Arbuthnot now demanded an immediate surrender of the town and garrison. Brigadier Woodford had just arrived with seven hundred Virginians, and reported others on their way. The citizens urged Lincoln to maintain a siege, for rumors had come that large numbers were pressing forward from the North to the relief of the city. Thus strengthened by fresh troops *** and public opinion, Lincoln assured the besiegers that he should continue his defense until the last extremity. Forty-eight hours elapsed, when Clinton opened his bat-
* In this passage the British lost twenty-seven seamen killed, and a transport which ran aground and was burned by its crew.
* Woodford had marched five hundred miles within twenty-eight days. On the day of his arrival the terms of enlistment of about seven hundred North Carolinians expired, and they all went home at an hour when they were most needed.
Attack upon Charleston—Surprise of Huger.—Arrival of Cornwallis.—Proposed Surrender rejected.
teries upon the town and fortifications, and a terrible cannonade from both parties was kept up from that time until the twentieth.
When the British were about to open their batteries, Governor Rutledge, leaving the civil power in the hands of his lieutenant Gadsden, went into the country, between the Cooper and Santee Rivers, to arouse the militia and keep a communication open with the town in that direction.
Lincoln sent his cavalry (about three hundred men), with General Isaac Huger in command, to watch the country in the vicinity of the head waters of the Cooper River. Led through the woods by a negro, Tarleton, with his legion cavalry, fell upon Huger at Biggin Bridge, near Monk's Coiner, at dawn on the fourteenth of April, and scattered his troops, who were unsuspicious of danger. Twenty-five Americans were killed; the remainder fled to the swamps. Tarleton secured almost three hundred horses, and then scouring the country between the Cooper and Wando, returned in triumph to the British camp.
Four days after the surprise of Huger,April 18 Cornwallis arrived at Charleston with three thousand troops from New York. Thus strengthened, Clinton enlarged the area of his operations. Detachments were sent into the country, and drove the Americans back. Governor Rutledge was compelled to flee higher up the Santee; Haddrell's Point was taken possession of and fortified; supplies from the surrounding country were cut off, and every avenue for escape seemed closed. Lincoln called a council of war,April 21 and an attempted retreat to the open country was proposed. The inhabitants objected, because they feared the invading army was too exasperated by the obstinate defense already made, to spare them in person and property. With rapine and pillage before them, they implored Lincoln to remain. Terms of capitulation, which allowed the army to withdraw to the interior, and the property of the citizens to be undisturbed, were agreed upon and proposed to Clinton. Clinton would not acquiesce, and the terrible work of siege went on. The Americans made but one sortie, and that did not seriously damage the British or impede their progress, * and on the sixth of May ** the besiegers completed