s.

The "Gibraltar of America" still remained in the possession of
England.

{36}

CHAPTER III
HOW PALMETTO LOGS MAY BE USED

In 1775, in Virginia, the patriots forced the royal governor, Lord
Dunmore, to take refuge on board a British man-of-war in Norfolk
Harbor. In revenge, the town of Norfolk, the largest and the most
important in the Old Dominion, was, on New Year's Day, 1776, shelled
and destroyed. This bombardment, and scores of other less wanton acts
of the men-of-war, alarmed every coastwise town from Maine to
Georgia.

Early in the fall of 1775, the British government planned to strike a
hard blow against the Southern colonies. North Carolina was to be the
first to receive punishment. It was the first colony, as perhaps you
know, to take decided action in declaring its independence from the
mother country. To carry out the intent of the British, Sir Henry
Clinton, with two thousand troops, sailed from Boston for the Cape
Fear River.

The minutemen of the Old North State rallied from far and near, as
they had done in Massachusetts after the battle of Lexington. Within
ten days, there were ten thousand men ready to fight the redcoats.
And so when Sir Henry arrived off the coast, he decided, {37} like a
prudent man, not to land; but cruised along the shore, waiting for
the coming of war vessels from England.

This long-expected fleet was under the command of Sir Peter Parker.
Baffled by head winds, and tossed about by storms, the ships were
nearly three months on the voyage, and did not arrive at Cape Fear
until the first of May. There they found Clinton.

Sir Peter and Sir Henry could not agree as to what action was best.
Clinton, with a wholesome respect for the minutemen of the Old North
State, wished to sail to the Chesapeake; while Lord Campbell, the
royal governor of South Carolina, who was now an officer of the
fleet, begged that the first hard blow should fall upon Charleston.
He declared that, as soon as the city was captured, the loyalists
would be strong enough to restore the king's power. Campbell, it
seems, had his way at last, and it was decided to sail south, to
capture Charleston.

Meanwhile, the people of South Carolina had received ample warning.
So they were not surprised when, on the last day of May, a British
fleet under a cloud of canvas was seen bearing up for Charleston. On
the next day, Sir Peter Parker cast anchor off the bar, with upwards
of fifty war ships and tran