In May 1778 Maitland was commanding marines against vessels in the Delaware during the American Revolutionary War and became Lieutenant-colonel of the 1st Battalion, 71st Regiment of Foot, Fraser's Highlanders in October 1778. He fought at the Battle of Stono Ferry, where he commanded the British redoubt, and helped lift the Siege of Savannah. He died of malaria on 22 October 1779 shortly after the siege was lifted. For over a century, he was interred in a tomb in Savannah's Colonial Park Cemetery, alongside his rival Nathanael Greene. In 1981, Dr. Preston Russell gained permission from the city to enter the tomb. He took Maitland's bones back to his native Scotland.