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

On the fifteenth, Lee stationed Armstrong at Haddrell's Point; and the brave Pennsylvanian, as the superior officer, ever manifested for Moultrie a hearty friendship. On that same day, Sir Peter Parker gave to the captains of his squadron his arrangement for taking the batteries on Sullivan's Island; and on the sixteenth he communicated it to Clinton, who did not know what to do. The dilatory conduct of the British betrayed hesitation and unharmonious councils; and the Carolinians made such use of the consequent delay, that by the seventeenth they were in an exceedingly good state of preparation at every outpost and also in town. But Clinton intended only to occupy and garrison Sullivan's Island. For that end, consulting with Cornwallis, he completed the landing of all his men on Long Island, a naked sand, where nothing grew except a few bushes, that harbored myriads of musquitoes, and where the troops suffered intensely from the burning sun, the want of good water, and the bad quality and insufficient supply of provisions. A trial of the ford was made; Clinton himself waded in up to his neck; so did others of his officers, and on the day on which he succeeded in getting all his men on shore, he announced through Vaughan to Sir Peter Parker, that no ford was to be found; that there remained a depth of seven feet of water at low tide; and that therefore the troops could not take the share they expected in the intended attack. His six full regiments, and companies enough from others to make up one more, a body of more than three thousand men, thoroughly provided with