dvisable, that
the governor and three of his council should leave the town; and that
Lieut. Gov. Gadsden and five others should remain. The ships of war, in
the harbour of Charleston, being quite inadequate to oppose the
force which had passed Fort Moultrie, were divested of their guns, to
reinforce the batteries, and were sunk nearly opposite the exchange, to
impede the passage of the enemy up Cooper river. Soon after this, Sir
Henry Clinton, being reinforced by two thousand five hundred men,
under Lord Cornwallis, pushed them over Cooper river, and enclosed the
besieged on the side of St. Thomas' parish and Christ church; and the
town was now completely invested by land and water. About this time, the
American forces in the field having been defeated, as hereafter to be
narrated, and the British having completed their second parallel, an
offer to capitulate was made by Lincoln, to Sir Henry Clinton, and
rejected. The batteries of the besiegers, having now obtained a decided
superiority over those of the besieged, when the third parallel had
opened its cannonade, and the British having crossed the wet ditch
by sap, they opened a fire of rifles within twenty-five yards of the
Americans. The caution of Sir Henry Clinton, in advancing so slowly, had
been extreme, and the unsuspecting security of the Americans was still
great; but Gen. Duportail, a French officer of engineers, having arrived
in town before the communication was closed with the country, declared,
that the works of the besieged were not tenable, and might have been
stormed ten days before. This disclosed his true situation, and induced
Gen. Lincoln to listen to a capitulation, which was proposed to him on
the 8th of May. From that until the 10th, the negociation was continued.
On the 11th, the capitulation was agreed to, and, on the next day, the
Americans marched out and grounded their arms. After a siege of a month
and fourteen days, 2500 men submitted to an army of 12,000; and it
was only surprising they held out so long. The continental troops and
sailors were to remain prisoners of war until exchanged; the militia
were permitted to return home as prisoners on parole, which, as long
as they observed it, should secure them from being molested in their
property.

On the morning, when the Americans had paraded to surrender, tears were
seen coursing down the cheeks of Gen. Moultrie.

The loss of the Americans, in the siege, was not great; only five
officer