entire, if not
totally undisturbed control of Georgia, necessarily facilitated the
invasion of the sister province. South Carolina was now a frontier,
equally exposed to the British in Georgia, and the Tories of Florida
and North Carolina. The means of defence in her power were now far fewer
than when Prevost made his attempt on Charleston. The Southern army
was, in fact, totally broken up. The Carolina regiments had seen hard
service, guarding the frontier, and contending with the British in
Georgia. They were thinned by battle and sickness to a mere handful. The
Virginia and North Carolina regiments had melted away, as the term for
which they had enlisted, had expired. The Georgia regiment, captured
by the British in detail, were perishing in their floating prisons. The
weakness of the patriots necessarily increased the audacity, with the
strength, of their enemies. The loyalists, encouraged by the progress of
Prevost, and the notorious inefficiency of the Whigs, were now gathering
in formidable bodies, in various quarters, operating in desultory
bands, or crowding to swell the columns of the British army. All things
concurred to encourage the attempt of the enemy on Charleston. Its
possession, with that of Savannah, would not only enable them to
complete their ascendency in the two provinces to which these cities
belonged, but would probably give them North Carolina also. Virginia
then, becoming the frontier, it would be easy, with the cooperation
of an army ascending the Chesapeake, to traverse the entire South with
their legions, detaching it wholly from the federal compact. Such was
the British hope, and such their policy. There was yet another motive
for the siege of Charleston, considered without reference to collateral
or contingent events. Esteemed erroneously as a place of great
security--an error that arose in all probability from the simple fact
of the successful defence of Fort Moultrie--it was crowded with valuable
magazines. As a trading city, particularly while the commerce of the
North remained interrupted, it had become a place of great business. It
was a stronghold for privateers and their prizes, and always contained
stores and shipping of immense value.

The temptations to its conquest were sufficiently numerous. Ten
thousand choice troops, with a large and heavy train of artillery, were
accordingly dispatched from New York for its investment, which was
begun in February, 1780, and conducted by th