Siege of Charleston

The Siege of Charleston was the greatest American military disaster of the Revolutionary War — not surpassed until the fall of Corregidor in 1942. Clinton brought 14,000 troops, landed south of Charleston in February 1780, and proceeded to seal the city by land while his fleet moved into the harbor. Washington sent General Benjamin Lincoln to command the defense with 5,500 men. Lincoln knew his position was potentially indefensible — the city was a peninsula with water on three sides and the British surrounding the fourth — but political pressure from South Carolina leaders prevented evacuation.

British operations were brilliantly coordinated. Tarleton's cavalry cut off the last American cavalry at Monck's Corner. The British fleet forced its way past Fort Moultrie — the same fort that had repelled them in 1776. The city was progressively isolated as all escape routes were closed. On April 10, Clinton demanded surrender; Lincoln refused. The British began intensive bombardment. By early May, food, water, and ammunition were running critically low. On May 12, Lincoln surrendered his entire force of 5,466 soldiers and sailors, along with 391 artillery pieces, the entire South Carolina navy, and enormous quantities of military stores.

The fall of Charleston opened the entire South to British occupation. Within months the British controlled most of Georgia and South Carolina. Congress sent a new army south under Horatio Gates — which was promptly destroyed at Camden. The South appeared lost. The recovery, led by Nathanael Greene and the partisan commanders Sumter, Marion, and Pickens, would take more than a year of grinding warfare.