Above all it was a war of hard riding, often in the night, of sudden attack, and terrible bloodshed.
After the fall of Charleston only a few American irregulars were to be found in South Carolina.

It and Georgia seemed safe in British control.
With British successes came the problem of governing the South.

On the royalist theory, the recovered land had been in a state of rebellion and was now restored to its true allegiance.

Every one who had taken up arms against the King was guilty of treason with death as the penalty.
Clinton had no intention of applying this hard theory, but he was returning to New York and he had to establish a government on some legal basis.

During the first years of the war, Loyalists who would not accept the new order had been punished with great severity.