The success of the British in Georgia encouraged the loyalists of these remote regions to rise. They were many of them men to whom excitement of any kind was welcome. Hardy and desperate in their lives, they are described by a writer of those days as having long been in the condition of outlaws, ready to attach themselves to the Indians or any others for incursions on the frontiers. The nature and remoteness of the country enabled them to keep up a free intercourse with their old friends, like-minded with themselves, who had however, for the sake of remaining quiet, submitted to the present government. From these circumstances, and the cast of mind acquired by their constant intercourse with the savages, they were ever ready to take up arms, and many of those who continued in the occupation of their farms and had the character of peaceable men, occasionally joined those parties which were openly in arms on the frontiers, and bore a share in all the devastation they committed.[25] About 700 of these people therefore embodied themselves, and set out towards Augusta, intending there to join the royal troops, and committing great devastation and many cruelties by the way. They were, however, attacked by a body of South Carolina militia, under Colonel Pickens, when very near the end of their march; their leader, Colonel Boyd, was slain; 400 of their number killed or taken prisoners, seventy of whom, being put on trial for treason, were found guilty, but five only of the most influential executed; the remaining 300 reached Augusta. The most terrible feature of the war in the south was the rancorous party-spirit which prevailed in it. Four battalions of Carolina loyalists had already joined the British army in Georgia, one of which was commanded by a Colonel Brown, originally a trader. This man who had formerly been tarred and feathered by the Whigs now pursued them with implacable hatred, and, following the example set at Augusta, hung all his Whig prisoners.