11 and 12 May 1780
Charleston: the surrender
On 8 May Clinton demands an unconditional surrender, and Lincoln again asks for the honours of war. On 11 May the British fire heated shot into the city and set several houses on fire. Christopher Gadsden and other citizens ask Lincoln to give up, and he calls for a parley.
On 12 May Lincoln formally surrenders 3,371 men. With militia and armed townsmen the British take 5,266 prisoners, 311 guns and 49 ships. The Continentals go to prison ships and barracks, and the militia go home on parole.
The garrison is refused the honours of war. After the surrender a captured gun, still loaded, goes off in the powder magazine where the guns are stored and sets off 180 barrels of powder, killing about 200 people.
Sources
- Carl P. Borick, A Gallant Defense: The Siege of Charleston, 1780 (2003).
- John Buchanan, The Road to Guilford Courthouse (1997).
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