Grimball at the Siege, Old Exchange & Provost Dungeon
About Thomas Grimball
Revolutionary War hero Major Thomas Grimball led the Charleston Battalion of Artillery during the siege of Charleston and was one of the patriots imprisoned here at the Provost following the surrender of the city to the British. His battalion was William Moultrie’s best, having been organized by Christopher Gadsden and recruited from Charleston’s best families. With Grimball in command, the battalion’s two companies were led by Captains Edward Rutledge and Thomas Heyward, both signers of the Declaration of Independence.
In addition to his military service, Grimball contributed the greater part of his personal fortune to the new state government, served as representative for St. Philip and St. Michael parishes in the South Carolina General Assembly, was at various times sheriff, justice of the peace, sergeant at arms for the Court of Chancery, and churchwarden for St. Philip’s Church – all before an untimely death in his thirty-ninth year.
This poignant description of Grimball and other members of the first General Assembly after the war encapsulates their sacrifice and its reward: “They had lost their wealth, they had lost their health, and had lost the props of their declining years in the field of battle; but they had established the independence of their country.”
About the Siege of Charleston
The British capture of Charleston in May 1780 was one of the worst American defeats of the Revolution. On March 30-31 Gen. Henry Clinton’s British, Hessian, and Loyalist force crossed the Ashley River north of Charleston. On April 1 Clinton advanced against the American lines near this site, held by Gen. Benjamin Lincoln’s Continentals and militia. The 42-day siege would be the longest of the war. As Gen. Charles Cornwallis closed off Lincoln’s escape routes on the Cooper River, Clinton advanced his siege lines and bombarded Charleston. On May 12, 1780, in front of the American works near this spot, Lincoln surrendered the city and his force of 6,000 men, after what one British officer called “a gallant defense.” The British occupied Charleston for more than 2 1/2 years, evacuating Dec. 14, 1782.