The place, named after King Charles II, had been a center of British influence before the war.

That critical traveler, Lord Adam Gordon, thought its people clever in business, courteous, and hospitable.

Most of them, he says, made a visit to England at some time during life and it was the fashion to send there the children to be educated.

Obviously Charleston was fitted to be a British rallying center in the South; yet it had remained in American hands since the opening of the war.

In 1776 Sir Henry Clinton, the British Commander, had woefully failed in his assault on Charleston.