The place was invested on the evening of the fourteenth, and the garrison capitulated the next morning.
The late movement of the British army had left the garrison of Ninety Six and of Augusta exposed to the whole force of Greene, and he determined to direct his operations against them.

Lee was ordered to proceed against the latter, while the general should march in person to the former.
The post at Ninety Six was fortified.

The principal work, which, from its form, was called the Star, and which was on the right of the village, consisted of sixteen salient and reentering angles, and was surrounded by a dry ditch, fraize, and abattis.

On the left was a valley, through which ran a rivulet that supplied the place with water.

This valley was commanded on one side by the town prison, which had been converted into a block-house, and on the other by a stockade fort, in which a block-house had been erected.