 Governor Martin rallied Loyalist forces from his offshore redoubt.During winter 1775/1776, the British army sent seven regular regiments and two companies of artillery to the lower Cape Fear region, aspiring to rouse Loyalist colonists to take arms to restore Royal Governor Martin to power.Colonel James Moore, however, routed a numerically superior force of Scottish Highlanders in Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge on 27 February 1776, and the British abandoned their strategy.