d threw himself into Charleston. It was a timely
reinforcement, and joyfully welcomed; for the garrison, when in
greatest force, amounted to little more than two thousand regulars and
one thousand North Carolina militia.

About the same time Admiral Arbuthnot, in the Roebuck, passed
Sullivan's Island, with a fresh southerly breeze, at the head of a
squadron of seven armed vessels and two transports. Colonel Pinckney
opened a heavy cannonade from the batteries of Fort Moultrie. The
ships thundered in reply, and clouds of smoke were raised, under the
cover of which they slipped by, with no greater loss than twenty-seven
men killed and wounded. A store-ship which followed the squadron ran
aground, was set on fire and abandoned, and subsequently blew up. The
ships took a position near Fort Johnston, just without the range of
the shot from the American batteries. After the passage of the ships,
Colonel Pinckney and a part of the garrison withdrew from Fort
Moultrie.

The enemy had by this time completed his first parallel, and the town
being almost entirely invested by sea and land, received a joint
summons from the British general and admiral to surrender. "Sixty days
have passed," writes Lincoln in reply, "since it has been known that
your intentions against this town were hostile, in which, time has
been afforded to abandon it, but duty and inclination point to the
propriety of supporting it to the last extremity."

The British batteries were now opened. The siege was carried on
deliberately by regular parallels, and on a scale of magnitude
scarcely warranted by the moderate strength of the place. A great
object with the besieged was to keep open the channel of communication
with the country by the Cooper River, the last that remained by which
they could receive reinforcements and supplies, or could retreat if
necessary. For this purpose, Governor Rutledge, leaving the town in
the care of Lieutenant-governor Gadsden, and one half of the executive
council, set off with the other half, and endeavored to rouse the
militia between the Cooper and Santee Rivers. His success was
extremely limited. Two militia posts were established by him; one
between these rivers, the other at a ferry on the Santee; some regular
troops, also, had been detached by Lincoln to throw up works about
nine miles above the town, on the Wando, a branch of Cooper River, and
at Lempriere's Point; and Brigadier-general Huger,{1} with a force of
militia