The last time we looked in on Charleston was in Episode 316. The Continental Army under Nathanael Greene maintained a blockade around Charleston by land, confronting any foraging parties that dared to move outside the city. The British still control the waters and could supply the garrison by sea. In August, Colonel John Laurens had been killed in one of the confrontations led against foraging parties.
Even in the fall of 1782, Greene remained on alert for a new British offensive. The British had consolidated more soldiers in Charleston after evacuating Savannah, Georgia earlier that summer. The British naval victory in the West Indies had removed the French fleet as a threat and gave the British more flexibility in where they might provide reinforcements for a new offensive.
Continued Skirmishing
Skirmishing between the two sides continued into the fall. At the end of August, just days after Laurens’ death, a patriot detachment from General Francis Marion’s battalion under the command of Captain George Sinclair Capers attacked a detachment of loyalist dragoons.
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| British Evacuate Charleston, 1782 |
There also remained the concern of loyalists still living within the American lines. In October, patriots received intelligence regarding a meeting of loyalists at Saltketcher swamp. They sent a militia company commanded by Captain John Carter to break up that meeting. The militia rode into a loyalist ambush. After a brief but fierce skirmish, the loyalists retreated into the swamp.
One of the final skirmishes of any size took place when the British deployed a foraging party to James Island in search of firewood. Colonel Tadeusz Kosciuszko led a force of 70 Continentals to harass the foraging party. When the Continentals arrived, they discovered the foragers were accompanied by a much larger force. They faced over 300 British soldiers, along with an enemy field cannon.
Despite being outnumbered more than four to one, the Americans attacked. In a relatively short exchange of fire, the Americans lost five killed, including Captain William Wilmont of the Maryland line, and five more wounded, including Lieutenant John Markland of the Pennsylvania line. Colonel Kosciuszko found himself in the thick of the fighting. The enemy shot and shattered a spontoon that he was holding. A British dragoon nearly killed Kosciuszko before another American soldier cut down the dragoon. After the battle, Kosciuszko found four bullet holes in his coat. Following this brief encounter, the Americans withdrew.
Evacuation
The continued fighting would not impact the final outcome. Months earlier, the British Commander in North America, General Guy Carleton, had begun preparations for the evacuation of Charleston. Carleton had succeeded General Henry Clinton after the British surrender at Yorktown. His primary mission was to wrap up British operations and leave with as little further harm as possible.
General Carleton was not happy with his mission, and in fact requested to be relieved of command. The fall of the North Government made clear that the British army was not going to carry out any further military operations. The general also had authority to try to negotiate some sort of peace with America if it would agree to some sort of continued relationship with Britain. Since the Americans made clear that was a non-starter, Carleton’s efforts as a peace commissioner came to a quick end.
Carlton wrote to his superiors in London that he did not want “only to be employ’d as a mere Inspector of Embarkations.” He demanded that he be transferred to a combat role in Europe. Prime Minister Shelburne’s Home Secretary Thomas Townshend denied the general’s request and persuaded him that he had a duty to clean up the remaining forces in America.
The process of removing tens of thousands of soldiers from the North American continent, along with tens of thousands of loyalist civilians and their property was no easy task in the age of sail, especially when the enemy was still ready to fight.
By November, when the battle of James Island took place under Colonel Kosciuszko, British transport ships were already in Charleston Harbor, preparing for evacuation. The British commander in Charleston, General Alexander Leslie, had already tried to establish a temporary truce with the Americans, only to be denied. With the British evacuation imminent, the British attempted to establish a few agreements.
One such agreement was on behalf of the British merchants in Charleston. They obtained permission from General Leslie, and from South Carolina Governor John Mathews, to remain in the city for 18 months after evacuation in order to dispose of their goods and to collect debts owed to them.
Another concern for the Americans was the removal of about 5000 slaves that were under British possession in Charleston. Many of these had either run away or been captured by British or loyalist soldiers. The Americans demanded the return of these people, and other captured property looted by the British. General Leslie agreed in general that he would try to prevent the removal of any looted property, including slaves.
The Americans, however, continued to push the British. During the first couple of weeks of December, the British began loading men and supplies onto the various ships they had available.
On the night of December 12, and into the morning of December 13, General Anthony Wayne led a division of soldiers toward Charleston. He led 300 light infantry, along with 80 cavalry from the corps previously led by Colonel Light Horse Harry Lee and Colonel John Laurens. He also had two 6 pounder field cannons.
Wayne crossed the river north of town at Ashley Ferry, marching south toward the British fortifications. General Greene had ordered him to do whatever he could to harass the enemy as they prepared to evacuate.
Before Wayne’s force reached the British lines, General Leslie sent a note, carried by a local civilian. Leslie told Wayne that if the Americans allowed the British to evacuate without further harassment, the British would not destroy Charleston, and would not fire on the American troops once the British were aboard their ships in the harbor. If, however, the Americans did attack, Leslie said he would not be held accountable for the consequences.
Wayne acceded to this and pulled back to have his men make camp until the following day. The British agreed to fire a signal cannon on the morning of December 14, when they had evacuated and when the Americans could advance to take possession of the town.
That same day, General Greene moved the bulk of his army across Ashley Ferry, toward Charleston as well. Greene received word of the deal and camped his army a few miles behind Wayne’s encampment. With Greene were Governor Mathews and General Moultrie. Part of the army had already crossed the river while a portion of them remained on the other side of the river overnight.
The following morning, the British fired their signal cannon and Wayne began to march his troops south toward Charleston. At about 11:00 AM, Wayne reached the British outer fortifications, about a mile and a half north of the southernmost tip of the Charleston peninsula. The lead troops saw a few Hessian Jägers still guarding the main gate into town, and who began to fall back at the sight of the enemy. The Americans approached to speak with them, learning that General Leslie had ordered all civilians to remain in their homes in order to minimize interference with the final evacuation and to avoid any misunderstandings that might cause a firefight.
British gunships remained on alert in the Ashley and Cooper Rivers, on both sides of the city, ready to open fire if the Americans tried to attack any of the final soldiers evacuating Charleston. As the British withdrew south toward the docks, Wayne advanced. On a few occasions, the British called out that Wayne was getting a little too close. He would halt his men and allow the British a little more space, trying to leave about 200 yards between the two sides..
Wayne’s men observed the final British soldiers withdraw south of the city gates, and march to Gadsden’s Wharf on the Cooper River for final boarding. Wayne then deployed his men in smaller detachments around town to reconnoiter and make sure everything was clear.
As Wayne’s soldiers spread out through Charleston, General Greene, along with Generals Gist and Moultrie, and Governor Mathews, along with the privy council and leading citizens, began marching toward the city from a point about nine miles to the north. At around 3:00 PM the group, which included about 50 VIP accompanied by 80 cavalry, entered Charleston.
Some went to survey the town. Others met up with friends who had remained in Charleston during the occupation. Just offshore were over 130 enemy ships preparing to depart to open sea.
Liberation
For many civilians the departure of the British was a welcome event for celebration. For many loyalists left behind, it was only the beginning of a nightmare. Despite the time and ships, many loyalist civilians had to be left behind. Over 5000 soldiers, including loyalist militia, nearly 4000 white civilians and over 5000 slaves had been evacuated. General Leslie had ignored his promise not to prevent the removal of captured slaves.
Even so, many loyalists decided to remain in Charleston. For many, the thought of leaving their homes, to be settled on some island in the West Indies, where most new inhabitants died of disease within a few months, or moving to frigid Canada, was too much to bear. They chose to take their chances under the new patriot government.
A British officer wrote his own description of the the evacuation of civilians, which I will read:
The inhabitants and merchants who thought proper to remain in town were directed to keep within their houses; all stores and warehouses were shut up. The streets formerly crouded and chearful to the view, now presented one mournful scene of the most complicated wretchedness. The poor, unhappy loyalists whom the British government, not many months before, had most solemnly pledged its faith to protect in their persons and properties, were now to be left victims to their merciless enemies, or to be sent on board vessels for the West Indies, to encounter, with their distressed families, every misfortune, and to suffer every species of indigence and want in a strange land. Many, indeed, remained in the town, preferring the risk of immediate death to the cruel uncertainty of adhering any longer to a government, whose perfidy and treachery stands unparalleled in the annals of history.
But by far the greater number, whose activity in the cause of their King and the British constitution, left no hopes for mercy, embarked. As these past the windows of their friends and acquaintances, in their way to the places of embarkation, they silently, with grief unutterable, bowed their last farewell. This melancholy salute was returned with feelings that could only be expressed by tears and sobs. A gloomy despair sat on every countenance, and all was wretchedness and woe. The scene was too affecting for description, too great for human feelings.
Even the most obdurate and unprincipled of your patriots, had he been present at this awful view, must have felt some remorse for the part he has acted, and lamented the falsities he has palmed on parliament as facts, and which have brought the most complicated ruin and misery on thousands and thousands, whose only crime has been loyalty to the King, and affection for their Parent Country.
Throughout the whole of this transaction, tho' the most melancholy one I ever beheld, it must be observed to the honour of the officer who commanded, that the whole has been conducted with the utmost attention and humanity, as far as it rested with him. Certain places were appointed for embarkation. Centinels were fixed to prevent plunder being taken off by the soldiers and seamen. The vessels were all searched and whatever plunder was found, was returned to the inhabitants of the town from whom it was taken."
According to other accounts, the Americans treated the local with civility. The British who remained in port for several more days noted that the Americans were polite enough not to raise their flag over the city, and even returned to the fleet a few sailors who had missed the final evacuations.
At least one loyalist account painted a very different picture of the turnover of the city. Some said that the Americans hanged as many as 24 loyalists before the British ships sailed away. They also say that at least 130 loyalists who remained in Charleston were rounded up and imprisoned. One account reports loyalists being whipped, tarred and feathered, dragged by horses, dunked in ponds, etc. These accounts, however, were hotly disputed. They seem to go against the majority of the accounts written. Most witness accounts on both sides report that the turnover was well organized and civil. These accusations of ill-treatment seem to come from people who were not eyewitnesses themselves.
Another account noted that four loyalists had been killed some time after the evacuation. These were what we would call today revenge killings by men who had grudges with the individuals involved. In all four cases, the murderers were prosecuted as criminals.
Return to Peace
By the following Monday, Greene declared the city open for business and restored to civilian rule. When Greene wrote to Washington a few days later, he reported: “The people are once more free, and I hope will manifest their gratitude by a vigorous exertion in support of the common cause.”
A month later, the South Carolina legislature resumed its session in Charleston, opening on January 24, 1783. Governor Mathews, in his remarks at the opening of the session, noted his agreement to allow certain merchants to remain in Charleston for 18 months, and that they would be protected from any retributions. For other loyalists, who remained in Charleston without permission, he declared:
After my entrance into this town, I found a number of persons here, who had formerly been citizens of this State, but who had continued to reside under the British Government in Charlestown, until its Dissolution; whose cases it was thought advisea[ble] We by the Privy Council, to refer to the General Assembly. It is therefore left with you to decide on their future Destiny.
There are also in this town, a number of persons, who are British Subjects, and who remained here after the evacuation without any condition on the part of this State. I have considered most of them as prisoners to the State, and have parolled them accordingly, untill the meeting of the Legislature. It now remains with you to determine on their several cases.
For the most part, it seems that South Carolina was finally ready to put the war behind it and return to peaceful civilian rule. Many of those who left with the British fleet, however, were permanently banned from returning. British records show that the majority of civilians who left went to Jamaica or East Florida. Only about 10% of the total went to England, Halifax, or New York.
The slaves that departed mostly remained enslaved by loyalist or British masters. Some of them were sold to plantations in other parts of the West Indies. A small portion of the slaves who had escaped patriot masters and provided service to the British army remained free and were resettled along with other loyalist evacuees.
Charleston did not learn about the preliminary peace treaty until April of 1783. Until then Governor Mathews focused, in part, on rebuilding Charleston’s defenses in anticipation of another possible attack. After word of the treaty arrived, most of those plans were shelved.
General Moultrie, writing an account many years later, described the evacuation as a glorious event:
I cannot forget that happy day when we marched into Charlestown with the American troops: it was a proud day to me, and I felt myself much elated, at seeing the balconies, the doors and windows crowded with the patriotic fair, and aged citizens and others, congratulating us on our return home, saying, 'God bless you, gentlemen! you are welcome home, gentlemen!' Both citizens and soldiers shed mutual tears of joy.
It was an ample reward for the triumphant soldier, after all the hazards and fatigues of war, which he had gone through, to be the instrument of releasing his friends and fellow citizens from captivity, and restoring to them their liberties and possession of their city and country again.
This fourteenth day of December, 1782, ought never to be forgotten by the Carolinians; it ought to be a day of festivity with them, and it was the real day of their deliverance and independence.
While the war itself was winding to an end, the coming peace raised new controversies, particularly from the Continental Army, which wanted the country to keep its promises for the service of its soldiers.
Next week, we’ll see how General Washington deals with a potential revolt by the army in Newburgh, NY.
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Next Episode 324 Newburgh Conspiracy
Previous Episode 322 LBI Massacre
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Further Reading
Websites
James Island: https://www.battlefields.org/learn/revolutionary-war/battles/dills-bluff
Guy Carleton: https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/carleton_guy_5E.html
Liberty Won and Lost: The British Evacuation of Charleston: https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/british-evacuation-of-charleston.htm
Evacuation of Charleston: https://www.carolana.com/SC/Revolution/revolution_evacuation_of_charleston.html
Charleston’s Victory Day
Part 1: https://www.ccpl.org/charleston-time-machine/charlestons-victory-day-part-1
Part 2: https://www.ccpl.org/charleston-time-machine/charlestons-victory-day-part-2
Free eBooks
(from archive.org unless noted)
Barnwell, Joseph W. “The Evacuation of Charleston by the British in 1782” The South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine, 1910.
Books Worth Buying
(links to Amazon.com unless otherwise noted)*
Maloy, Mark, To the Last Extremity: The Battles for Charleston, 1776-1782, Savas Beatie, 2023.
* As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
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