Combat· American Revolutionary War
Siege of Charleston 1780
The fall of Charleston was the costliest American surrender of the war, and Marines were caught in it.
As Sir Henry Clinton's army and the Royal Navy closed in by land and water, Continental Marines from the navy's frigates and South Carolina State Marines were folded into the city's defense under Major General Benjamin Lincoln. They manned shore batteries, fought along the lines and on the rivers, and took part in destroying Fort Johnston on James Island so the British could not turn its guns on the city. When Charleston capitulated on 12 May 1780, the surviving Marines went into captivity with the rest of Lincoln's trapped army. The siege stripped the southern theater of organized American forces and put a substantial body of Marines into British prisons for the remainder of the war.
Engagements in this conflict (1) Podcast episodes on American Revolutionary War
Record no. 168