The British knew that morale throughout the Continental forces was poor, with frequent desertions. Punishment for the many malcontents was increasingly severe. Brown reported that on one day there were ten convictions for desertion, with seven sentences of death by firing squad, one of hanging, and two of one hundred lashes. One sentence of four hundred lashes was administered to a farmer who had deserted and returned to his family. There was an outcry among the troops when he died because of this whipping.

Elijah Clarke and his militia now considered themselves to be well organized and trained, and they were eager for a taste of combat. Elijah came to Savannah with two hundred volunteers, who were outfitted with adequate supplies and ammunition. Then he volunteered for service, preferably in one of the forays into north Florida. The Georgia state council decided to avoid the previous political-military competition among their officials and placed Governor John Houstoun in full command of its combined force. Although the governor had no military training, Elijah Clarke was willing to serve under his command in order to be directly involved in real action against the British.

When Clarke met with Governor Houstoun and his Georgia detachment, he found that his troops were the only ones outfitted either for combat or for survival in the hot and malaria-infested coastal region. Ten men were assigned to each small tent; there was just one canteen issued for every six men, and a camp kettle for every fifteen. Few of the troops had adequate ammunition, there was practically no medicine available, and a sense of despair was prevalent. Elijah was determined to show the superiority of his fighting force and began to argue for more direct action instead of waiting in Savannah to respond to some future attack by the British. He convinced the other Georgia leaders that Savannah would be easy to defend with proper placement of no more than one thousand troops. The city was nearly surrounded by swamps and marshlands, making a land attack almost impossible, and entrance by sea could be prevented by well-placed artillery and, if necessary, by sinking ships in the main channel.

A consensus soon evolved that the best strategy was to launch a concerted attack against Florida. All of the leaders realized that throughout the earlier months of the war and even with twice as many men as the British, the Continentals had never been able to cross the St. Marys River into Florida, much less take St. Augustine. Nevertheless, there was a general belief among Georgians that the mistakes of the past could be corrected and that this time the unprecedented American force would prevail.