The delegates of South Carolina and Georgia, anxious that a general of more experience than Howe should command in the southern department, had earnestly pressed that he should be recalled, and that General Lincoln, whose military reputation was high, should be appointed to succeed him.  In compliance with their solicitations, Howe was ordered in September, 1778, to repair to the head quarters of General Washington, and Lincoln was directed to proceed immediately to Charleston, in South Carolina, in order to take command in the southern department.  In pursuance of this resolution, General Lincoln repaired to Charleston, where he found the military affairs of the country in a state of utter derangement.  Congress had established no continental military chest in the southern department.  This omission produced a dependence on the government of the state for supplies to move the army on any emergency, and consequent subjection of the troops in continental service to its control.  The militia, though taken into continental service, considered themselves as subject only to the military code of the state.  These regulations threatened to embarrass all military operations, and to embroil the general with the civil government.

While Lincoln was labouring to make arrangements for the ensuing campaign, he received intelligence of the appearance of the enemy off the coast.  The militia of North Carolina, amounting to two thousand men, commanded by Generals Ash and Rutherford, had already reached Charleston; but were unarmed, and congress had been unable to provide magazines in this part of the Union.  These troops were, therefore, entirely dependent on South Carolina for every military equipment; and arms were not delivered to them until it was too late to save the capital of Georgia.

So soon as it was ascertained that the British fleet had entered the Savannah river, General Lincoln proceeded with the utmost expedition towards the scene of action.  On his march, he received intelligence of the victory gained over General Howe; and was soon afterwards joined by the remnant of the defeated army at Purysburg, a small town on the north side of the Savannah, where he established his head quarters.

The regular force commanded by General Prevost must have amounted to at least three thousand effective men; and this number was increased by irregulars who had joined him in Georgia.  The American army rather exceeded three thousand six hundred men, of whom not quite two thousand five hundred were effective.  Something more than one thousand were continental troops, part of whom were new levies; the rest were militia.

[Sidenote:  Major Gardiner defeated by General Moultrie.]

The theatre of action was so well adapted to defensive war, that, although General Prevost was decidedly superior to his adversary, it was difficult to extend his conquests into South Carolina.  With the view of entering that state by the way of the sea coast, he detached Major Gardiner with about two hundred men, to take possession of the island of Port Royal.  That officer, soon after reaching his place of destination, was attacked by General Moultrie, and compelled to retreat with considerable loss.  This repulse checked the designs of Prevost on South Carolina.