Doomed British infantry officer describes siege of Charleston

Like so many first-time visitors to the Lowcountry, Charles Campbell was enchanted.

In a letter to his father back home in Britain, Campbell gushed about the natural beauty of the Holy City in spring.

"Charlestown is a handsome and well built town situated on the extremity of a tongue of land formed by two large & navigable rivers, Cooper and Ashley;" he wrote, "it lays open to the sea, and has the entrance of its harbor defended by a strong fort erected on Sullivan's Island."

It could have been written yesterday, but Campbell — a captain in the 71st Regiment of Foot — penned this complimentary description on May 20, 1780, just a week after the British Army took the city.

Campbell's letter, held in a private collection for years, was recently purchased at auction by the South Carolina Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum in Columbia. It is a remarkable find, a scarce first-hand account of the Siege of Charleston in the Revolutionary War.

"It's rare to hear about these things from a line officer," said W. Allen Roberson, director of the Confederate Relic Room. "It's significant that it's from a captain, not a colonel or a general."

Eight days before the letter was written, the British won perhaps their most decisive Southern victory, capturing more than 5,000 South Carolinians — including three signers of the infernal Declaration of Independence.

"I have been an actor in two of the most obstinate and most successful contests that the British arms have experienced this war," Campbell wrote, "the defense of Savannah and the reduction of Charlestown."

His account of the six-week siege that ended with the surrender of Charlestown is filled with details of the British strategy: the landing at Johns and James islands, the troop transports up the Stono — called the "Stone river" by Campbell — and the shelling of the city's defenses. One of the most interesting things about Campbell's story, from a Charleston point of view, is how deftly he describes the terrain and makes casual mention of colonial landmarks that remain recognizable more than two centuries later.

"About the 20th of March, the Light Infantry, and Grenadiers took position on the main, along the Ashley River, stretching from Wapoo cut, to Drayton's house, 12 miles above Charlestown."

Roberson says the letter provides a window into "the high-water mark of the British campaign in the South during the American Revolution."

"It's significant to our history, because you just don't find anything from the Revolutionary War," Roberson said. "This tells the story of the siege from the point of view of a British line captain leading his troops into battle."

The Confederate Relic Room bought Campbell's account as part of a two-letter lot for $9,750. That bid may have saved the letters for the state, and future historians; they might otherwise have ended up in another private collection.

Jane Aldrich, archivist and research consultant at the South Carolina Historical Society, called the letter "a terrific find." The Historical Society has a lot of good Revolutionary-era material, including Henry Laurens' papers, as well as diaries and accounts of Charlestonians who lived through the siege. But finding a detailed British account is a good bit of luck for the state.

"It's not common to find letters from that side," Aldrich said. "To get details like that, it really helps put the whole story together."

Just weeks after he wrote his letter, Campbell carried out the orders to burn the home of South Carolina militia commander Thomas Sumter, "The Carolina Gamecock." He was involved in what would be the last, great British stand. While South Carolina kept the British occupied in the South, George Washington was able to re-build his Army and prepare for the showdown at Yorktown little more than a year later.

But the young British captain would not be around to see his army's ultimate defeat. The second letter in the lot bought by the Relic Room reveals Campbell's fate. It is a letter from Camden, South Carolina, written to Campbell's father on Aug. 29, 1780, by Major Archibald McArthur.

From the camp at Camden, just four days after that decisive South Carolina battle, McArthur wrote that Campbell was killed at the battle of Fishing Creek on Aug. 18.

"Capt. Campbell advancing at the head of his men with his usual intrepidity received a musquet ball in his breast & instantly expired, much regretted not only by the 71st Regiment, but by the whole Army as a very spirited and intelligent officer. He was decently interred that evening on the field of Battle."