The Continental victory at Saratoga in 1777 and the Treaty with the
French in 1778 transformed the war, especially for the British.
Increased French aid to the Continentals was very slow in coming;
coordinated military activity between the two new allies was even slower
to happen. Meanwhile, the British were immediately faced with a global
conflict with France. As a result, the British changed their strategy
yet again in 1778. Rather than mounting a full-scale military campaign
against the Continental Army, the British decided to focus their efforts
on the loyalists, who they still believed were the majority of the
American population.
Believing the loyalists were strongest in the South and hoping to
enlist the slaves in their cause--an objective that seems incompatible
with a focus on Southern loyalists--the British turned their efforts to
the South. In fact, the British had some important military successes in
the South. They occupied Savannah, Georgia, in late 1778 and
Charleston, South Carolina, in May 1779. They also struck a disastrous
blow on General Horatio Gates' forces at Camden, South Carolina, in
August 1780.
Although the British were successful in most conventional battles,
the fighting in the South, under the leadership of Generals Nathanael
Greene and Daniel Morgan, turned toward guerrilla and hit-and-run
warfare. Moreover, the British had overestimated loyalist sentiment in
the South; their presence actually forced many, who had been sitting out
the war, to take sides, most in favor of the Patriots. At the same
time, the British underestimated the logistical problems they would
encounter, especially when their army was in the interior away from the
supplies offered by their fleet. Patriot forces, on the other hand, were
supplied and could hide among the local population. As a result, the
British southern strategy was a dismal failure.