By this time there had been fighting in the south as well as in New
England. For King George had taken it into his stubborn head that
it would be a good plan to attack the southern colonies in spite of
the fact that the war in the north was already more that he could
manage. Sir Peter Parker, therefore, was sent out from England with
a fleet of about fifty ships, and Lord Cornwallis with two thousand
men, to attack Charleston in South Carolina. Howe was also ordered
to send some soldiers southward, and although he could ill spare
them from Boston he sent General Sir Henry Clinton with a small
detachment.
According to arrangement the troops from Boston and England were
to attack together with the loyalists of the south and the friendly
Indians. But everything was bungled. The fleet, the land force,
the loyalists and the Indians all seemed to be pulling different
ways, and attacked at different times. The assault on Charleston
was a miserable failure, and to the delight of the colonists the
whole British force sailed away to join Howe in the north, and for
more than two years there was no fighting in the southern colonies.
The commander of the colonists in Charleston was General Charles
Lee. He was not really an American at all, but an Englishman, a
soldier of fortune and adventure. He had wandered about the world,
fighting in many lands, and had been in Braddock's army when it
was defeated.
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