On the twelfth of February, Congress affirmed the sentence of a court-martial which sentenced Arnold, then commanding at Philadelphia, to a reprimand for giving passes to disaffected citizens and using public transportation for private use. The reprimand was mildly administered: but it made Arnold very angry. His life of ostentatious display, his extravagant habits, and his loose views of moral obligation, aroused public indignation; and the mere matter of the charges upon which he was sentenced would not have appeared so grave, except that he was universally suspected of using his official position for private emolument. During all these struggles to keep his army together and prevent British operations out from New York, Washington was watchful of the operations then in progress at the South. General Clinton cleared the ice without difficulty, and left New York on the twenty-ninth of December, as already stated, expecting to reach his destination within ten days; but a storm dispersed his fleet, and one vessel foundered. Nearly all of his cavalry, and all of his artillery horses, perished. Although they reached Tybee Island, their first rendezvous, within the month, they did not leave for St. John Island, thirty miles below Charleston, until the tenth of February; and did not take up their position before Charleston, between the Ashley and Cooper rivers, until the twelfth of March. It appears from documentary data that the retention of Charleston, garrisoned by only two thousand two hundred regulars and a thousand militia, was largely induced by the inhabitants of the city. It is true that Commodore Whipple of the American navy regarded it as defensible; but Washington did not concur in that opinion. He held that the same force which would be required to hold the city, could do far greater and better service by remaining without the city, besides being more independent in securing supplies and coöperating with militia and other forces seeking their support. Besides this, the defences had been prepared to resist approach by sea, and not by land. An extract from Tarleton’s history of the campaigns of 1780–’81, is as follows, indicating the purpose of the movement itself: “The richness of the country, its vicinity to Georgia, and _its distance from Washington_, pointed out the advantages and facility of its conquest.”