From all appearances as the year 1778 began, it would not be long before France entered the American War of Independence. British movements toward reconciliation with their rebellious colonies acted as a goad to the French to has­ ten their entering an alliance with the United States; naval preparations at Brest and Toulon proceeded apace; and the French ministry had promised a naval escort to convoy safely to sea a number of ships laden with munitions for America, assembling at Nantes. British intelligence of the convoy increased the likelihood of a confrontation between British Navy cruisers and the French warships providing the protection.

The British ministry early in the year determined that the damage done to the British cause by shipments of war supplies from Europe to the Continental Army outweighed the danger of pushing the French into a declaration of war. The Admiralty issued secret orders that all vessels suspected of carrying aid to the rebels were to be stopped, even if escorted by French naval ships. At the end of January, H.M.S. Hector seized the French merchant ship Thamas Koulikan in the Bay of Biscay on suspicion of carrying munitions intended for the rebels in America.

John Thornton, whom the American Commissioners in France commissioned late in 1777 to investigate the conditions of captured American sailors held as prisoners in Britain, visited the prisons of Forton and Mill and made a report. In the meantime, under the patronage of Lord Abingdon, philanthropic Britons raised a subscription to improve the prisoners' living conditions. British officials allowed the visits of the American agent and the delivery of private aid, but still refused to negotiate a prisoner exchange.

In mid-February Parliament adopted conciliatory bills proposed by Lord North by which Parliament offered to forsake its right to tax the American colonies. A new commission, eventually to be known as the Carlisle Commission, was to be sent to America to negotiate peace on the basis of that offer. In early March, in the wake of a parliamentary inquiry into the damage the American war was causing to seaborne trade, Lord George Germain sent orders for the coming season's campaign to Sir Henry Clinton, who took over Sir William Howe's command in America on the latter's resignation. Barring the likelihood of a decisive engagement with the Continental Army, the British Army was to forego offensive operations on land and engage in amphibious operations along the northern seacoast. Clinton's objective would be destruction of the rebellious Americans' capacity for "raising a Marine, or continuing their Depredations upon the Trade of this Kingdom, which has been already so much annoyed by their Ships of War and Privateers." In the autumn, British operations were to move to the south, with the goal of taking possession of Georgia and South Carolina.