Patriot forces under the command of Major Andrew Williamson had been dispatched to the area to recover a shipment of gunpowder and ammunition intended for the Cherokee that had been seized by Loyalists.

[2] Loyalist sentiment in the back country was dominated by Thomas Fletchall, a vocal and active opponent of Patriot attempts to resist King and Parliament.

[5] Events were largely nonviolent for some time, although there were isolated instances of tarring and feathering, but tensions were high as the sides struggled for control of munitions.

Governor William Campbell dissolved the provincial assembly, and fearing for his personal safety, fled to the Royal Navy sloop of war HMS Tamar.

[8] The council began improving and expanding Charleston's coastal defenses; eventually this culminated in a bloodless exchange of cannon fire between Patriot positions and Royal Navy ships in the harbor on November 11 and 12.

[10] On November 8 it voted to send Colonel Richard Richardson, the commander of the Camden militia, to recover the shipment and arrest Loyalist leaders.

Finding the small town to be not very defensible, he established a camp on John Savage's plantation, provided a field of fire for the force's three swivel guns.

The Loyalists next constructed a large wooden shield behind which they sought to bring incendiaries closer to the fort, but they only succeeded in "[setting] Fire to their own Engine themselves", according to one account, and it was not proof against the Patriot's guns.

Governor Campbell described the Loyalists as lacking in effective leadership, and historian Martin Cann speculates that it may have been caused by Colonel Richardson's preparations or approach.

[19] Some of the Loyalist leaders who escaped Richardson's expedition, including most notably Thomas Brown, fled to West Florida where they joined regular and irregular forces serving with the British.

These events resulted in the end of large-scale Loyalist activity in the southern Appalachians, although what was in many ways a civil war became progressively more brutal in the following years.