He did this in two ways, first by holding a section of the colony that the British could not penetrate, which raised morale of Patriot forces elsewhere. Secondly he gave residents receipts for horses, boats, weapons and food supplies that were commandeered, or were destroyed to keep from falling into the hands of the British. This was in stark contract to the British officers Banastre Tarleton and James Wemyss, who burned and looted Williamsburg early in the war. The British burning of the Williamsburg and Indiantown Presbyterian churches, which the British called "hotbeds of sedition," angered the settlers.