Charleston, South Carolina, occupies a singular place in the story of American independence — not as a backdrop to a single dramatic battle, but as a city that experienced the full, brutal arc of revolutionary warfare. It was the site of one of America's earliest and most inspiring victories, the scene of the Continental Army's most catastrophic defeat, a city subjected to more than two years of British military occupation, and ultimately a place where the meaning of liberty was tested and contested by every segment of its diverse population. No other American city endured so sustained and consequential a role in the Revolutionary War, and no understanding of the conflict is complete without reckoning with what happened on the peninsula between the Ashley and Cooper Rivers.
PEOPLE
General Henry Clinton
British General, Land Force Commander, Future Commander-in-Chief
Colonel William Moultrie
Continental Army Colonel, Fort Sullivan Commander, General and Governor
Major General Benjamin Lincoln
Continental Army General, Southern Army Commander
Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton
British Cavalry Commander, British Legion Commander
KEY EVENTS
STORIES
MODERN VOICE
What British Lines Meant
When Clinton issued the Philipsburg Proclamation in 1779, he was making a military calculation: the more enslaved people who fled Patriot plantations, the more the Patriot economy would be damaged. Fr...
HISTORICAL VOICE
The Worst Day
Benjamin Lincoln had been trying to get out of Charleston since April. The siege lines were closing. The British had crossed the Cooper River and cut the last road north. He knew what the arithmetic s...