The regiment remained inactive till the month of February 1779, when it was employed in an enterprise against Brier Creek, forty miles below Augusta, a strong position defended by upwards of two thousand men, besides one thousand occupied in detached stations. In front was a deep swamp, rendered passable only by a narrow causeway, and on each flank thick woods nearly impenetrable, but the position was open to the rear. In order to dislodge the Americans from this position Lieutenant-Colonel Duncan Macpherson, with the first battalion of the Highlanders, was directed to march upon the front of the position; whilst Colonel Prevost and Lieutenant Colonels Maitland and Macdonald, with the 2d battalion of the Highlanders, the light infantry, and a detachment of provincials, were ordered to attempt the rear by a circuitous route of forty-nine miles. Notwithstanding the length of the march through a difficult country, the movements were so well regulated, that in ten minutes after Colonel Macpherson appeared at the head of the causeway in front, Colonel Maitland's fire was heard in the rear, and Sir James Baird, with the light infantry rushed through the openings in the swamp on the left flank. The attack was made on March 3rd. The Americans under General Ashe were completely surprised. The entire army was lost by death, captivity and dispersion. On this occasion one fourth of General Lincoln's army was destroyed. The loss of the Highlanders being five soldiers killed, and one officer and twelve rank and file wounded.
General Prevost was active and next determined to invade South Carolina. Towards the close of April he crossed the Savannah river, with the troops engaged at Brier's Creek, and a large body of royalists and Creek Indians, and made slow marches towards Charleston. In the meantime General Lincoln had been active and recruited vigorously, and now mustered five thousand men under his command. Whilst General Prevost marched against General Lincoln's front, the former ordered the 71st to make a circuitous march of several miles and attack the rear. Guided by a party of Creek Indians the Highlanders entered a woody swamp at eleven o'clock at night, in traversing which they were frequently up to the shoulders in the swamp. They emerged from the woods the next morning at eight o'clock with their ammunition destroyed. They were now within a half mile of General Lincoln's rear guard which they attacked and drove from their position without sustaining loss. Reaching Charleston on May 11th General Prevost demanded instantly its surrender, but a dispatch from General Lincoln notified the people that he was coming to their relief. General Prevost, fearing that General Lincoln would cut off his communication with Savannah, commenced his retreat towards that city, at midnight, along the coast. This route exposed his troops to much suffering, having to march through unfrequented woods, salt water marshes and swamps. Lieutenant-Colonel Prevost, the Quartermaster-General, and a man of the name of Macgirt, and a person under his orders, had gone on a foraging expedition, and were not returned from their operations; and in order to protect them Colonel Maitland, with a battalion of Highlanders and some Hessians, was placed in a hastily constructed redoubt at Stono Ferry, ten miles below Charleston. On June 20th these men were attacked by a part of General Lincoln's force. When their advance was reported, Captain Colin Campbell, with four officers and fifty-six men, was sent out to reconnoitre. A thick wood covered the approach of the Americans till they reached a clear field on which Captain Campbell's party stood. Immediately he attacked the Americans and a desperate resistance ensued; all the officers and non-commissioned officers of the Highlanders fell, seven soldiers alone remaining on their feet. It was not intended that the resistance should be of such a nature, but most of the men had been captured in Boston Harbor, and had only been recently exchanged, and this being their first appearance before an enemy, and thought it was disgraceful to retreat when under fire. When Captain Campbell fell he directed his men to make the best of their way to the redoubt; but they refused to obey, and leave their officers on the field. The Americans, at this juncture ceased firing, and the seven soldiers carried their officers along with them, followed by such as were able to walk. The Americans advanced on the redoubts with partial success. The Hessians having got into confusion in the redoubt, which they occupied, the Americans forced an entrance, but the 71st having driven back those who attacked their redoubt, Colonel Maitland was enabled to detach two companies of Highlanders to the support of the Hessians. The Americans were instantly driven out of the redoubt at the point of the bayonet, and while preparing for another attempt, the 2d battalion of Highlanders came up, when despairing of success they retreated at all points, leaving many killed and wounded.
The resistance offered by Captain Campbell afforded their friends in the redoubts time to prepare, and likewise to the 2d battalion in the island to march by the difficult and circuitous route left open for them. The delay in the 2d battalion was also caused by a want of boats. Two temporary ferry-boats had been established, but the men in charge ran away as soon as the firing began. The Americans opened a galling fire on the men as they stood on the banks of the river. Lieutenant Robert Campbell plunged into the water and swam across, followed by a few soldiers, returned with the boats, and thus enabled the battalion to cross over to the support of their friends. Five hundred and twenty Highlanders and two hundred Hessians successfully resisted all the efforts of the Americans twelve hundred strong, and this with a trifling loss in comparison to the service rendered. When the Americans fell back, the whole garrison sallied out, but the light troops covered the retreat so successfully, that all the wounded were brought off. In killed and wounded the Americans lost one hundred and forty-six and one hundred and fifty missing. The British loss was three officers and thirty-two soldiers killed and wounded. Three days afterwards, the foraging party having returned, the British evacuated Stono Ferry, and retreated from island to island, until they reached Beaufort, on Port Royal, where Colonel Maitland was left with seven hundred men, while General Prevost, with the main body of the army, continued his difficult and harrassing march to Savannah.
In the month of September 1779, the count D'Estaing arrived on the coast of Georgia with a fleet of twenty sail of the line, two fifty gun ships, seven frigates, and transports, with a body of troops on board for the avowed purpose of retaking Savannah. The garrison consisted of two companies of the 16th regiment, two of the 60th, one battalion of Highlanders, and one weak battalion of Hessians; in all about eleven hundred effective men. The combined force of French and Americans was four thousand nine hundred and fifty men. While General Lincoln and his force were approaching the French effected a landing at Beuley and Thunderbolt, without opposition. General McIntosh urged count D'Estaing to make an immediate assault upon the British works. This advice was rejected, and count D'Estaing advanced within three miles of Savannah and demanded an unconditional surrender to the king of France. General Prevost asked for a truce until next day which was granted, and in the meanwhile twelve hundred white men and negroes were employed in strengthening the fortifications and mounting additional ordnance. This truce General Lincoln at once perceived was fatal to the success of the beseigers, for he had ascertained that Colonel Maitland, with his troops, was on his way from Beaufort, to reinforce General Prevost, and that his arrival within twenty-four hours, was the object which was designed by the truce. Colonel Maitland, conducted by a negro fisherman, passed through a creek with his boats, at high water, and concealed by a fog, eluded the French, and entered the town on the afternoon of September 17th. His arrival gave General Prevost courage, and towards evening he sent a note to count D'Estaing, bearing a positive refusal to capitulate. All energies were now bent towards taking the town by regular approaches. Ground was broken on the morning of September 23rd, and night and day the besiegers plied the spade, and so vigorously was the work prosecuted, that in the course of twelve days fifty-three cannon and fourteen mortars were mounted. During these days two sorties were made. The morning of September 24th, Major Colin Graham, with the light company of the 16th regiment, and the two Highland battalions, dashed out, attacked the besiegers, drove them from their works, and then retired with the loss of Lieutenant Henry Macpherson of the 71st, and three privates killed, and fifteen wounded. On September 27th, Major Macarthur, with the pickets of the Highlanders advanced with such caution and address, that, after firing a few rounds, the French and Americans, mistaking their object, commenced a fire on each other, by which they lost fifty men; and, in the meantime Major Macarthur retired. These sorties had no effect on the general operations.
On the morning of October 4th, the batteries having been all completed and manned, a terrible bombardment was opened upon the British works and the town. The French frigate Truite also opened a cannonade. Houses were shattered, men, women and children were killed or maimed, and terror reigned. Day and night the cannonade was continued until the 9th. Victory was within the grasp of the besiegers, when count D'Estaing became impatient and determined on an assault. Just before dawn on the morning of the 9th four thousand five hundred men of the combined armies moved to the assault, in the midst of a dense fog and under cover of a heavy fire from the batteries. They advanced in three columns, the principal one commanded by count D'Estaing in person, assisted by General Lincoln; another column by count Dillon. The left column taking a great circuit got entangled in a swamp, and, being exposed to the guns of the garrison, was unable to advance. The others made the advance in the best manner, but owing to the fire of the batteries suffered severely. Many entered the ditch, and even ascended and planted the colors on the parapet, where several were killed. Captain Tawse, of the 71st, who commanded the redoubt, plunged his sword into the first man who mounted, and was himself shot dead by the man who followed. Captain Archibald Campbell then assumed the command, and maintained his post till supported by the grenadiers of the 60th, when the assaulting column being attacked on both sides, was completely broken, and driven back with such expedition, that a detachment of the 71st, ordered by Colonel Maitland to hasten and assist those who were so hard pressed by superior numbers, could not overtake them. The other columns, seeing the discomfiture of the principal attack, retired without any further attempt.
It is the uniform testimony of those who have studied this siege that if count D'Estaing had immediately on landing made the attack, the garrison must have succumbed. General Lincoln, although his force was greatly diminished by the action just closed, wished to continue the siege; but count D'Estaing resolved on immediate departure. General Lincoln was indignant, but concealed his wrath; and being too weak to carry on the siege alone, he at last consented to abandon it.
The French loss, in killed and wounded, was six hundred and thirty-seven men, and the American four hundred and fifty-seven. The British lost one captain, two subalterns, four sergeants, and thirty-two soldiers, killed; and two captains, two sergeants, two drummers, and fifty-six soldiers, wounded. Colonel Maitland was attacked with a bilious disease during the siege and soon after died. The British troops had been sickly before Savannah was attacked; but the soldiers were reanimated, and sickness, in a manner, was suspended, during active operations. But when the Americans withdrew, and all excitement had ceased, sickness returned with aggravated violence, and fully one fourth the men were sent to the hospital.
While these operations were going on in Georgia and South Carolina a disaster overtook the grenadiers of the 71st who were posted at Stony Point and Verplanks, in the state of New York. Washington planned the attack on Stony Point and deputed General Wayne to execute it. So secretly was the whole movement conducted, that the British garrison was unsuspicious of danger. At eight o'clock, on the evening of July 15, 1779, General Wayne took post in a hollow, within two miles of the fort on Stony Point, and there remained unperceived until midnight, when he formed his men into two columns, Lieutenant-Colonel Fleury leading one division and Major Stewart the other. At the head of each was a forlorn hope of twenty men. Both parties were close upon the works before they were discovered. A skirmish with the pickets at once ensued, the Americans using the bayonet only. In a few moments the entire works were manned, and the Americans were compelled to press forward in the face of a terrible storm of grape shot and musket balls. Over the ramparts and into the fort both columns pushed their way. At two o'clock the morning of the 16th, General Wayne wrote to Washington:
"The fort and garrison, with Colonel Johnson, are ours. The officers and men behaved like men who were determined to be free."
The British lost nineteen soldiers killed, and one captain, two subalterns, and seventy two soldiers, wounded; and, in all, including prisoners, six hundred. The principal part of this loss fell upon the picket, commanded by Lieutenant Cumming of the 71st, which resisted one of the columns till almost all of the men of the picket, were either killed or wounded, Lieutenant Cumming being among the latter. The Americans lost fifteen killed and eighty-three wounded.