etter from his friend Captain Parker.]

This sharp conflict terminated the war in Georgia. Information was
soon given of the determination to withdraw the British troops from
Savannah; and arrangements being made, with the sanction of the civil
government, for the security of such individuals as might remain in
town, the place was evacuated. The regular troops retired to
Charleston, and Colonel Brown conducted his loyalists through the
islands into Florida. Wayne was directed to rejoin General Greene.

In South Carolina the American army maintained its position in front
of Jacksonborough, and that of the British was confined to Charleston
and its immediate vicinity. The situation of the ground as well as the
condition of his army, was unfavourable to offensive operations on the
part of General Greene; and General Leslie, who commanded in
Charleston, was not strong enough to attempt the recovery of the lower
country. While the two armies continued to watch each other,
occasional enterprises were undertaken by detachments, in some of
which a considerable degree of merit was displayed. In one of them,
the corps of Marion, its general being attending in the legislature,
was surprised and dispersed by the British Colonel Thompson; and in
another, an English guard galley, mounting twelve guns, and manned
with forty-three seamen, was captured by Captain Rudolph, of the
legion.

From the possession of the lower country of South Carolina, which was
known to contain considerable quantities of rice and beef cattle, the
army had anticipated more regular and more abundant supplies of food
than it had been accustomed to receive. This hope was disappointed by
the measures of the government.

The generals, and other agents acting under the authority of congress,
had been accustomed in extreme cases, which too frequently occurred,
to seize provisions for the use of the armies. This questionable power
had been exercised with forbearance, most commonly in concert with the
government of the state, and under the pressure of such obvious
necessity as carried its justification with it.

The war being transferred to the south at a time when the depreciation
of paper money had deprived congress of its only fund, it became
indispensably necessary to resort more generally to coercive means in
order to procure subsistence for the troops. Popular discontent was
the natural consequence of this odious measure, and the feelings of
the people wer