[Sidenote:  Insurrection of the Tories in South Carolina, who are defeated by Colonel Pickens.]

From the commencement of the war, a considerable proportion of the western inhabitants of the three southern states had been attached to the royal cause.  The first successes of the British were soon communicated to them, and they were invited to assemble and join the king’s standard at Augusta.  About seven hundred embodied themselves on the frontiers of South Carolina, and began their march to that place.  They were overtaken by Colonel Pickens at the head of the neighbouring militia, near Kittle Creek, and defeated with considerable loss.  Colonel Boyd, their leader, was among the slain; and several of those who escaped were apprehended, tried, and five of them executed as traitors.  About three hundred reached the British out-posts, and joined the royal standard.  This defeat broke the spirits of the Tories for a time; and preserved quiet in the west.

As the American army gained strength by reinforcements of militia, General Lincoln began to contemplate offensive operations.  A detachment had been stationed nearly opposite to Augusta under General Ash, and he purposed joining that officer so soon as a sufficient force could be collected, and attempting to recover the upper parts of Georgia.  Before he was able to execute this plan, General Prevost withdrew his troops from Augusta to Hudson’s Ferry.  Ash was then ordered to cross the Savannah, and take post near the confluence of Briar Creek with that river.  This camp was thought unassailable.  Its left was covered by a deep swamp, and by the Savannah.  The front was secured by Briar Creek, which is unfordable several miles, and makes an acute angle with the river.

[Sidenote:  Ash surprised and defeated by Prevost.]

Having determined to dislodge the Americans from this position, Prevost kept up the attention of General Lincoln by the semblance of a design to cross the Savannah; and, at the same time amused General Ash with a feint on his front, while Lieutenant Colonel Prevost made a circuit of about fifty miles, and, crossing Briar Creek fifteen miles above the ground occupied by Ash, came down, unperceived and unsuspected, on his rear.  Ash, unused to the stratagems of war, was so completely engaged by the manoeuvres in his front, that Lieutenant Colonel Prevost was almost in his camp before any intelligence of his approach was received.  The continental troops under General Elbert were drawn out to oppose him, and commenced the action with great gallantry; but most of the militia threw away their arms and fled in confusion.  As they precipitated themselves into the swamp and swam the river, not many of them were taken.  General Elbert and his small band of continental troops, aided by one regiment of North Carolina militia, were soon overpowered by numbers, and the survivors were compelled to surrender themselves prisoners of war.  The killed and taken amounted to between three and four hundred men.  General Elbert and Colonel M’Intosh were among the latter.  But the loss sustained by the American army was much more considerable.  The dispersed militia returned to their homes; and not more than four hundred and fifty of them could be reassembled.