James Jackson lifted his right hand, and Clarke nodded for him to speak.

“General McIntosh has already talked to us about this, and we agree with what he has had to say about this strategy. It seems foolish to have all our Continental troops bottled up in Charles Town instead of fighting to hold on here and in other parts of the Carolinas where we can face the British on our own ground.”

Williamson already knew both sides of this debate, which had been going on for days in General Lincoln’s headquarters. He decided to end the argument and move on to his specific mission: “General Washington has issued orders that we hold Charles Town, and General Lincoln agrees with him.”

Elijah stood, took a few paces back and forth, and responded forcefully, “I don’t give a damn if every officer in the army agrees. We ain’t goin’ to move our militia out of the hills and swamps and away from our homes and families to huddle down with a few thousand Continentals in the streets of Charles Town. This looks like just another way for Lincoln to get us to abandon Georgia.”

After waiting a second or two to be sure Elijah was finished, Aaron Hart said, “It seems that Washington would have learned something from the British when they moved out of Philadelphia even while they control the ocean. Charles Town is even more useless. I’ve waited sometimes for a week or two for a shipment of goods to come in across the sandbars and shallow water. What we need to do is hold on to Augusta, Ninety Six, and other places like them, and meet the British on dry land. They’ll have to fight like hell just to take what we’ve already got.”

Williamson responded, “We’re going to hold Augusta, because General Lincoln sees it as a possible staging point for the British to use in attacking Charles Town. In fact, he has ordered me to be in command there, and I’ll be bringing extra troops to hold it.”

Jackson asked, “What about the smallpox?”

“What smallpox?”

“We hear that there’s a lot of pox and other diseases in Charles Town, and that people are already leaving.”

Williamson replied, “There have been a few cases, but nothing to worry about.”

Elijah responded, “That ain’t what we heard.”

Williamson had done his best, but could see that further discussion would be fruitless.