The Revolutionary War brought him back into politics. He was one of the Georgia Signers of the Declaration of Independence. He succeeded in uniting coastal and rural dissidents into a loose coalition that demonstrated its strength by electing Gwinnett commander of Georgia's Continental battalion when the state's Provincial Congress met in early 1776. When his election proved controversial, Gwinnett stepped aside and accepted instead an appointment to the Continental Congress, then meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Lachlan McIntosh commanded the battalion in Gwinnett's stead, and these two would become bitter enemies.