The present alarming state of affairs was useful in arousing the Carolinians. Every effort was now made to reinforce General Lincoln’s army. John Rutledge, a popular man, in whom all had confidence, was appointed governor and vested with extraordinary powers; a stringent militia law was enforced, and by the middle of April, two months after the defeat at Briar Creek, Lincoln found himself at the head of 5,000 men. About the end of that month, therefore, leaving General Moultrie with 1,500 troops to garrison the lower passes of the river, at Purysburg and the Black Swamp, Lincoln, hoping to recover the upper parts of Georgia, as well as to protect the meeting of the assembly of that state, quitted his position, which had hitherto enabled him to protect Charleston, and proceeded towards Augusta. The movement was unfortunate. No sooner was he gone than General Prevost, whose force had received a considerable accession of loyalists from South Carolina as well as Georgia, resolved to cross the river and penetrate into Carolina, where he knew that the royal cause had many friends, and at the same time to obtain a good store of provisions, of which he was in want. Crossing the Savannah, therefore, at the end of April, with about 3,000 men, Prevost advanced forward with but little opposition from Moultrie, whose troops behaved no better than those of Ashe at Briar Creek, though defended like them by almost impassable swamps, and who now fled before him to Charleston. The ease with which every impediment was overcome by the British army, the assurance which the general received on all hands from the loyalist party that Charleston would surrender without resistance on his first appearance, furnished a new object to his enterprise. Lincoln was on his way to Augusta, when news reached him of the British army having crossed the Savannah, and believing it only a foraging expedition, he contented himself with sending off a battalion to reinforce Moultrie. A few days later an express conveyed to him the more serious information that the British army was now several days on its march towards Charleston; the country was up, and hundreds flocking to the royal standard. Without a moment’s delay the American army now re-crossed the river, and a detachment on horseback was sent forward for the greater despatch.