produced by the moderation displayed after that victory, a proclamation was issued inviting the inhabitants to repair to the British standard, and offering protection to those who would return to their allegiance. This proclamation enlarged on those topics which were calculated to promote the British interest with the mass of the people, and with it were also published forms of the oath to be administered, and of the certificate to be given to those who should accept the proffered terms.

The effects of these measures did not disappoint those who adopted them. The inhabitants in great numbers flocked in to the royal standard; military corps for the protection of the country were formed, and posts were established for a considerable distance up the river.

The northern frontier of Georgia being supposed to be settled into a state of quiet, and such a disposition made of the troops as was thought best calculated to shut up all the avenues leading from South Carolina, Colonel Campbell turned his attention towards Sunbury, and was about proceeding against that place, when he received the intelligence of its having surrendered to General Prevost.

Sir Henry Clinton, when he planned the southern expedition, had ordered General Prevost to cooperate from East Florida with Colonel Campbell. That officer immediately collected all the force

which could be spared from the defence of St. Augustine, and, on hearing that the troops from the north were off the coast, he immediately entered the southern frontier of Georgia, and invested Sunbury, which, after a slight resistance, surrendered at discretion. Having placed a garrison in this fort, he proceeded to Savannah, and took command of the army from New York, to which was now added the force he had conducted from East Florida. Colonel Campbell was immediately detached with about eight hundred regulars and a few provincials to Augusta, of which place he took possession without any difficulty, and thus the whole state of Georgia was reduced.

While the expedition conducted by Colonel Campbell against the southern states was preparing in New York, Congress was meditating the conquest of East Florida.

The delegates of South Carolina and Georgia, anxious that a general of more experience than Howe should command in the southern districts, had earnestly pressed that he should be recalled, and that General Lincoln, who had been second in command in the army which captured Burgoyne, and whose military reputation was high, should be appointed to succeed him. In compliance with their solicitations, Howe was ordered, in September 1778, to repair to the head-quarters of General Washington, and Lincoln was directed

to proceed immediately to Charlestown, in South Carolina, in order to take command in the southern districts. On the same day Congress passed a resolution requesting the executive powers of Virginia and North Carolina to give all possible aid to South Carolina and Georgia.

Soon after the passing of this resolution, General Lincoln set out for Charlestown, where he found the military affairs of the country in a state of utter derangement. Congress had been so remiss, or had so misjudged on the public interests, as to have established no continental military chest in the southern districts. The effect of this omission was a dependance on the civil authority of the state for supplies which should enable the army to move on any emergency; and a subjection, in a great degree, of the troops in continental service to the control of the state government. The militia, though taken into continental pay, considered themselves as subject only to the military code of the state. These regulations threatened to embarras the movements in the field, and to embroil the military with the civil authority.

While General Lincoln was labouring to make arrangements for the ensuing campaign, he received intelligence of the appearance of the enemy off the coast. So promptly was the requisition of Congress on Virginia and North Carolina complied with by the latter of those states, that two thousand men raised by her in conformity there

with, had marched under Generals Ash and Rutherford, and had reached Charlestown before the appearance of Commodore Parker off the coast.

But unfortunately the state of North Carolina had taken no measures to provide her militia with arms; and Congress had been unable to lay up magazines in this division of the union. The troops under Ash and Rutherford were therefore entirely dependant on South Carolina for every military equipment. That state, being more exposed to invasion, had been more provident in preparing to meet it. Her supplies, however, were not so abundant as to exceed her own probable demand; and this circumstance, added per haps to a wish that the reinforcement from North Carolina should remain in the neighbourhood of Charlestown, till it should be apparent that the operations of the enemy were directed against some other object, induced the executive of the state to withhold the delivery of the arms, till it was too late to save the capital of Georgia.

As soon however as it was ascertained that the British fleet had entered the Savannah river, every possible exertion was made to put the troops in Charlestown in motion, and General Lincoln proceeded at their head with the utmost expedition towards the enemy. On his march he received intelligence of the victory gained over General Howe; soon after which he was joined by the broken

remnant

remnant of the defeated army, at Purysburg, a small town on the north side of the Savannah, about thirty miles above its mouth.

At Purysburg General Lincoln established his head-quarters, and while waiting for those reinforcements which might enable him to attempt the recovery of Georgia, he contented himself with protecting the state of South Carolina. The regular force commanded by General Prevost must have amounted to at least three thousand effective men, and this number was increased by irregulars who had joined him in Georgia. A return of the army of General Lincoln, made on the first of February, exhibited a total of three thousand six hundred and thirty-nine, of whom two thousand four hundred and twenty-eight rank and file were effectives. Of these one thousand one hundred and twenty-one were continental troops and new levies. The rest were militia, unused to the necessary discipline of a camp, and unwilling to submit to it.

The theatre of action was so well fitted for de fensive war, that although General Prevost was decidedly superior to his adversary, both in the number and quality of his troops, it was difficult to extend his conquests into South Carolina. The river Savannah, which divided the two armies, could not be crossed by either without great difficulty and hazard. Though its channel is narrow,