About one hundred pieces of cannon were mounted at various points around the harbor, and a strong battery was erected at Georgetown. Brigadier-general John Armstrong, of Pennsylvania, arrived in April, and took the general command; and early in June,June 4 Major-general Charles Lee reached Charleston. He had been sent by General Washington, after the expulsion of the British from Boston, to watch the movements of General Sir Henry Clinton, and to command the troops for the defense of the Southern sea-board. Lee's known experience, skill, and bravery gave the people great confidence, and the alarm which had prevailed since the appearance of a British squadron off Dewees Island, five days before, soon subsided. Lee was indefatigable in his preparations for the defense of Charleston, and was generally satisfied with all the arrangements of the local authorities. The garrison at Fort Sullivan worked day and night to complete it, and when the British fleet appeared, about thirty heavy pieces of cannon were mounted upon it. *
The British fleet bearing a land force, and both designed to act against the Southern colonies in the campaign of 1776, was commanded by Admiral Sir Peter Parker (portrayed on the next page). Its approach was providentially discovered in time ** to allow the Carolinians to prepare for defense, and for Washington to dispatch Lee and Armstrong, officers of experience, to aid them. Parker reached the Cape Fear early in May, where he was joined by Sir Henry Clinton, from New York, who assumed the chief command of all the land troops. On the fourth of June, the day when General Lee arrived, the fleet appeared off Charleston bar, and several hundred land troops took possession of Long Island, which lies eastward of Sullivan's Island, and is separated from it only by a narrow creek.
All was now activity among the patriots. The militia of the surrounding country obeyed the summons of Governor Rutledge with great alacrity, and flocked to the town. These, with the regular troops of South Carolina, and those of the Northern colonies who had come with Armstrong and Lee, made an available force of between five and six thousand men. Gadsden commanded the first regiment of South Carolina regulars at Fort Johnson, on James's Island, three miles from Charleston; Colonel Moultrie those at Fort
* General Moultrie says that Lee ordered a bridge of boats to be constructed for a retreat. There were not boats enough, and empty hogsheads, with planks across, were tried, but without success. Lee was very anxious on this point, and felt that in case of attack, the garrison must be sacrificed. "For my part, says Moultrie, "I never was uneasy on not having a retreat, because I never imagined that the enemy could force me to that necessity."
** Early in April, Lord Dunmore sent a boat to Annapolis, with dispatches for Governor Eden, from Lord Dartmouth. James Barron, then cruising in the Chesapeake, captured this boat and conveyed the papers to Williamsburg. Dartmouth's communication revealed the whole plan of operations. It was dated December 23, 1775.
Rutledge's rigorous Measures.—Clinton's Preparations for Attack.—Commencement of the Action.
Sullivan; and Colonel Thomson, the advanced post on the east end of Sullivan's Island. Thomson's troops were chiefly riflemen. There was also a strong force at Haddrell's Point, under the immediate command of General Lee. In the city, governor Rutledge, impelled by the necessities of the hour, and under the belief that an attempt would be made to pass the forts and land the troops in the city, pursued the rigorous course of martial law.
