Chap. LXVI.} 1776. June. |
On the eleventh the two regiments from North Carolina arrived. That same day Lee, being told that a bridge of retreat from Sullivan's Island to Haddrell's Point was impossible, and not being permitted by Rutledge to direct the total evacuation of the island, ordered Moultrie immediately to send four hundred of his men over to the continent; in his postscript he added: ‘Make up the detachment to five hundred.’ On the thirteenth he writes: ‘You will detach another hundred of men,’ to strengthen the corps on the other side of the creek. But the spirit of South Carolina had sympathy with Moultrie, and mechanics and negro laborers were sent down to complete his fort; yet hard as they toiled, it was not nearly finished before the action. On the twelfth the wind blew so violently that two ships which lay