Fanning raised a company of Loyalist militia which raided Patriot sympathizers on the Georgia border. After being wounded and nearly captured, Fanning accepted a pardon from South Carolina Governor John Rutledge in August 1779. After accepting the pardon, Fanning agreed to serve in the Patriot militia, but after the British success in the Siege of Charleston, Fanning took up the Loyalist banner once again and began recruiting men to his cause. After the Battle of Kings Mountain in October 1780, Fanning traveled to Chatham County, North Carolina, where he intended to recruit loyalist soldiers in anticipation of the British entry into that state. In February 1781, General Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis occupied Hillsborough, and Fanning was let loose against Patriot targets in the region, sparring with local Patriot militia, but not taking part in any substantial engagements. After suffering a Pyrrhic victory at the Battle of Guilford Courthouse in March 1781, Cornwallis and the British Army were forced to march to Wilmington, leaving Fanning to recruit more Loyalist militia and stir up trouble in the North Carolina backcountry. Fanning asked for, and received a commission as a colonel of the Loyalist Militia in Randolph and Chatham counties on July 5, 1781. Fanning would often conduct raids with fewer than 12 men, and would capture and ransom or parole leading Patriot sympathizers and political figures. It has been estimated that he fought approximately 36 skirmishes during that year. Among these included a raid on a session of court in Chatham Courthouse, during which engagement Fanning took 53 prisoners, among them court officials, militia officers (including Colonel Ambrose Ramsey, and several members of the North Carolina General Assembly. Fanning was also the principal commander of the Loyalist militia involved in the battle at the House in the Horseshoe in the late summer of 1781, in which engagement Fanning forced the surrender of a force of Patriot militia. By the end of the summer of 1781, Fanning's infamy had attracted a force of approximately 950 Loyalist men to his command. On September 12, 1781, Fanning commenced a daring morning raid on Hillsborough, North Carolina, where the Patriot government of that state was based at the time. Fanning was able to capture North Carolina Governor Thomas Burke, along with 200 other Patriot prisoners, and escaped on the way to Wilmington. Brigadier General John Butler, the commanding officer of the Hillsborough District Brigade of