<P> The war to the west of the Appalachians was largely confined to skirmishing and raids . An expedition of militia was halted due to adverse weather in February 1778 which had set out to destroy British military supplies in settlements along the Cuyahoga River . Later in the year, a second campaign was undertaken to seize the Illinois Country from the British . The Americans captured Kaskaskia on July 4 and then secured Vincennes, although Vincennes was recaptured by Henry Hamilton, the British commander at Detroit . In early 1779, the Americans counterattacked by undertaking a risky winter march, and they secured the surrender of the British at Vincennes, taking Hamilton prisoner . </P> <P> On May 25, 1780, the British launched an expedition into Kentucky as part of a wider operation to clear resistance from Quebec to the Gulf coast . The expedition met with only limited success, though hundreds of settlers were killed or captured . The Americans responded with a major offensive along the Mad River in August which met with some success, but it did little to abate the Indian raids on the frontier . French militia attempted to capture Detroit, but it ended in disaster when Miami Indians ambushed and defeated the gathered troops on November 5 . The war in the west had become a stalemate; the Americans did not have the manpower to simultaneously defeat the hostile Indian tribes and occupy their land . </P> <P> The British turned their attention to conquering the South in 1778, despite their defeat at Saratoga . Prominent Loyalists with great influence in London had convinced them that Loyalist support was high in the South and that a campaign there would inspire an uprising, and the British centered their strategy upon this thinking . A southern campaign also had the advantage of keeping the Royal Navy closer to the Caribbean, where it would be needed to defend lucrative colonies against the Franco - Spanish fleets . </P> <P> On April 19, 1778, three row galleys of the Georgia Navy engaged, defeated, and captured a Royal Navy brigantine, an armed British East Florida provincial sloop, and an armed brig . </P>

Where was the second half of the american revolutionary war primarily fought