In 1778 the British again turned to the South in their final major campaign to end the American Revolution. Military failures in the North during 1777-78 and a strong belief in southern loyalist strength encouraged the British War Office to undertake a full-scale southern invasion in the autumn of 1778. The American-French alliance following the British defeat at Saratoga and the threat of French intervention also made it urgent for the British to move southward. They hoped to obtain food and recruits in the South and an effective base from which to attack the remaining patriot armies in the East. A British military and naval expedition was also to assemble in the Chesapeake Bay area and from that point aid the British forces in the South to crush patriot resistance. This time the British were confident of success. They strongly doubted that the South, thinly populated and torn by sectional strife between patriot and loyalist groups, could unite and fight off the invader. _Conquest of Georgia and South Carolina_ The ports of Savannah and Charleston were vitally needed to support the new invasion and the British set out first to capture them. At the direction of Sir Henry Clinton, the first British landing was made in Georgia, and Savannah fell on December 29, 1778. By February 1779, Augusta and other key points in the State were captured, and by summer the British dominated Georgia. Their first move against Charleston ended in failure in June 1779, but they successfully forestalled a combined French and American attempt to recapture Savannah in the fall of that year. [Illustration: _Lt. Gen. Earl Charles Cornwallis, British commander in the South, 1780-81._ Courtesy Clements Library, University of Michigan.] The fortunes of war turned further against the southern patriots in 1780. Returning to Charleston in the spring of 1780, Clinton besieged the city with overwhelming numbers and forced the surrender of Gen. Benjamin Lincoln’s American garrison on May 12. The loss of this large, well-equipped army was a marked disaster for the patriot cause in the South and greatly strengthened the British position in South Carolina. Soon Clinton could depart for New York by sea, leaving Lord Cornwallis in command of a large British force which in a few months quickly occupied fortified points in much of the State. [Illustration: _British campaign in the Carolinas during 1780 before the Battle of Kings Mountain._] 1 NINETY SIX _After Charleston Ferguson was sent to Ninety Six to raise troops and drive Whig bands from the foothills._ 2 CAMDEN _Cornwallis destroyed an American army under Gates—August 16, 1780_ 3 CHARLOTTE _Cornwallis invaded North Carolina and captured Charlotte—September 22, 1780_ [Illustration: _Gen. Horatio Gates, American commander in the South during most of 1780._ Courtesy Emmet Collection, New York Public Library.]