The Battle of Kettle Creek was the first major victory for Patriots in the back country of Georgia during the American Revolutionary War that took place on February 14, 1779. It was fought in Wilkes County about eleven miles from present-day Washington, Georgia. A militia force of Patriots decisively defeated and scattered a Loyalist militia force that was on its way to British-controlled Augusta. The British began their "southern strategy" by sending expeditions from New York City and Saint Augustine, East Florida to capture the port of Savannah, Georgia in late 1778. The New York expedition, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Archibald Campbell, arrived first, landing at Tybee Island on December 3, 1778, and successfully captured Savannah on December 29, 1778. When British Brigadier General Augustine Prevost arrived from Saint Augustine in mid-January, he assumed command of the garrison there and sent a force under Campbell to take control of Augusta and raise Loyalist forces. Boyd was apparently unaware that he was being followed so closely, and his camp, even though guards were posted, was not particularly alert. Pickens advanced, leading the center, with his right flank under Colonel Dooly and his left under Georgia Lieutenant Colonel Elijah Clarke.

Gunfire between Patriot scouts and the camp guards alerted Boyd to the situation. The Patriot flanks then began to emerge from the swamps. The Loyalists, led by Boyd's second in command, Major William Spurgen, engaged the Patriots in battle for 90 minutes. Some of the Loyalists crossed the creek, abandoning horses and equipment. Clarke alertly noticed some high ground across the Kettle Creek that they seemed to be heading for and led some of his men there, having his horse shot from under him in the process. The Loyalist line was eventually broken, and its men were killed, captured, or dispersed. Many of Boyd's men returned home. A significant number were either captured or surrendered themselves to Patriot authorities in the days following the battle, and the fate of some of his men is unknown. Campbell reported that 270 of Boyd's recruits eventually joined him. He organized them into the Royal North Carolina Regiment. When Pickens approached the mortally wounded Boyd after the battle, the Loyalist leader, who had lived in South Carolina before the war and was known to Pickens, asked the Patriot leader to deliver a brooch to his wife and inform her of his fate. This, Pickens eventually did. Of the Loyalist prisoners, only about 20 survived their wounds. British military leaders were outraged over this treatment of what they considered prisoners of war, even before the trial was held.