numbered 3,000, and that he had captured Fletchall (who was found hiding in a cave) and several other Loyalist leaders. Fletchall's farm was searched and his private correspondence, including letters from Governor Campbell, were found. At the Enoree Richardson was joined by militia forces under Williamson, as well as additional militia from North Carolina led by Colonels Griffith Rutherford and William Graham, swelling his force until it numbered between four and five thousand. These forces scoured the backcountry, and located a camp of 200 Loyalists on the Reedy River, several miles inside Cherokee territory. Richardson sent William Thomson with 1,300 troops to attack the camp. Thomson and the volunteers surprised the Loyalist camp on December 22, taking prisoners and seizing supplies, weapons, and ammunition. Following the Battle of Great Cane Brake, Thomson was able to control his men and avoid a slaughter: only five or six Loyalists were killed, and one of Thomson's men was wounded. The next day, December 23, it began snowing as the Patriot forces made their way back toward the coast. The march home of the Patriot force was difficult because the force was unprepared for the weather. Richardson's army was dissolved, and most of the Patriots returned home. Richardson took 136 prisoners, who were dispatched to Charleston under guard on January 2, 1776. Aftermath Governor Campbell continued to live aboard the Tamar, and considered making attacks on Fort Johnson after a third warship arrived. Patriot forces, however, were active in building up the harbor's defenses, and the British fleet left Charleston in January 1776. British forces led by Sir Henry Clinton made an unsuccessful attack on Charleston in June 1776; it was the last major British operation in the south until late 1778. The campaign resulted in the elimination of large-scale Loyalist activity in the backcountry. Most of the prisoners taken were released by the Patriot leadership "as a conciliatory gesture to their backcountry friends". Some Loyalist leaders managed to escape capture. Notable among them was Thomas Brown, a South Carolina landowner who fled to East Florida. He was a leading force in the guerrilla war on the Georgia-Florida border, and his plans for retaking Georgia and eventually South Carolina were implemented by the British between 1778 and 1780. See also American Revolutionary War §Early Engagements. The ‘Snow Campaign’ placed in overall sequence and strategic context. Notes References Conflicts in 1775 Battles of the American