Siege of Charleston - Aftermath

Aftermath

Tarleton in his book A history of the campaigns of 1780 and 1781 reported a total of 5,283 captured, including three signers of the Declaration of Independence: Edward Rutledge, Arthur Middleton and Thomas Heyward, Jr.

An active and bitter partisan war began. The British advance was marked by more than the usual destruction of war; the Loyalists rose to arms; the Patriot population regrouped around some of its militia commanders to harass the British and their Loyalist allies. Little mercy was shown on either side, especially after Tarleton's decimation of the Continentals at Waxhaws and Light Horse Harry Lee's decimation of the Loyalists at Haw River, which many saw as massacres.

Charleston remained under British control until they evacuated it in 1782 due to the imminent Treaty of Paris.