In this way Lieutenant Coloa brave resistance, was taken

most seasonable supply of arms and ammunition. In this
nel Campbell, with nearly 300 Highlanders, after
by some American privateers.

General Howe remained a considerable time at Halifax, to refresh his troops, exhausted by the fatigues and privations of the blockade; and General Washington marched to New York.

A considerable time elapsed before the armies under General Howe and Washington again confronted each other; but while there was a pause in military operations in the north, events of importance happened in the south. In South Carolina the friends of congress were decidedly most numerous; but the adherents of the British ministry were neither few nor inactive. The supporters of colonial measures, however, had their system far better organized, their communications more regular, their union more complete, and their zeal was more enthusiastic.

The zealous provincialists, wished to force all to join the non-importation associations, and afterward to enrol in the militia. Many refused, and quarrels arose. Camp was pitched against camp; but, after some negotiation, a treaty was entered into by the parties, in which it was agreed that the royalists should remain in a state of neutrality. A temporary calm ensued: but Mr. Robert Cunningham, who had been a principal leader among the royalists, persisted in encouraging opposition to popular measures, and declared that he did not consider himself bound by the treaty which had been entered into. The popular leaders, instead of giving him time to carry his hostile purposes into execution, apprehended and imprisoned him. His brother, Patrick Cunningham, armed his friends in order to release him. In that design they did not succeed; but they seized 1,000 pounds of gunpowder, which was public property, and which was passing through their settlements as a present to the Cherokees; and propagated the most calumnious reports against the provincial leaders, for sending powder to the Indians at a time when the colonists could not procure that important article for their own defence.

Major Williamson marched against Cunningham and his party, but was obliged to retreat before their superior force, and at last found it necessary to take refuge in a stockade fort, where Cunningham besieged him. But after a few days a sort of truce was entered into, and both parties dispersed. At that time internal divisions in the province were extremely dangerous, for a formidable invasion from Britain was daily expected; and a British force in front, with disaffected colonists and unfriendly Indians in the rear, threatened the adherents of congress with ruin.

Lord William Campbell, governor of the province, had uniformly recommended to the royalists to remain quiet till the arrival of a British force. His advice was not followed; and the friends of congress were eager to crush all internal opposition before the arrival of foreign troops. They, therefore, despatched a considerable army into the settlements of the royalists; some of whom fled beyond the mountains or into Florida, and they who remained were completely overawed.

Meanwhile the province formed for itself a temporary constitution of government, established boards and courts for conducting public business, and provided as well as it could against the impending storm from Britain.

Charleston, the capital of South Carolina, stands on a point of land which lies between the rivers Cooper and Ashley, which fall into a bay of the Atlantic; and in the bay there are several islands. The people resolved to fortify the capital of the province; and for that purpose erected a fort on Sullivan's Island, which lies in the boy, about six miles below the town, and near the channel leading to it. The fort was constructed with the wood of the palmetto; a

FIG. 77.-Made to commemorate the evacuation of Boston by the British.

tree peculiar to the southern states, which grows from twenty to forty feet high, without branches, and terminates in a top resembling the head of a cabbage The wood of the tree is remarkably spongy; and a ball entering it makes nc extended fracture, but buries itself in the wood, without injuring the adjacent parts. The fort was mounted with about thirty cannon; 32, 18, and 9 pounders. In the latter part of 1775 and beginning of 1776, great exertions had been made in Britain to send an overwhelming force into America; and on the 2d of June the alarm guns were fired in the vicinity of Charleston, and expresses sent to the militia officers to hasten to the defence of the capital with the forces under their command. The order was promptly obeyed; and some continental regiments from the neighboring states also arrived. The whole was under the direction of General Lee, who had been appointed commander of all the forces in the southern states, and had under him the continental generals, Armstrong and Howe.

The utmost activity prevailed in Charleston. The citizens, abandoning their usual avocations, employed themselves entirely in putting the town in a respectable state of defence. They pulled down the valuable storehouses on the wharfs, barricaded the streets, and constructed lines of defence along the shore. Relinquishing the pursuits of peaceful industry and commercial gain, they engaged in incessant labor, and prepared for bloody conflicts. The troops, amounting to between five and six thousand men, were stationed in the most advantageous positions. The second and third regular regiments of South Carolina, under Colonels Moultrie and Thomson, were posted on Sullivan's Island

FIG. 78.-William Moultrie, Major General U. S. A.

A regiment commanded by Colonel Gadsden was stationed at Fort Johnson, about three miles below Charleston, on the most northerly point of James's Island, and within point blank shot of the channel. The rest of the troops were posted at Haddrel's Point, along the bay near the town, and at such other places as were thought most proper. Amid all this bustle and preparation, lead for bullets, was extremely scarce, and the windows of Charleston were stripped of their weights, in order to procure a small supply of that necessary article.

While the Americans were thus busily employed, the British exerted them

selves with activity. About the middle of February, an armament sailed from he Cove of Cork, under the command of Sir Peter Parker and Earl Cornwalis, to encourage and support the loyalists in the southern provinces.

After a tedious voyage, the greater part of the fleet reached Cape Fear, in North Carolina, on the 3d of May. General Clinton, who had left Boston in December, took the command of the land forces, and issued a proclamation promising pardon to all the inhabitants who laid down their arms; but that proc lamation produced no effect. Early in June, the armament, consisting of between forty and fifty vessels, appeared off Charleston bay, and thirty-six of the transports passed the bar, and anchored about three miles from Sullivan's Island. Some hundreds of the troops landed on Long Island, which lies on the west of Sullivan's Island, and which is separated from it by a narrow channel, often fordable. On the 10th of the month the Bristol, a fifty-gun ship, having taken out her guns, got safely over the bar; and on the 25th, the Experiment, a ship of equal force, arrived, and next day passed in the same way. On the part of the British everything was now ready for action. Sir Henry Clinton had nearly 3,000 men under his command. The naval force, under Sir Peter Parker, consisted of the Bristol and Experiment, of fifty guns each; the Active, Acteon, Solebay, and Syren frigates, of twenty-eight guns each; the Friendship, of twenty-two, and the Sphinx, of twenty guns; the Ranger sloop, and Thunderbomb, of eight guns each.

On the forenoon of the 28th of June, this fleet advanced against the fort on Sullivan's Island, which was defended by Colonel Moultrie, with 344 regular troops, and some militia who volunteered their services on the occasion. The Thunder-bomb began the battle. The Active, Bristol, Experiment, and Solebay, followed boldly to the attack, and a terrible cannonade ensued. The fort returned the fire of the ships slowly, but with deliberate and deadly aim. The contest was carried on during the whole day with unabating fury. All the forces collected at Charleston stood prepared for battle; and both the troops and the numerous spectators beheld the conflict with alternations of hope and fear, which appeared in their countenances and gestures. They knew not how soon the fort might be silenced or passed by, and the attack immediately made upon themselves; but they were resolved to meet the invaders at the water's edge, to dispute every inch of ground, and to prefer death to what they considered to be slavery.

The Sphinx, Acteon, and Syren, were ordered to attack the western extremity of the fort, which was in a very unfinished state; but as they proceeded for that purpose, they got entangled with a shoal, called the Middle Ground. Two of them ran foul of each other: the Acteon stuck fast; the Sphinx and Syren got off, the former with the loss of her bowsprit, the latter with little injury; but that part of the attack completely failed.

It had been concerted, that during the attack by the ships, Sir Henry Clinton, with the troops, should pass the narrow channel which separates Long Island from Sullivan's Island, and assail the fort by land: but this the general found impracticable, for the channel, though commonly fordable, was at that time, by a long prevalence of easterly winds, deeper than usual. The seamen, who found themselves engaged in such a severe conflict, often cast a wistful look toward Long Island, in the hope of seeing Sir Henry Clinton and the troops advancing against the fort; but their hope was disappointed, and the ships and the fort were left to themselves to decide the combat. Although the channel had been fordable, the British troops would have found the passage an arduous enterprise; for Colonel Thomson, with a strong detachment of riflemen, regulars, and mili· tia, was posted on the east end of Sullivan's Island to oppose any attack made in that quarter.