Loyalist Maj. Andrew DeVeaux, aboard two galleys and one sloop, seized the town of Beaufort. They managed to hold onto the town for about three weeks before being driven off. Brig. Gen. John Barnwell knew that his small force of less than 50 militiamen could not offer any serious opposition, so they merely watched and waited for opportunities to snipe at the Loyalists.

Maj. DeVeaux found a sunken privateer in Moss Island Creek and another captured British ship in Capers creek, and he set out with fourteen men to recover them. Brig. Gen. Barnwell's Patriots ambushed them for fifteen minutes, but three Patriots were wounded.