Jeffrey A. Denman

Between five and six thousand enslaved Black laborers had fled to the British lines at Yorktown and Gloucester, and they performed the most backbreaking work—construction of the fortifications. But their fate was about to take an even more terrible turn. Infected with smallpox and combined with dwindling provisions, they no longer were a valuable asset to the British. Cornwallis forced them out of camp and beyond the British lines, where they either died or fell into the hand

The situation in Charleston was worrisome. Washington could see British movements eroding any defenses the Americans could muster. Lieutenant Colonel John Laurens confirmed that the British were going to “attack Charles Town by a siege in form” and that in order to complete the investiture of the city, “he must introduce his Ships of war into the harbor.” The Americans could not contest the British entry into the harbor, so it meant “a great diminution of our means of defense

The middle of December proved to be increasingly arduous for the troops. Surgeon James Thacher reported in his diary that he arrived “on the 14th” in “this wilderness” and he encountered “the snow on the ground . . . about two feet deep, and the weather extremely cold. The soldiers are destitute of both tents and blankets and some are actually barefooted and almost naked. Our only defense against the inclemency of the weather, consists of brush-wood thrown together. Our lodg