On this day in 1780, following a siege that began on April 2 of that year, Americans suffer their worst defeat of the American Revolution, with the unconditional surrender of Major General Benjamin Lincoln to British Lieutenant General Sir Henry Clinton and his army of 10,000 in Charleston, South Carolina. The British captured more than 3,000 Patriots and a great quantity of munitions and equipment, with 250 of their own killed and wounded in the process. Confident of British control in the South, Lieutenant General Clinton sailed north to British-occupied New York after having learned of an impending French expedition to the northern state. He left General Charles Cornwallis in command of over 8,000 British forces in the South. South Carolina was a bitterly divided state, and the British presence unleashed the full violence of a civil war upon the population. The guerrilla warfare strategies employed by Patriots Thomas Sumter, Nathanael Greene, and Francis Marion throughout the ...

If you plan to vote for either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton in the general election -- assuming each nabs their respective party's nomination -- you'll be glad to know that a new CNN/ORC poll shows they have comfortable leads among those likely to vote in the Palmetto State's primaries. In the Republican race, Trump has a commanding lead at 38%, followed by Ted Cruz with 22%, Marco Rubio with 14%, Jeb Bush at 10%, and Ben Carson and John Kasich trailing in the single digits. In the Democratic contest, Hillary Clinton has 56% while Bernie Sanders garners 38%, a considerable difference of 18 points. Trump's lead is fueled by widespread perceptions of him as the candidate best equipped to manage the still-feeble economy, foreign policy, and ISIS. They also feel he has the best chance to win in November and would be most likely to effect the changes in Washington so many voters are clamoring for. Clinton's lead comes largely on the strength of support she's...