When General Greene assumed command, he invited the militia commanders to meet with him, and they were favorably impressed with him personally and aware that he faced a formidable challenge. Gate’s defeat at Camden had been devastating, with many of the survivors having deserted and returned to their own homes. Only 90 cavalrymen, 60 artillerymen, and 1,480 infantry were available for duty, fewer than 1,000 of whom were Continentals. The rest were unreliable militia who chose to serve and perhaps fight only when they pleased, and felt that their primary compensation was to be obtained by plundering the countryside. Greene said that the militiamen’s victory at King’s Mountain was the only encouraging news for a demoralized Continental army, and he hoped to follow up with some achievements of his own.

The assembled commanders assessed military alignments in the southern states. The British held heavily fortified Charles Town, and had established strong inland positions to protect their dominance along the Atlantic Coast, through Savannah and St. Augustine. They had at least 8,000 troops stationed in the southern states, 2,500 of whom were veterans under Cornwallis at Winnsboro and capable of forming a superb striking force. They controlled the Santee River and its tributaries, and forts in Orangeburg, Ninety Six, and Augusta seemed secure, but a substantial portion of British troops were required to defend these important positions.

War in the rest of the south would be a game of hide-and-seek, with taking and holding territory of minimal importance. Intelligence about enemy movements was crucial, as was secrecy for the smaller forces. As Cornwallis’s British troops moved northward from Charles Town, their supply lines became longer and more vulnerable, and they had to compete for diminishing supplies of food. They all understood that any farm production was limited by repetitive raids on settler families by both Redcoats and Continentals; these families had learned to hide whatever they possessed and found it fruitless to plant new crops. The local military commanders commented to Greene that hatred had become more intense, with the most vicious fighting between former neighbors and often within families—father against son, brother against brother. The earlier policy of parole—releasing prisoners on their pledges of neutrality—had been abandoned, and future survival had come to depend on the killing of adversaries.