The Creeks were looking for survival as allies of the British, and a small party of them on the way to Savannah ran into a troop of Americans under Major John Habersham. He pretended that he led a troop of Rangers, captured the Creeks, tied the leader to a tree, and slowly cut him to pieces. He released the others to go westward, to spread the word that access to Savannah was closed, but the Indians were not deterred. A few weeks later, Chief Emistisiguo and three hundred Creeks, at the end of a five-hundred-mile trek, attacked General Wayne and his forces. The battle was a standoff, but the chief and seventeen others were killed and twelve prisoners were captured. Some of those who escaped returned to their homes, but Newota and most of the others proceeded on to Savannah.

General Wayne turned the Creek prisoners over to some of their Cherokee scouts and the next morning had a report that ten of them had been slowly executed and two released, having provided information about their plans for a rendezvous with Thomas Brown and a small party of Rangers at a crossing of the Ogeechee River. The scheduled time was an hour after sunrise, two days in the future. Wayne immediately sent for Colonel Jackson, shared the information, and ordered him to trap Brown.

“Our information is that he only has about a dozen men with him, but I want you to have at least three times that many. He’ll be approaching the river from the west and will be wary when he realizes that the Creeks are not there. You’ll have to take him by surprise and let the Rangers know from the beginning that they are surrounded by a far superior force.”

“General, I have a Captain Pratt with me who is knowledgeable about that area, having homesteaded not far from there.”

“I’d rather capture Brown than kill him, but if he provides a danger to your men, you can act as you must.”

Ethan was excited when Colonel Jackson briefed his troops on their assignment. He confirmed his knowledge of the particular crossing, and immediately drew a sketch of the trail that would most likely be used as the Rangers approached the river. He remembered his rifle shot into the chest of Patrick Ferguson and hoped that he would be the one fortunate enough to end the life of the despised man who had been the last white man to see his little son alive.

He was taken aback when Jackson said, “General Wayne wants the Ranger party taken alive if possible. We need to get all the information we can from them about Savannah’s defenses, and to use Brown as a bargaining chip with the British. We’ll surround them and expose our total force at my signal to show that their resistance would be suicide.”