Having failed to subdue either New England or the middle colonies, the British now shifted their main attack to the South. The region was torn by internecine warfare made more ferocious by ruthless guerrillas who often used the guise of war to settle personal grievances. An earlier effort to capture Charleston, South Carolina, in late June of 1776, had ended in a British defeat. The British now determined upon a second drive to seize South Carolina, where considerable loyalist sentiment seemed to promise an easy victory.
