The general greeted the two Georgians somewhat stiffly and asked them immediately to give a report on the military situation in the colony. Lachlan gave a summary while referring to his notes and then added, “General Lee, I have little good to tell you. Despite my best efforts, I am not having any success in recruiting men to defend the colony. I wanted at least a thousand, but so far only two hundred and thirty-six have signed up, and most of them will agree to serve only six months.”

Lee seemed surprised. “Why can’t you get more?”

“In the first place, very few of the good men are willing to leave their farms and jobs, and they fear Indian attacks if they are not protecting their own homes. Also, as you know, there is still a great deal of Tory sentiment, and a feeling among many Whigs that a few political leaders have taken all the top positions in government and are helping their friends in business and other ways. Another serious problem is that the Continental Congress doesn’t seem to look on Georgia as very important. Let me give you an example: the recruitment bounty in South Carolina is twenty-five pounds, but I’ve been given only six pounds, which is not enough to pay for uniforms and food. There are just twenty-seven officers in service, and more than half of them have to work continuously to recruit reluctant citizens. Despite our best efforts, I figure we have about one hundred troops that are reasonably able to fight. This does not include some armed militia along the frontier west of Augusta, whose main goal is to fight the Indians and who have never shown any willingness to accept outside direction.”

Lee asked, “Is this the report you wish me to give General Washington?”

“No, sir; there is more. I figure that we have three or four main points to make, and you are familiar with them. The first is that Georgia is the largest colony and has plentiful supplies of rice, cattle, and horses, which are already badly needed by the Continental troops and may be even more valuable if farming is interrupted in the north and additional men leave their homesteads to take up arms. As you know from living in Florida, many of these supplies are along the coast, vulnerable to being taken by British forces from the sea, as they’ve done recently with some of our rice in Savannah. Except for the sloop Liberty, which is now in Charles Town, there is not an American ship of any kind to protect what we have.”

Lee seemed somewhat impatient and did not respond.