s "intendant" and "wardens." The city was the
heart of the nullification movement of 1832-1833; and in St Andrew's
Hall, in Broad Street, on the 20th of December 1860, a convention called
by the state legislature passed an ordinance of secession from the
Union.

Charleston has several times been attacked by naval forces and has
suffered from many storms. Hurricane and epidemic together devastated
the town both in 1699 and in 1854; the older and more thickly settled
part of the town was burnt in 1740, and a hurricane did great damage in
1752. In 1706, during the War of the Spanish Succession, a combined
fleet of Spanish and French under Captain Le Feboure was repulsed by the
forces of Governor Nathaniel Johnson (d. 1713) and Colonel William Rhett
(1666-1721). During the War of Independence Charleston withstood the
attack of Sir Peter Parker and Sir Henry Clinton in 1776, and that of
General Augustus Prevost in 1779, but shortly afterwards became the
objective of a more formidable attack by Sir Henry Clinton, the
commander-in-chief of the British forces in America. In the later years
of the contest the British turned their attention to the reduction of
the colonies in the south, and the prominent point and best base of
operations in that section was the city of Charleston, which was
occupied in the latter part of 1779 by an American force under General
Benjamin Lincoln. In December of that year Sir Henry Clinton embarked
from New York with 8000 British troops and proceeded to invest
Charleston by land. He entrenched himself west of the city between the
Cooper and Ashley rivers, which bound it north and south, and thus
hemmed Lincoln in a _cul-de-sac_. The latter made the mistake of
attempting to defend the city with an inferior force. Delays had
occurred in the British operations and Clinton was not prepared to
summon the Americans to surrender until the 10th of April 1780. Lincoln
refused, and Clinton advanced his trenches to the third parallel,
rendering his enemy's works untenable. On the 12th of May Lincoln
capitulated. About 2000 American Continentals were made prisoners, and
an equal number of militia and armed citizens. This success was regarded
by the British as an offset against the loss of Burgoyne's army in 1777,
and Charleston at once became the base of active operations in the
Carolinas, which Clinton left Cornwallis to conduct. Thenceforward
Charleston was under military rule until evacuated by the British o