The assault took place, and failed as much by a lack of coöperation between the columns as by the treachery. This disaster so dispirited the allies that Lincoln crossed the river on the 19th, and when he was safe on the other side the French withdrew to their ships and sailed away,—their last frigate leaving the river on the 2d of November.
VIEW OF CHARLESTOWN, S. C.
Sketched from a marginal view on a chart of The Harbour of Charlestown, from the surveys of Sir Jas. Wallace, Captain in his Majesty's navy and others, published in London by Des Barres, Nov. 1, 1777, and making part of the Atlantic Neptune. Cf. Mag. of Amer. Hist. (1883), p. 830. The Catal. of the king's maps (Brit. Mus.) shows an engraved view of 1739, and other early views are noted in Vol. V., p. 331. There is a view by Leitch, in 1776. In a paper, "Up the Ashley and Cooper", by C. F. Woolson, in Harper's Magazine, lii. p. 1, there is a view of Drayton house, occupied by Cornwallis as headquarters.—Ed.
GENERAL MOULTRIE'S ORDER, March 25, 1780.
From the Commodore Tucker Papers in Harvard College library.—Ed.
The sailing of the French left the coast again exposed, and Clinton, coming from New York, now prepared to attack Charleston. On the 11th of February, 1780, a landing was made on Simmons' Island, just to the north of the North Edisto River. Thence by John's Island, Stono Ferry, Wappoo Cut and River, the Ashley was reached, and a lodgment was effected on the neck of land at the seaward end of which Charleston stands. Clinton advanced with caution. On the 1st of April the first parallel was opened about eight hundred yards from the American works.
From the Tucker Papers in Harvard College library.