John Hood: Carolinians Stage Set for Declaration
RALEIGH — As we prepare to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, here is a question worth pondering: was the event it sought to explain and justify, the American War of Independence, fated to succeed?
Some historians say yes. They argue that while the rebellious colonies of North America contained a small population and limited military resources, they also conprised a sprawling territory that was simply impossible for any feasibly sized force of British regulars, auxiliaries, and Loyalist militia to subdue and hold.
Other historians disagree. While outright conquest might have been practically impossible, they correctly note that many colonists were Tory in their sympathies and an even-large swath were disinclined to fight on either side. A few decisive defeats, followed by the capture of key Patriot political and military leaders, might have induced some of the colonies to submit, they argue, leaving the remaining rump of revolutionary states too isolated and deprived of resources to continue their resistance.
I’m in latter camp, at least regarding the first couple of years of the war. After the British realized they couldn’t hold rebellious Boston, their leaders formed the correct strategic insight: attack the enemy at its weakest point, not its strongest. They decided to redeploy their forces southward to remove the Carolinas and Georgia from the conflict. Virginia would have been their next target — and if it fell, the American Revolution would falter and, eventually, collapse.
It was Britain’s best play. It was not fated to fail. It was, over the course of six months, systematically defeated by the concerted efforts of a comparatively ragtag force of Patriots, most hailing from North and South Carolina.
During the first stage of the campaign, Patriots blocked a column of North Carolina Loyalists marching down the Cape Fear River to join up with an approaching invasion force of British redcoats. At the February 27, 1776 battle of Moores Creek Bridge, nearly all the Tories were killed, captured, or dispersed.
Weeks later, when British generals Henry Clinton and Charles Cornwallis finally converged on Wilmington, they discovered no reinforcements were coming. After some indecisive skirmishing, they decided to reembark on their ships and sail south to the port of Charlestown (now Charleston). Taking this largest city in the region would, they surmised, lead to the capture of the Carolinas.
Perhaps, at this early stage in the war, it would have. But Charleston had stout champions. Among them were soon-to-be-famous men such as Francis Marion, Thomas Sumter, and William Moultrie, a local militia colonel who deemed Sullivan’s Island at the mouth of the harbor as its most defensible point. It was Moultrie who supervised the construction of a fort made of palmetto logs.
In addition to these South Carolinians, Charleston’s defenders included hundreds of North Carolina militiamen from such counties as Bladen, Halifax, Mecklenburg, and Rowan. Some were stationed in the city itself, others on James Island or in other strongpoints ringing the harbor.
On June 28, 1776, the British attacked. Their warships pounded the fort on Sullivan’s Island. Their soldiers landed on its northern end. Neither gambit worked. After withering fire from entrenched Patriots, the redcoats withdrew. As for the fort, British cannonballs thudded ineffectually into its walls of spongy palmetto.
Charleston did fall — but not until 1780. By then, the American cause had weathered many storms and gained the crucial support of the French and Spanish. Leaving a garrison to hold Charleston, Cornwallis headed inland and won a series of battles so costly in casualties and irrelevant in strategic value that he was compelled to flee to Yorktown in hopes of resupply or evacuation. We know how that turned out.
It was 250 years ago this week, then, that Carolinians put an end to Britain’s first Southern Strategy, and with it the Crown’s best chance to win the war. The Continental Congress in Philadelphia was about to finalize the Declaration of Independence. Its relevance rested on a hard-fought battle nearly 700 miles away.
John Hood is a John Locke Foundation board member. His books Mountain Folk, Forest Folk, and Water Folk combine epic fantasy with American history (FolkloreCycle.com).
