Clinton’s Decision on Long Island; Part 11 Battle of Sullivan's Island

On June 18th, Clinton was sitting on Long Island trying to figure out how to attack the rebels on Long Island with boats instead of dashing across the inlet at low tide on foot. The fact that the inlet was seven feet deep at low tide, instead of eighteen inches deep at low tide was a fact that totally scrapped the plans of Parker and Clinton for a joint attack. Now Clinton was trying to come up a feasible new plan that would not risk his entire force in attacking Sullivan’s Island. He also knew that he and his force would soon be expected to report back to General Howe to help in the planned invasion of New York. The key question is what he could do now to deploy his troops to secure Sullivan’s Island with the smallest risk.


This was still going to be a joint army and navy operation with the main objective being the capture of Sullivan’s Island, but the question now is how to best pull it off with the clock ticking to get the mission accomplished. With the new intelligence in hand, Clinton had several factors to look at to make the new plan of attack. The first of these factors being the intelligence of the area that his forces would be landing on. Clinton knew the northern end of the island had heavy surf which would make landing difficult at best under the best conditions. Landing in open boats full of men and their equipment at the northern end of the island that was guarded by two artillery pieces and dug in infantry would be suicide. His boats full of men would have to pass this rebel position to attack Sullivan’s Island at a different landing area exposed to artillery and rifle fire as they rowed pass to a different landing site further south on the island. The second would be the location of the rebels on the island so as to discern where to best land his troops against the least resistance. By now the information he had was of the position across Breach Inlet, the unfinished fort at the southern end of the island, and a new earth work being built half way across the island manned by in his estimation thousands of troops. The third would be the rebel’s response time to his landing so as to get his troops ashore before the rebels could mass to meet the British as they came ashore. The fourth would be how many men he could land at one time on shore and start their attack on the fort as the Navy bombarded it. The answer to that question is that at the absolute most he could get at one time were seven hundred men on shore and then the boats would have to leave to get a second wave, leaving those troops exposed until the second wave could be rowed back. The fifth question being; how to best use his artillery assets and the Royal Navy to cover his landing in open boats. On land he had six cannon, four mortars and at sea he had three warships with HMS Ranger being on the Atlantic side and HMS Lady Williams and anther sloop being on Hamilton Creek with sixteen cannon among them. The problem with his artillery being that he could gain no advantage against the dug in rebels across the inlet even with placing artillery on Green Island and an oyster bank for better angles to fire at them. Also the Royal Navy could do no better because of the limited movement on the creek.

The more Clinton and his staff went over the options of attack the less Clinton liked his chances at getting across to Sullivan’ Island from Long Island. He and his staff even started looking at trying to land on the main land at Mount Pleasant to try to different rebel attention from the main action by the Royal Navy hoping to cause the rebels to abandon the fort and leave the island without a direct assault. This plan was also difficult because of the marshes and pluff mud that surrounds Mount Pleasant on the coast. Time and again Clinton sent letters to Admiral Parker and aides to try to come up with a plan of coordinated attack. This occurred for several days until Clinton decided on a course of action that finalized the plan of attack on Sullivan’s Island.

He decided that the army would wait and seek whatever opportunities that came available to them during the navel bombardment of the fort. In other words, if he could attack he would, but he would give no formal plans of how or where until he saw how the bombardment was going. He did ask for the Royal Navy to get some ships behind the fort in the cove behind Sullivan’s Island to cover his boats from that side if practical, to cover his amphibious force better. Thus he shifted the success of the operation to the Royal Navy and their ability to rain down lead on the fort and destroy it from the sea which Admiral Parker took on with pleasure.

Thus on June 21st the Royal Crown has a new plan of attack and are waiting to spring it on the rebels who have been bringing in more troops and quickly building up their defenses as the British were debating on how to redesign their attack against Charlestown.

The British finalize their plans; Battle of Sullivans Island part 6

At the start of June, General Clinton and Admiral Parker had made their way to Charleston harbor with their combined task force of navy and army personnel. This was an impressive force with over 50 ships of all sizes descriptions preparing for their attack on Charleston. The fleet included 52 ships including HMS Bristol (Flagship, 50 guns), HMS Experiment (50 guns), HMS Actaeon, HMS Active, HMS Solebay, HMS Syren, HMS Sphinx, HMS Friendship, HMS Lady Williams, bomb vessel HMS Thunder, transports, supply ships and others with totaling around 300 heavy navel guns. The ground component of the task force was divided up into 2 brigades. The First Brigade was commanded by Lt. Col James Webster with the Light Infantry Companies of the 4th, 15th, 28th, 33rd, 44th, 46th, 54th, 57th, and the 28th and 37th full regiments of the line.

The Second Brigade was commanded by Col. Charles Earl Cornwallis with the 15th, 33rd, 46th, 54,  57th Regiments of the Line, the 1st Royal Marine Regiment, and the 84th also referred to as the “Young Highlanders” or “Royal Highlander Emigrant Regiment”, a provincial regiment that was supposed to come to full strength in North Carolina until the Battle of Moore’s Creek Bridge ended that hope with the defeat of the Scottish provincial recruits there. The British Army had committed over 2,800 men to this expedition, first against New Bern in North Carolina and now against Charleston in South Carolina, once the North Carolina expedition was cancelled. The artillery component of the army was manned by the Number 1, 2, and 4 companies of the Royal Artillery manning ten guns.

With this combined task force, Admiral Parker and General Clinton along with thier staffs went over possible plans of attack to take Sullivans Island and to seal Charleston Harbor off to the outside World with a mighty blow from the King’s Army and Navy. As early as middle May Admiral Parker had been getting reports from the ships he had sent to Charleston Harbor to gather intelligence about the harbor and its defenses that the harbor was being fortified. In these reports he received information about Fort Johnson and other works being built up by the rebels. The one that got the most attention was the fortification being built on Sullivans Island, where it was being reported that a substantial fortification was being built there to control the northern entrance to the harbor. Clinton and Parker agreed that if Sullivans Island could be taken that they could shut down Charleston Harbor to all trade and could tie down a large rebel force that would have to either try to remove the British from Sullivans Island if they took it or would have to act as a holding force to prevent the British from attacking other points on the coast from a base on Sullivans Island. The key to this is, understanding that taking Charleston was never an option for the British. They did not have the man power to take Charleston proper nor the ability to raise Loyalist to come to their aid in the initial fight in trying to take the town proper. One of the key advisers for this plan of shutting down the harbor was Royal Gov. Lord Campbell who was able to with two Royal ships the HMS Tamer and HMS Cherokee to prevent shipping in the harbor until he left in the fall of 1775. If the British were able to accomplish this it would have been a major blow to the commerce of the Patriots but also the production and distribution of war material.

The initial plan was being ironed out once the British Fleet moved into Five Fathom Hole in Charleston Harbor a safe part of the harbor out of range of Patriot artillery and summer storms on the open sea. Admiral Parker wanted to do a combined attack with the Royal Navy and Royal Army affecting a “coup de main” against the unfinished fortifications on the island. To accomplish this he was going to use the heavy artillery of the fleet to reduce the fort while General Clinton used the flat boats of the fleet to land on the Northern side of the island during the navel bombardment. After the army landed in the small boats under Parker's plan they were to fight their way across the island to the back of the fort and gain entrance from the unfinished part of the fort. Thus taking control of the fort and sealing off the harbor for the British. General Clinton had another idea of how to take the fortification on Sullivans Island. His plan was to land his men on Long Island and have them charge over from Long Island to Sullivans Island across Breach Inlet which according to his intelligence or lack thereof was only 18 inches deep at low tide. Thus he would be able to deploy his field artillery to cover his advance against the rebels across the inlet as his troops splashed across the water and towards the unfinished fort. This would reduce the risk of boats over turning in the surf full of troops during an attack and would allow his men to first disembark from the fleet with little trouble and allow organization on the beach before the attack. Once across the inlet as with Parkers' plan they would head to the back of the unfinished fort and take it from the rear. The plus and the minus of the each plan were discussed by the staffs of each officer and by the two primary officers at some length once the fleet was anchored in the harbor. The final decision was made to go with Clinton’s plan of landing at Long Island and attacking from a base camp there.

On June the 9th the plan was put into action as General Clinton with elements of his army began to land on Long Island securing it against no resistance and establishing a temporary camp there to prepare for the assault against Sullivans Island.

  The next article will be on the thunder before the storm