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Charleston map showing the distribution of British forces during the siege Siege of Charleston map 1780 A sketch of the operations before Charlestown, the capital of South Carolina 1780 Siege. Cutting the city off from relief, Clinton began a siege on 1 April, 800 yards from the American fortifications located at today's Marion Square.
At the end of 1779, Clinton and Cornwallis transported a large force south and initiated the second siege of Charleston during the spring of 1780, which resulted in the surrender of the Continental forces under Benjamin Lincoln. [42] Cornwallis and Clinton at first worked closely together during the siege, but their relationship deteriorated. [43]
Major operations in the South during 1780. Clinton moved against Charleston in 1780, blockading the harbor in March and building up about 10,000 troops in the area. His advance on the city was uncontested; the American naval commander, Commodore Abraham Whipple, scuttled five of his eight frigates in the harbor to make a boom for its defense. [29]
In May 1780, an army of 11,000 men under the command of Henry Clinton and Charles Cornwallis captured Charleston along with 5,000 of the Continental army. Shortly afterwards Clinton returned to New York leaving Cornwallis with a force of less than 4,000 men and instructions to secure control of the southern colonies.
Clinton began to assemble a force an expedition to take Charleston, withdrawing the forces from Newport for the purpose. Clinton took personal command of this campaign, and the task force with 14,000 men sailed south from New York at the end of the year. By early 1780, Clinton had brought Charleston under siege. In May, working together with ...
The surrender of Lord Cornwallis. The British retreat in disarray set off a flurry of panic among the Loyalist population. [115] The news of the defeat was also not received well in London. King George III wrote (well before learning of Cornwallis's surrender) that "after the knowledge of the defeat of our fleet [...] I nearly think the empire ...
Lincoln was forced to surrender Charleston and more than 5,000 Continental Army troops on May 12. It was the worst American loss of the war. It was the worst American loss of the war. The United States Army did not suffer a loss of similar size until the Battle of Harper's Ferry during the American Civil War.
The history of Charleston, South Carolina, is one of the longest and most diverse of any community in the United States, spanning hundreds of years of physical settlement beginning in 1670. Charleston was one of leading cities in the South from the colonial era to the Civil War in the 1860s.