British strategists viewed the southern colonies, especially lightly-populated Georgia, as the most vulnerable of all. Despite early victories won by the Patriots at Charleston and other settlements, the South became the focus of a British attack starting in 1778. Governor Richard Caswell of North Carolina identified the threat and immediately ordered the militia to regroup. Rutherford, who had been checking on Loyalists since his return to Salisbury in 1776, received word by October. Caswell and Rutherford met in Kinston, North Carolina, on November 25 to discuss the specifics of Rutherford's assignment. Apparently, a fleet of British ships was en route from New York City and heavily endangered key coastal cities. Rutherford amassed a force, which reached the border of South Carolina by early December, and proceeded to establish headquarters near Savannah in Purrysburg, South Carolina, the following month.