Southern Colonies.

Following the Franco-American alliance of February 1778, King George III and his military advisors devised a new strategy to subdue the rebellious North American colonies. Until this time the British army had concentrated its activities in the Northern provinces; now the major theater of operations would be the South. Royal officials believed that a majority of the people in the Southern colonies remained loyal to the king and would flock to His Majesty's standard upon sight. However, this proved to be a serious overestimation. Scholars today believe that John Adams's estimate indicating the American population as one-third Patriot (Whig), one-third Loyalist (Tory), and one-third neutral is too high for the last two categories. Historians assert that Loyalists comprised only 16 percent (513,000 out of 3,210,000) of the total colonial population, or 19.8 percent of white Americans.

Civil War.

In addition the British were...