This action was reported to officials in St. Augustine, where General Prevost received them with strong condemnation and, once again, interceded with General Clinton. Major James Mark Prevost was promoted to lieutenant colonel and Clinton ruled that senior provincial officers, including Thomas Brown, would be placed under all regular officers of the same rank. Brown’s days of almost complete operational freedom were over. He decided to stay aloof from General Prevost during the prospective attack on Savannah and to assist Colonel Campbell and the troops coming from New York by sea.

On September 8, Thomas Brown provided an assessment to Governor Tonyn’s aide-de-camp:

If His Excellency already has this information, please do not bother him with this report. In my previous message, I speculated on an Alliance between the revolutionaries and the government of France. That illicit Agreement has been reached, and for several weeks we have been notified of French supply ships delivering small quantities of guns, ammunition, tents, clothing, and money through Ports in New Hampshire, but the so-called Continental Congress has now realized that little will come of it. Last month, there was a joint Attack on Newport by the rebels and a large French force under Count d’Estaing, but the commanders quarreled, the British Fleet arrived, a storm brewed, the French withdrew to the West Indies, and the rebel land Force was almost destroyed. It is interesting to note that some French officers have also been Authorized to join the rebels, but their quality is doubtful if not Ludicrous. One is a child soldier, the Marquis de Lafayette, who has been given the rank of major general at the age of nineteen! Another is a German mercenary who calls himself the Baron von Steuben, but is little more than a drill Instructor.

Since General Clinton assumed overall Command, he has abandoned Philadelphia, to concentrate his strength in New York, and to use this strong position as a Base from which Canada can be defended and the rebel forces can be attacked. Although I rarely comment on matters in this Region, with which you are thoroughly familiar, let me add the speculation that our Forces may very well decide to move from Pensacola against New Orleans.

Respectfully submitted, Lieutenant Colonel Thos. Brown