Campbell took possession of Augusta on January 31, 1779. The southern strategy seemed to be successful when 1,400 men came into Augusta to sign up in the royal militia. However, the British Indian allies were badly delayed, and on February 14 several hundred Loyalists were cut off at Kettle Creek in Wilkes County by South Carolinians under Andrew Pickens and Georgians under Elijah Clarke and John Dooly. Alarmed by the approach of 1,200 North Carolinians under General John Ashe, Campbell withdrew from Augusta on the same day as the Battle of Kettle Creek. Ashe's troops, Samuel Elbert's Georgia Continentals, and Andrew Williamson's South Carolina militia followed the retreating British. On March 3 the British, now commanded by Lieutenant Colonel James Mark Prevost, turned upon the Americans and routed them at the Battle of Brier Creek.
