[5] He supplied arms to the Loyalists, who were defeated locally at the Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge in February 1776.
[5] Cruden ran the sequestered estates, for the benefit of the British forces; they had been taken from leading Whigs, such as Ralph Izard, Francis Marion, John Mathews, Arthur Middleton, William Moultrie, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney and John Rutledge.
[8] On 5 January 1782, Cruden wrote to John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore, urging the recruitment by the British military in South Carolina of a force of 10,000 slaves.
[11] Still Cruden wrote, assiduously, to Carlos III of Spain, seeking support for the Loyalist exiles, now that the American war was over.
[4][14] He made his way to Nova Scotia, to see Colonel Thomas Dundas who dealt with Loyalist claims for compensation, being in Halifax on 30 October 1786.