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1778 saw the Patriots push the British back in South Carolina eventually forcing a division of their forces half retreating to Charleston and the other half retreating back to Georgia. In May Charleston was surrounded on land and the French were keeping British fleet from resupplying or evacuating the surrounded troops. The assault on the city brought about heavy casualties on both sides including Nathaniel Greene who was in commanding the Continental army. Benedict Arnold assumed command of the army while Greene recovered from his injury. Looking to make up for the loss of troops Arnold offered freedom to those slaves who would fight. This caused a lot of rumblings and almost divided the army until Arnold who had briefly trained those who he had offered freedom and with them and northern units marched and defeated a series of isolated British units and started marching south again. The rest of the army rejoined and by September they had cornered the retreating British in Savanah where they were joined by French ships and a number of troops from their Caribbean colonies. Late September saw their first attempt to take Savanah fail due to poor communication a second failed attempt again due to poor communication so Arnold meet with French commanders to formulate a better strategy. The meeting bore fruit as the third attempt was successful and left the only British positons in North America in Florida, Halifax, Newport, and New York and the surrounding areas where General Howe had made an attempt to take Philadelphia but barely made it out of New Jersey before he was turned back and Washington repeated the success of crossing the Delaware and capturing a few positions. Plans were made to campaign into Florida and to try and take Bermuda in 1779 but they faced opposition from those who felt the time was right to retake New York.