CHAPTER XXIX.
HE season of repose enjoyed by Charleston after the invasion of Prevost was brief. When the hot summer months had passed away, both parties commenced preparations for a vigorous autumn campaign—the British to maintain their position and extend their conquests, if possible; the Americans to drive the invaders from the Southern States, or, at least, to confine them to the sea-ports of Savannah and St. Augustine. The fall of Savannah was a disastrous event. It was the initial step in those strides of power which the royal army made a few months later, when Charleston fell, when the patriot army of the South was crushed, and when the civil institutions of South Carolina and Georgia, established by the Republicans, were prostrated at the feet of the conquerors.
During the winter preceding the siege of Charleston, Lincoln's army had dwindled to a handful, chiefly on account of the termination of the enlistments, and the hesitation of the militia when, called to service, because of the defeat at Savannah and the apparent hopelessness of further resistance.
