You're listening to an Airwave Media Podcast. Hello and thank you for joining the American Revolution.

This week episode 267, The Battle of Charlotte.

And for the last few weeks, we've been covering the defection of Benedict Arnold in New York.

But this week we're headed back to the Carolinas, where the war is still raging in the fall of

1780. After the British captured Charleston South Carolina, British commander

Henry Clinton returned to New York City and of course left General Charles Cornwallis in charge of the Southern Army

with Major Patrick Ferguson in charge of raising local militia.

Since Britain was by this time fighting a world war with France and Spain,

the North American Theater could not have nearly as many British soldiers as they did at the beginning of the war.

Any successful strategy at this point had to rely on local loyalists to supplement their ranks.

The British managed to raise seven battalions of loyalists in the South in the months following the fall of Charleston.

General Clinton was confident that the stronger loyalist base in the south would be enough to secure the region with a minimum of regulars.

Despite recruiting efforts, though, loyalist numbers began to fall. Partisan activity grew while loyalists became

concerned that a British victory was not a certainty. General Cornwallis

thought he had secured South Carolina after his victory at Camden and wanted to move into North Carolina.

This left South Carolina in an even more precarious position.

Cornwallis sent increasingly plaintiff notes to General Clinton in New York asking for more

reinforcements. But Clinton was short of men himself and thought Cornwallis really needed to rely on the

loyalist regiments that he had raised.

To take some of the pressure off Cornwallis, Clinton ordered Major General Alexander Leslie

to engage in a series of raids in Virginia.

Now General Leslie, of course, was an experienced veteran of the war. You may recall very early in this

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