A Gallant Defense: The Siege of Charleston, 1780

Chapter Eleven: The Noose Tightens on Charleston Neck

Chapter Eleven THE NOOSE TIGHTENS ON CHARLESTON NECK In the days after their newly constructed batteries opened upon Charleston , British engineers edged their siege apparatus ever closer to the city. Lincoln and his officers, meanwhile, made what efforts they could to thwart the enemy advance. But with the British taking steps to cut off the garrison east of the Cooper, Lincoln recognized that they might soon completely invest Charleston. The American commander was faced with a series of difficult decisions that would affect not only the fate of his army and the inhabitants of the capital, but the whole of South Carolina. Lincoln was not the only one facing adversity. As the siege continued, the junior officers and enlisted men of the two armies confronted the dangers and drudgeries of siege warfare. They bore the burden of their commanders’ designs. Before they even completed their batteries in the first parallel, British engineers, under Major Moncrief’s direction, pushed an approach trench toward Charleston. After a thorough examination of the ground and marshes before the city and of the American defenses, Moncrief determined that they should burrow forward from the left of the first parallel toward the American right. On the night of 9 April, British working parties constructed a battery 150 yards in front of Number Five, connected with the first parallel by a trench. On the night of 13 April, they then advanced an approach, or sap, from the front of the new battery to within 750 feet of the canal. At this point, they “commenced a Second Parallel at the Head of the Sap.”1 To begin the parallel, the men dug trenches perpendicular to the end of the sap.2 Interestingly, British working parties dug the approach in a relatively straight line from the first parallel to the second parallel rather h 162 / A GALLANT DEFENSE than using the zigzag method recommended by Vauban. The running of a direct approach, which exposed men to enemy fire down the length of the trench, was representative of Moncrief’s contempt for the rebels’ military prowess. When Captain Ewald asked him why he had not constructed a communication trench from the supply depot in the British rear to the first parallel to protect men as they came forward, Moncrief responded that “the rebels do not deserve this.” While Moncrief was contemptuous of their fighting ability, British soldiers who labored in and manned the trenches soon found that there was little reason for such lack of respect for their enemy’s martial skills.3 Noting the threat to their right wing, the Americans took steps to impede the British on that flank. On 15 April, Lieutenant Colonel John Grimké directed artillerymen to move mortars on the left of the American line to the right so that they could harass the British in the approach trench. Grimké was to ensure that the mortars and a howitzer already in place on the right fired throughout the night on the British working parties. Meanwhile, General Moultrie ordered the advanced battery on the American left to fire solid shot en recochet on “the Enemy’s new Works,” meaning that shot would go bounding down the British trench tearing asunder anything in its path. In addition , Moultrie requested that a twelve pounder and three four pounders in the redoubt on the Cooper River pepper the ground between the canal and the second parallel. The Americans also “advanced a Breast Work” in front of this redoubt “for Riflemen, to annoy the Enemy in their Approach.”4 American countermeasures profoundly hindered British progress. Captain Peebles noted on 15 April that American firing forced the working parties to “retire for a while,” and Captain Ewald recorded that American enfilading shots sent cannonballs careening down the entire length of the communication trench. Captain Hinrichs counted nineteen eighteen pound balls from the American left redoubt and thirteen shells from the American right redoubt that fell into the second parallel. According to Hinrichs, “They threw their shells in a masterly manner” and all the men in his section of the trench were “covered with earth.” The American barrage was so intense on the night of 14 April that he believed the rebels were attacking the second parallel. British The Noose Tightens on Charleston Neck / 163 and Hessian soldiers, meanwhile, found it difficult to defend against American fire as their approaches moved closer to Charleston...