hoping to recall Lincoln
by alarming him for the safety of Charleston, General Prevost suddenly
crossed the Savannah with three thousand men; and, advancing rapidly
on General Moultrie, obliged him to retreat with precipitation. The
militia could not be prevailed on to defend the passes with any degree
of firmness; and Moultrie, instead of drawing aid from the surrounding
country, sustained an alarming diminution of numbers by desertion.

On the passage of the river by Prevost, an express had been despatched
to Lincoln with the intelligence. Persuaded that the British general
could meditate no serious attempt on Charleston, and that the real
object was to induce him to abandon the enterprise in which he was
engaged, he detached a reinforcement of three hundred light troops to
aid Moultrie, and crossing the Savannah himself, continued his march
down the south side of that river towards the capital of Georgia.

[Sidenote: Prevost marches to Charleston.]

Though the original purpose of General Prevost had been limited to the
security of Georgia, the opposition he encountered was so much less
than he had expected; the tenour of the country was so apparent; the
assurances of those who flocked to his standard; of the general
disposition of the people to terminate the calamities of war by
submission, were so often and so confidently repeated, that he was
emboldened to extend his views, and to hazard the continuation of his
march to Charleston.

On receiving intelligence of this threatening aspect of affairs in
South Carolina, Lincoln recrossed the Savannah, and hastened to the
relief of that state.

The situation of Charleston was extremely critical. The inhabitants,
entirely unapprehensive of an attack by land, had directed their whole
attention to its protection against an invasion by sea. Had Prevost
continued his march with the rapidity with which it was commenced, the
place must have fallen. But, after having gained more than half the
distance, he halted, and consumed two or three days in deliberating on
his future measures. While his intelligence determined him to proceed,
and assured him of a state of things which rendered success almost
certain, that state of things was rapidly changing. Fortifications on
the land side were commenced and prosecuted with unremitting labour;
the neighbouring militia were drawn into the town; the reinforcements
detached by General Lincoln, and the remnant of the legion of Pulaski
a