Knowing of Clarke’s return to Georgia, Brown decided to mount an attack against the militia stronghold. For a week, his best Indian scouts attempted to penetrate the area of the Hornet’s Nest, with some success. By quiet and persistent observation of human traffic, they were able to ascertain most of the multiple routes that penetrated the wilderness, and learned where the lookouts were located. Three Ranger squads of twenty-five men each were chosen and given intense training, including familiarity with the maps that had been prepared. In the meantime, Aaron Hart had also received some intelligence from his common-law Indian wife, who knew only that some of the Indian scouts had been given this special assignment.

Alerted to the potential threat, Colonel Clarke posted additional guards at the key entry points, the normal lookouts supplemented by skilled marksmen who had been deployed along the trails to ambush any intruders. They remained in this alert status for six days, without incident, and began to assume that Hart’s information was faulty. But before dawn on the seventh day, a Sunday, all three Ranger squads moved simultaneously to enter the protected area, with devastating results. Eighteen of them were killed, twelve were severely wounded and captured, and the others barely escaped with their lives. After a perfunctory trial, Clarke ordered the captured men to be hanged.

Thomas Brown abandoned any further plans to invade the Hornet’s Nest and never mentioned his personal desire for revenge even to his closest military associates, but Alonzo Baker (whose official rank was now warrant officer) had long known the eagerness with which his commander received any news of the Sons of Liberty or their families, which was recorded in cryptic terms and carried always in the slit compartment inside Brown’s wide belt. Brown had analyzed each of their military engagements, studied the reasons for success or failure of the military leaders, and learned how to share this knowledge with his superiors without arousing their resentment.

The primary source of Brown’s effectiveness was the Rangers’ network of intelligence agents, who were just as interested in what was going on among the Redcoats as in the inner councils of the Continental forces. James Curry, who had betrayed General Lincoln and whose information was crucial in the defense of Savannah, had not been his only spy in Charles Town. He also had loyal people who sent him regular reports from within the top command echelon in British headquarters. Increasingly, Brown became aware of a serious personal problem that he had with Lord Cornwallis, who had rescinded one decision to remove the Ranger commander’s military authority but was well known to be committed to British military proprieties and to have little respect for irregulars.