Within a few days, Sergeant Baker was informed that Bostick had assumed command of Fort Howe. Brown immediately decided to make a preemptory strike against the fort, and he and 110 Rangers and Indians crossed the broad Altamaha River upstream, careful to avoid detection. He ordered his troops to surround the small fort at night, and his Indians then gave loud war whoops as the other Rangers fired their muskets over the barricade, careful not to kill the troops within. They succeeded in the surprise attack within an hour and captured twenty-three prisoners, but somehow the commanding officer and a few men escaped. The Rangers spiked the guns, took the ammunition, set fire to the fort, and withdrew. Bostick later reported that they had skirmished with the “greatly superior forces of ‘Burnfoot’ Brown.” At the same time, Brown’s agents spread the word in Savannah that Bostick had retreated in terror, abandoning both the fort and his men to just a handful of the enemy. A court of inquiry was ordered, and Bostick was demoted to lieutenant and fined £10.

Predictably, Prevost discounted the importance of the action, while Tonyn asserted that the destruction of the fort would discourage American recruitments and military operations along Georgia’s western frontier and would enhance British operations all the way to South Carolina.

In March, Thomas Brown submitted another report:

Your Excellency:

The rebels’ effort to form an Alliance with France is generating proof of Subterfuge and Artifice on both sides. It is obvious that the rebel Army is both unwilling and unable to fight, and the French are merely dreaming that a Miracle will give Canada back to them, along with some territory east of the Mississippi River. Faced with our superior fleet along the Atlantic coast, their navy has had to confine its activities to attacking a few small islands in the Caribbean. As I reported earlier, our well-supplied troops spent the winter without challenge in Philadelphia, New York, and Newport, and there is little prospect of another foray toward Montreal or Quebec. Washington is fully occupied with sustaining his few remaining troops and attempting to minimize the increasing Desertions, while John Adams and others, now back in Philadelphia, are criticizing him as a timid and ineffective Commander.

As we take the South and move northward, hopefully with full involvement of our Indian friends, this will cause a Diversion of troops from the north, dividing and further weakening the rebel Force.

Respectfully submitted by the Governor’s agent