In South Carolina, the Revolutionary War took on many characteristics of a civil war, as supporters of independence, the Whigs or Patriots, fought neighbors and kinsfolk who remained loyal to the King, the Tories or Loyalists. Both sides commandeered food, supplies, horses, and livestock from the rural population, while most people, black, white, and red, probably wanted only to be left alone. Late in the spring of 1782, as British military efforts in South Carolina collapsed, a treaty between Brig. Gen. Francis Marion and Pee Dee Loyalist leader Maj. Micaiah Ganey was about to expire. On June 2, Marion wrote Ganey proposing a new agreement to prevent the effusion of blood and distress of women and children, and invited him to meet at Burch’s Mill, a farming settlement, grist mill, and river ferry that was a well known stopping place for Whig, Tory, and British forces alike. On June 8, 1782, after intense negotiation, Marion and Ganey signed a new treaty in which the Loyalists agreed to lay down their arms, return civilian property where possible, and serve in the Patriot militia for six months, signaling the end of partisan warfare in the Pee Dee region.