the surrender of Charleston, 'Brown Bess' muskets from the Royal Armouries Museum in England, and logbooks of Royal Navy warships which participated in the siege." Also of special interest will be camp equipment and a drum employed by Loyalist forces, accoutrements and tools from archaeological excavations of British encampment sites throughout South Carolina, and the original breech-loading rifle, invented and owned by Major Patrick Ferguson who served in Charleston and throughout the state. Visitors will be introduced to the British, Hessian, and Loyalist soldiers who made up the King's army, and they will learn what eighteenth century life was like for both combatants and noncombatants.

"They will also see how Charlestonians adapted to occupation by a 'foreign' power," says Borick. "Appearances in this province are certainly very favourable," wrote Lord Charles Earl Cornwallis to his commander, Lieutenant General Sir Henry Clinton, on June 2, 1780. Just three weeks earlier, the British army had forced the surrender of Charleston after a siege of six weeks. The victory was the largest of the war for the British in America. Cornwallis, poised to begin operations in the South Carolina backcountry, was optimistic about subjugating the remainder of the rebellious colony. Clinton anticipated that the capture of Charleston would result in the defeat of both Carolinas. Their success here, however, set in motion a chain of events that eventually led them to Yorktown and total defeat in America. Departing Charleston in December 1782 after an occupation of nineteen months, the British left not as conquerors, but as a vanquished army. Redcoats, Hessians and Tories seeks to explore this exciting chapter in South Carolina and Charleston history. The Charleston Museum will offer a wide variety of programs to accompany Redcoats, Hessians & Tories.

The Redcoats Lecture Series will feature top American and British military historians, including Mr. Mark Murray-Flutter (June 3, 2003), Dr. Don Higginbotham (September 8, 2003), Dr. Ira Gruber (October 13, 2003), and Dr. Clive Wilkinson (November 17, 2003). Carl Borick will lead a South Carolina Revolutionary Battlefield Trip on the weekend of November 7-9, 2003. Children from elementary to high school will enjoy many programs during the exhibit ranging from a Life During the Revolutionary War class to learning about pivotal characters in Charleston's history, as well as the opportunity to see a play based on the exhibit (co-produced with the College of Charleston). Families will also be invited to the play, and in addition to Second Saturdays and American Girl Doll parties with colonial themes, they will have many after school programs to choose from based on life in the late 1700s. The Charleston Museum, founded in 1773, is America's first museum. It is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

Holding the most extensive collection of South Carolina cultural and scientific collections in the nation, it also owns two National Historic Landmark houses, the Heyward-Washington House (1772) and the Joseph Manigault House (1803), as well as the Dill Sanctuary, a 580-acre wildlife preserve. Museum hours are Monday-Saturday 9 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Sunday 1-5 p.m. Museum admission is $9 for adults and $4 for children. Digital images available upon request. Full press kit available upon request. All press releases are available online in the "Press Room" at AMERICANREVOLUTION.ORG — Your Gateway to the American Revolution Copyright © 2014 - 2016 by The JDN Group, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Question: Who was the British general who took Charleston, South Carolina, 1779 during the American War of Independence?
Answer: Sir Henry Clinton