The Charleston expedition of 1776 was a misconceived disaster for the British in the South during the early phases of the Revolutionary War (1775-83). Encouraged by several royal governors from southern colonies, the British government ordered General Henry Clinton to rendezvous with a force from Ireland under the command of Lord Cornwallis and a fleet under Sir Peter Parker off Cape Fear, North Carolina. Clinton was to then join with the Loyalists in the region and secure the southern colonies. The orders were vague, contradictory, and well beyond the abilities of the approximately 3,000 soldiers given to Clinton. By the time he made his way south--he was ordered to make haste and to stop in several ports along the way--Loyalist forces suffered several defeats, including the devastating rout at the Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge (February 27, 1776). Moreover, Parker and Cornwallis were delayed in leaving Ireland and had a long and difficult crossing of the Atlantic Ocean. Clinton left Boston on January 10, 1776, and it was not until mid-April that the Irish troops began arriving. The entire British force was not together until the end of May. Recognizing the difficulties he confronted, Clinton wanted to move on the Chesapeake, but Parker persuaded him to attack Charleston instead.

In the meantime, the Revolutionary forces had beenbusy preparing defenses around Charleston, especially on Sullivan Island, guarding the entrance to the harbor. In early June, however, the fortifications were not complete, and General Charles Lee, whom the Second Continental Congress had sent to take command of the Continental army in the South, thought that the position was vulnerable, and if it were overrun the defenders would have no avenue of retreat. Colonel William Moultrie determined otherwise and believed that the British would not be able to dislodge him.

Once Clinton arrived off Charleston in June, British ill luck and a series of blunders saved Moultrie from the fate Lee had predicted. Clinton landed his army on Long Island, just north of Sullivan's Island, only to discover that the channel between the two was pockmarked with deep holes in the seafloor, making crossing difficult; the passage was too deep to ford in some places and too shallow to cross in boats in others. Clinton might have still launched an attack had Lee not redeployed the troops opposing the British into a stronger defensive position. When the battle began, Clinton would be unable to get his troops across the channel in the face of enemy fire.

On June 28 Parker began a naval bombardment on Moultrie and sent three vessels up the channel past the fortifications, but all three missed the deepwater channel and ran aground. Had they managed to get behind the fort, where the defensive works were incomplete, they could have pulverized Moultrie. Instead, Parker had to engage the strongest point in the revolutionary defenses. He still might have succeeded had he brought his ships closer to the island and fired at point-blank range, but instead he kept his ships more distant, and his fleet got the worst of the engagement. By nightfall, two of the three grounded ships managed to free themselves and get back to sea--the third had to be burned--and the entire fleet had to pull back out of range of Moultrie's guns. About a dozen defenders and just under 100 British were killed in the fighting. Over the next couple of weeks Clinton withdrew from Long Island and then sailed to join General William Howe in his attack on New York.

Bibliography:

David K. Wilson, The Southern Strategy: Britain's Conquest of South Carolina and Georgia, 1775-1780 (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2005)

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