Savannah was pillaged by the British, and General Howe later faced a court martial for abandoning not only Savannah, but giving up all of Georgia. The defense of Georgia continued with the troops that had not fled to the Carolinas. Among those was Samuel Elbert who, with his remaining troops, briefly occupied Augusta, then deployed to the Brier Creek area where they continually harassed Colonel Campbell’s army as it marched toward Augusta. The weather was cold and conditions harsh. On January 29, 1779, Elbert wrote in a letter to General Lincoln, commander of the Southern army: