army for the defence of the country, that he called a council of war to acertain, through their advice, the course to be pursued. No longer doubting of the fall of the town, the council recommended that an offer of surrender should be made on two conditions: viz, Safety to the persons and property of the inhabitants; and permission to the garrison to continue in arms. The first condition was that which every conqueror ought to grant with pleasure; the second, that which no conqueror can grant, unless situated very differently from the British commander. The proposition was rejected; and the besiegers pressed forward on their way to victory. The admiral prepared a detachment from his fleet under captain Hudson to attack Fort Moultrie, from which colonel Pinkney, and a greater part of the garrison, had been withdrawn soon after the fleet passed the fort. Why a single man should have been left, much as the lines before Charleston required additional force, seems inexplicable, especially after the evacuation of our small posts at Lempriere's Point, and on the Wando.*

The menace against Fort Moultrie produced surrender: the flag of that renowned post was now lowered; and the remnant garrison, about two hundred men, were made prisoners.

* Lord Cornwallis had taken possession of Mount Pleasant, which produced the evacuation of Lempriere's and Wando posts.

It applied as precisely to the withdraw of the garrison from Fort Moultrie; as that post had never been fortified in this quarter, and was, of course, subject to approach without difficulty.

The American cavalry, after the surprise at Monk's Corner, withdrew to the north of the Santee for security, where lieutenant colonel White, of Moylan's regiment, took the command. This officer, discovering that lord Cornwallis extended his foraging parties to the southern banks of the river on which he was encamped, determined to interrupt the collection of his supplies. Prepared to execute this proper decision, upon the first notice of the enemy's approach, he passed the-Santee, struck at the foe, broke up the forage excursion, captured most of the party, with which he retired to Lenew's Ferry upon the Santee, where he had ordered boats to meet him; and at the same time communicating his success to lieutenant colonel Bufort, who commanded a regiment of Virginia levies, stationed near the ferry, on the north side of the river, requiring his aid in the transportation of himself and prisoners to the opposite shore.

How it happened is not ascertained; but it did happen, that Bufort's cooperation, nor the boats ordered by White were felt or seen; and the successful lieutenant colonel, expecting instantly the means of conveyance, incautiously waited on the southern bank of the river instead of moving to some secret and strong position.

Lieutenant colonel Tarleton was on his march to Lenew's Ferry with his cavalry; sent thither by the British general to procure intelligence; falling in with a royalist, he was informed of White's success, and instantly pressed forward to strike him. He came up

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with our cavalry on the banks of the Santee, and repeated the catastrophe of Monk's Corner. The knowledge of the country was a second time beneficial to the fugitives: the swamps saved some, while others swam the river. Between thirty and forty only were killed and taken.

The evacuation of our small posts on Wando and Lempriere's Point, with the surrender of Fort Moultrie, and the second discomfiture of our cavalry, gave to the enemy uncontrolled possession of all the country between the Cooper and Santee Rivers, and extinguished the glimmering hopes that had been still entertained of the practicability of a retreat from the

town.

Soon followed the completion of the third parallel, which placed the garrison at the mercy of the besiegers. Unwilling, from motives of humanity, to increase the hardships of the unfortunate, the British admiral and general a second time demanded surrender.

Lincoln now, from necessity, yielded up his army; but, still anxious to save the militia and inhabitants from captivity, he excepted them in his assenting answer, which exception being declared inadmissible, the negotiation ceased.

Reluctantly sir Henry Clinton renewed the contest by opening the batteries of the third parallel, and pushed his works under their fire to the brink of the canal, which by a sap to the dam was drained. This first barrier was now possessed by the enemy, and a double sap carried thence under the abbatis, within