George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 8

[402] of imperturbable and even indolent calm, were strained

Chap. LXVI.} 1776. June 28.

to their utmost tension, rode to visit his advanced guard on the east. Here the commander, William Thomson, of Orangeburg, of Irish descent, a native of Pennsylvania, but from childhood a citizen of South Carolina, a man of rare worth in private life, brave and intelligent as an officer, had, at the extreme point, posted fifty of the militia behind sand-hills and myrtle bushes. A few hundred yards in the rear breastworks had been thrown up, which he guarded with three hundred riflemen of his own regiment from Orangeburg and its neighborhood, with two hundred of Clark's North Carolina regiment, two hundred more of the men of South Carolina under Horry; and the raccoon company of riflemen. On his left he was protected by a morass; on his right by one eighteen pounder and one brass six pounder, which overlooked the spot where Clinton would wish to land.

Seeing the enemy's boats already in motion on the beach of Long Island, and the men-of-war loosing their topsails, Moultrie hurried back to his fort at full speed. He ordered the long roll to beat, and officers and men to their posts. His whole number, including himself and officers, was four hundred and thirty five; of whom twenty two were of the artillery, the rest of his own regiment; men who were bound to each other, to their officers, and to him, by personal affection and confidence. Next to him in command was Isaac Motte; his major was the fearless and faultless Francis Marion. The fort was a square, with a bastion at each angle; built of palmetto logs, dove-tailed and bolted together, and laid in parallel rows sixteen feet asunder, with