So, a book you want to read is Three People, One King by Jim Piecuch. He breaks down the civil war that broke out in the South, and particularly Georgia, during the Revolution. In this war, whites, blacks, and Native Americans all fought each other and among themselves to shape the future of Georgia.

Georgia was, by a notable margin, the least-populated of the thirteen rebellious colonies, and one of the more moderate in the years leading up to the start of open warfare in 1775.Georgia did not send delegates to the First Continental Congress, and a Whig/Patriot government only ever really established itself in the state in July (4th!), 1775. Many loyalists from Georgia were driven out to East Florida, which the British had won in the Seven Years war. Patriot authorities used militia and Continental soldiers to establish their authority and scare off dissent, while also defending against the odd border raid from loyalists or British-aligned Indians. From 1775-1777, the major seat of the war was in the Northern states, as the British tried to take and hold Boston, New York, Albany, and Philadelphia.

The failure or ineffectiveness of those operations, coupled with the entry of the French into the war, made the British rethink their focus on the North. The Southern colonies, according to Southern loyalists petitioning anyone who would give them the time of day, was full of loyalists waiting for a British army to organize around. Operations in the South could easily reinforce garrisons in the Caribbean, and vice-versa, while also giving Caribbean troops something productive to do during the invansion-proof hurrican season. In December 1778, the British landed a force outside of Savannah, found the city's defenses lacking, and captured it. A second expedition marched north from Florida, liaising with Creek Indians as they went. For both forces, white loyalist turnout was lower than expected. This was offset somewhat, thought not completely, by the higher than expected number of slaves who ran away from their Patriot masters to join the British. Still, the British set about reestablishing royal control of the colony, and Georgia was the only colony to receive a new royal governor during the war.

The most significant American attempt to take the colony back was a failed siege of Savannah in 1779. The besieging force was a mix of American and French forces (including a black regiment raised in Sainte Domingue), with some notable command positions occupied by Polish and Swedish (!) officers. The siege ultimately failed, in part due to infighting and indecision among the officers. Casimir Pulanski, a Polish officer leading an American cavalry troop, tried to force an action by charging the British works on horseback, but succeeded only in getting himself killed. Toussaint L'Overture, serving in the ranks of the Sainte Domingue regiment, likely learned some important lessons here that helped make him a leader in his own Revolution.

Elsewhere in the state/colony, the action fell into a familiar pattern. British forces would march out into the countryside to chase off and defeat rebels and shore up loyalist support. When those forces were called away to other duties, rebel forces would descend on the areas the British had just evacuated, defeat loyalist forces there, and either imprison or execute loyalist leaders.