The prison-ships at Savannah were crowded with the captives of the Georgia regiments, and the heel of British power, planted firmly upon the patriots of that state, made the Loyalists bold and active. All along the Southern frontier of South Carolina the voice of rebellion was subdued to a whisper, and a fearful cloud of hostile savages, gathered by the emissaries of the crown, frowned sullenly and threatening upon her western borders; while within her bosom, bands of unprincipled Tories, encouraged by others more respectable but passive, were endeavoring, by menaces and promises, to sap the foundation of Republican strength. Such was the condition of South Carolina when a British fleet, under Admiral Arbuthnot, bearing five thousand land troops, commanded by Sir Henry Clinton,1 appeared off Edisto Inlet, within thirty miles of Charleston, toward the close of the winter of 1780.Feb. 10, 1780
They came to subjugate the whole South, the chief feature in the programme of operations for that year.
The Assembly of South Carolina was in session when the enemy appeared. Governor Rutledge was immediately clothed with the powers of supreme dictator, and with judgment
* Henry Clinton, K. B., was a son of George Clinton, governor of New York in 1743, and grandson of the Earl of Lincoln. He served in the British army on the Continent, during the Seven Years' War, and came to America with General Howe in the spring of 1775, bearing the commission of a major general. He was distinguished at the battle of Bunker Hill; commanded in New York, and operated against the forts among the Hudson Highlands in 1777; and in 1778, succeeded Sir William Howe in the supreme command. After he evacuated Philadelphia, he went to New York, where he continued his head-quarters until he left the country, in 1782. He was appointed governor of Gibraltar in 1795, and died there on the twenty-seeond of December, the same year. His signature is printed on page 350.
Tardiness of ihe Militia.—Clinton's Mistake.—Charleston Strengthened.—Spaniards in Florida.
and vigor he exercised them for the defense of the capital. Yet he did not accomplish much, for the militia were tardy in obeying his call to hasten to the city. If Clinton had marched directly upon Charleston when he landed his troops upon John's Island, he might have conquered it within a week after his debarkation. * More cautious than wise, he formed a depot at Wappoo, on James's Island, and tarried more than a month in preparations for a siege.
General Lincoln was in Charleston with about fourteen hundred troops, a large portion of them North Carolina levies, whose term of service was almost expired. The finances of the state were in a wretched condition.
