British warships that arrived in the Savannah River in January 1776 caused the first crisis in Savannah. The Council of Safety, convinced that Savannah was to be the object of a British attack, placed Governor Wright under house arrest and instructed Colonel Lachlan McIntosh to take charge of the defense of the city. There followed the so-called Battle of the Rice Boats on March 2–3, 1776, when British marines seized rice-laden merchant ships in the Savannah harbor, some of which the militia burned. In fact, the object of the British fleet was the acquisition of provisions for the beleaguered army besieged in Boston. The fleet sailed off with some of the rice and with the fugitive Governor Wright and his chief councilors.