The loss of the harbour rendered the defence of the place, if not desperate, so improbable, that the hope to maintain it, could not have been rationally entertained by a person, who was not deceived by the expectation of aids much more considerable than were actually received.
[Sidenote: Opinion of General Washington on the subject of defending Charleston.] When this state of things was communicated to General Washington, by Lieutenant Colonel Laurens, he said in reply, "The impracticability of defending the bar, I fear, amounts to the loss of the town and garrison.

At this distance it is impossible to judge for you.

I have the greatest confidence in General Lincoln's prudence; but it really appears to me, that the propriety of attempting to defend the town, depended on the probability of defending the bar; and that when this ceased, the attempt ought to have been relinquished.

In this, however, I suspend a definitive judgment, and wish you to consider what I say as confidential." Unfortunately, this letter did not arrive in time to influence the conduct of the besieged.
[Sidenote: April 1.] Having crossed Ashley River, Sir Henry Clinton moved down the neck, and, on the night of the first of April, broke ground within eight hundred yards of the American lines.
The defences of Charleston had been constructed under the direction of a Mr.Laumay, a French gentleman in the American service; and, although not calculated to resist a regular siege, were far from being contemptible.
While the besiegers were employed on their first parallel, the garrison received a considerable reinforcement.

General Woodford, who had marched from Morristown in December, entered the town with the old continental troops of the Virginia line, now reduced to seven hundred effectives.