This was the first time that Cruger had spent any time with the Ranger commander, and he found him to be one of the most interesting men he had ever known. Still unable to walk without crutches because of the wounds in both thighs, Brown received a steady series of reports from his men, both white and Indian. Cruger had listened to some of the conversations, and respect for their leader was obvious. Brown had a remarkable rapport with them, habitually asking about previous injuries, the well-being of their families in south Georgia or Florida, and always congratulating them on a thorough report. Cruger was intrigued with Brown’s detailed knowledge of the region around Augusta. He seemed to know the name of each settler, the status of his family, the degree of his loyalty to the crown, and whether he had ever been captured by loyalist forces and put on parole. The latter settlers were considered to be in a special category, with an automatic death sentence if they were found bearing arms or supporting activities of the Whig militia, as Brown claimed to be the case of the twelve prisoners who were hanged after the unsuccessful siege. Brown looked over his glass of rum, which he was drinking sparingly with small sips, and said, “Colonel, I really appreciate the close cooperation we have enjoyed between our men and yours. It was particularly gracious of you to permit me to coordinate our joint operations against the rebels.”

Cruger, who had been surprised at the obvious breeding and gracious manners of his companion, responded, “It has been a pleasure for us to join forces with you, and natural for you to be in charge of matters in this territory with which you are so familiar. How do you assess the present inclinations of the remaining families?”

Brown was eager to demonstrate the effectiveness of his intelligence operations. He could have given Cruger an almost equally detailed report from the region around Ninety Six, but he decided to restrict his answer to the Georgia side of the Savannah. He pulled a folded sheet of paper from his pocket, examined it for a few moments, and gave this reply:

“On the entire Georgia side of the river there are a total of five hundred sixty-four males whom we have been tracking for a couple of years. Two hundred fifty-five of them are serving with me or are in other loyalist forces, there are forty-two prisoners in Charles Town and twenty-one being held as hostages in Savannah, forty-nine are rebels with no families who are too cowardly to fight in any cause, and we have lost contact with fifty-seven others, who may be dead or have left the country. The other one hundred forty men are loyal to Clarke and must be captured or killed. Most of them have families of some sort, but our British forces are forbidden—by both Lord Cornwallis and me—to harm them severely.”