In ship and prison

by William P. Chipman

“I will speak to Commodore Whipple about the matter, then, and you will receive your orders direct from him,” and he dismissed us.

Within an hour, however, the official assignment reached us, and, since the undertaking brooked no delay, we set about our preparations at once. When night came we were ready. At ten o’clock eight boats, carrying four score men, one-half of them armed with swords and guns, the others bearing spades and bars and mattocks, swung clear of the frigates, and pulled across the harbor. Landing a few rods above the fort, our working force was left on the shore, while the others advanced upon the unsuspecting garrison.

We reached its rear without challenge, and with a rush entered. Out from the barracks came a dozen half-clad and unarmed men, followed in a few minutes by a dozen more who had delayed to dress and arm themselves. But at the sight of our overwhelming numbers they quickly surrendered. The surprise had been complete.

It now fell to my lot to take a dozen men from our armed squad, and proceed a half mile up the island, and form a picket line against any possible surprise; while Lieutenant Haines brought up our working gang and began the demolition.

The parapets were thrown down, the stones tumbled into the sea, the timbers drawn over to the barracks for a general conflagration, the dirt levelled. It was a long task, and a hard one, and the morning hours were drawing near when the huge pile of combustibles was ready for the flames. Then my men and I were recalled; the fire was kindled; and we hastened to our boats.

We were not fifty fathoms from the shore when a body of horsemen came tearing down to the burning ruins. Fearful, perhaps, that we might have placed cans of powder in the pile, they did not attempt to stay the flames. Instead they rode on down to the shore, where they fired their pistols and sent after us their shouts of derision.

Baffled in their attempt to make use of the fort, the British now began more vigorous efforts to hem us in. The land forces endeavored to cross the Ashley River to the Neck.

This was no easy task, for General Lincoln had by no means been idle. From the Ashley to the Cooper River he had thrown up a line of redoubts, with a deep ditch in front; and every vulnerable point on the shores and around the town was fortified with cannon and detachments of soldiers. He stubbornly contested, therefore, every advance of the enemy, and though they outnumbered his own troops nearly three to one, it took them a month to obtain a footing on the north bank of the river. But at last it was accomplished, and, to our chagrin, they completed a parallel line of batteries within eleven hundred yards of our own.

Had our ships been free to aid our land forces, I then thought, and even now I believe the history of the siege would have been differently written. But while Sir Henry Clinton was conducting his troops across the river, the British admiral moved up the bay with the design of attacking us from the water side.

A question arose on our part as to the best place to station our own ships for this attack. Some of our officers favored our changing to Five Fathom Hole, while others believed the better position was between the islands. The matter was settled by sending Captains Tucker and Rathbone to get the soundings from the bar to the hole. I was in charge of one of our boats, and helped to frame the report which the captains handed to Commodore Whipple. It was substantially as follows: