* At daybreak on the twenty-fourth of April, a party under Lieutenant-colonel Henderson made a sortie, surprised a British picket, and with the bayonet killed about twenty of them. Twelve were made prisoners. Captain Moultrie, a brother of the general, was killed, and two other Americans were wounded.
** This day was marked by disasters to the Americans. On that morning, Colonel Anthony Walton White, of New Jersey, with the collected remnant of Huger's cavalry, had crossed the Santee and captured a small party of British. While waiting at Lanneau's Ferry for boats to recross the river with his prisoners, a Tory informed Cornwallis of his situation. Tarleton was detached with a party of horse to surprise White, and was successful. A general rout of the Americans ensued. About thirty of them were killed, wounded, or captured, and the prisoners were retaken. Lieutenant-colonel Washington, with Major Jamieson and a few privates, escaped by swimming the Santee. Major Call and seven others fought their way through the British cavalry, and escaped. At noon on the same day, the British flag was seen waving over Fort Moultrie, the little garrison, under Lieutenant-colonel Scott, having been obliged to surrender to Captain Charles Hudson, of the British Navy.
Continuance of the Siege.—Perils in the City
their third parallel, and in the face of a heavy fire raised redoubts nearer and nearer the American lines. *
Now fully prepared to storm the town by sea and land, Clinton and Arbuthnot again demanded a surrender. The situation of the Americans was deplorable. The garrison consisted of less than three thousand men, a large portion of them raw militia; provisions of all kinds were becoming scarce, and the Loyalists in the city were fomenting disaffection among the distressed inhabitants. The engineers asserted that the lines could not be defended ten days longer, and that they might be carried by assault in ten minutes. Bombs and carcasses were falling in every part of the city with destructive effect, killing women and children, and setting houses on fire; and the town militia, in utter despair, had thrown down their arms.
Further resistance seemed foolish and inhuman, for success was hardly possible, and lives and property were hourly sacrificed. The citizens, appalled by the destructive agencies at work around them, worn out by want of sleep and anxiety, and coveting any condition other than the one they were enduring, now expressed their willingness to treat for a surrender. A flag was sent out, and Clinton's ultimatum was received. He demanded the surrender of the garrison and the citizens as prisoners of war, with all the forts and other works, and their appliances, together with the shipping that remained in the harbor. He would promise nothing except that the town property of those within the lines should remain unmolested, and that all prisoners should be paroled. A truce until the next dayMay 9, 1780 was asked by the besieged, and was allowed, when Lincoln again refused compliance with Clinton's demands. At eight o'clock in the evening the firing commenced again. It was a fearful night in Charleston. The thunder of two hundred cannons shook the city like the power of an earthquake, and the moon, then near its full, with the bright stars, were hidden by the lurid smoke. Shells were seen coursing in all directions, some bursting in mid air, others falling upon houses and in the streets, and in five different places the flames of burning buildings simultaneously shot up from the depths of the city. "It appeared," says Moultrie, alluding to the bomb-shells, "as if the stars were tumbling down. The fire was incessant almost the whole night; cannon-balls whizzing and shells hissing continually among us; ammunition chests and temporary magazines blowing up; great guns bursting, and wounded men groaning along the lines; it was a dreadful night!" The cannonade was continued all the next day and part of the night, and many Americans were killed by the passage of balls through the embrasures of their batteries. Sand-bags were freely used for protection, but these were swept away, until at several points the besieged were obliged to abandon their works and withdraw. Arbuthnot now prepared to bombard the town from the water, and the batteries at Fort Johnson and at Wappoo hurled round shot into the streets. **
At two o'clock on the morning of the eleventh,May 1780 Lieutenant-governor Gadsden, the council, and many leading citizens, requested Lincoln to signify his agreement to Clinton's proposed terms of surrender, if better could not be obtained. A signal