SOUTH CAROLINA FLAG.
SULLIVAN’S ISLAND, AND THE BRITISH FLEET AT THE TIME OF THE ATTACK.
The Continental Congress knew that a combined naval and land attack would be made on Charleston; and in April Brigadier-general Armstrong was sent there to take command, but was superseded, on the fourth of June, by Major-general Charles Lee, who had been sent by Washington. He worked hard for the defence of the city, and was supported with ardor and enthusiasm by the people. Troops flocked in until there were between five and six thousand men in arms, including the Northern troops that had come with Armstrong and Lee. They were disposed at Fort Johnson, on James’s Island, under Gadsden; a battery on Sullivan’s Island, under Thomson; in the fort on the same island, under Moultrie; and at Haddrell’s Point, under Lee.
The British arrived on the fourth of June, but it was not until the twenty-eighth that they were ready to attack. During the interval they had constructed batteries on Long Island, to silence that of Thomson on Sullivan’s Island and cover the landing of the storming-party of Clinton’s troops.
On the morning of the twenty-eighth of June the attack began. The incidents are faithfully given in the ballad, and to that the reader is referred.
SULLIVAN’S ISLAND.
Stout Sir Henry Clinton spoke—
“It is time the power awoke
That upholds in these dominions