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AMERICANS AT BARRANCAS
In May of 1818, the American military crossed the Georgia border into Spain's Florida.
It had been five years of uneasy peace since the young America of 1818 won
its final war with England. The nation, under the leader-ship of President
James Monroe, could turn towards the uncharted West, and speculations
regarding the Spanish territory to the South, known as Florida. With its
dominance of the continent's Southern gulf coast and the vast peninsula
jutting towards the trade routes of the Caribbean and beyond, the potential
did not go unnoticed by a government with a determined will for the concept
of manifest destiny.
To complicate matters, this frontier wilderness of Florida, sparsely
populated in all but a handful) of hardscrabble towns and out-post forts,
provided a lawless sanctuary for hostile Indian bands allied with former
slaves from the plantations of Southern America, impervious to US authority.
In the hands of a weakening Colonial rule, the place was fertile ground for
all manner of intrigues and foreign mischief as well. The factious violence
was already spreading. Brutal raids by these tribes, Seminoles in
particular, into settlements of Alabama and Georgia, became murderous. On
their farms and river ways, all white americans were in peril. It became
clear to the Americans that the nation would somehow have to bring Florida
under some manner of submission and fruitless appeals with Spanish
authorities made a military solution ever more likely.
Fortunately for Monroe, he had only to turn to a warrior that was the very
match to the great Napoleon himself; the most famous American of this age;
hero of the triumph at New Orleans and the 1812 war; General Andrew Jackson.
The victorious Commander accepted the task while on an extended respite at
his Tennessee home and began raising a force. The purpose for this
expedition was to pursue and destroy the Seminole tribes that waged war in
the American Southeast; however, knowing that the objections of Spain over
this "international incident" would be easily weathered by the sheer
dynamics of America's diplomatic powers, an undertone of the order was
evident in the statement "... You may find there are other objectives for
you to accomplish." Jackson understood clearly the interpretation of this
vague language. As commander of the Southern 7th Military District, he would
gather the US Army's 4th Regiment of Infantry and guns from the US 1st Corps
of Artillery and his faithful Tennessee Militia Volunteers. Young junior
officers selected for this campaign considered it a stroke of good fortune
to serve at the side of this great warrior. Many in this command had served
with Jackson during the War of 1812 and were veterans of the Battle of New
Orleans.
The Army moved West and South stopping on the banks of the Apalachicola
River at the ruins of "Negro Fort" that had been destroyed by US Navy
gunboats two years earlier. Jackson assigned his Engineer Officer, Lt. James
Gadsden and a work party to remain there to reconstruct the fort. The army
move again pursuing and putting to death all Seminoles who resisted or stood
to fight while seeking Chief, Billy Bowlegs who was believed to have a
stronghold in the region of the Suwannee River.
In May of 1818, the combined military expedition crossed the Georgia border
into Florida and began their campaign into Spain's Florida. The Army came
upon the Fort at St. Marks, where Jackson "suggested" that the Spanish
garrison relinquish the fort to the Americans during their campaign. From
this position, Jackson's soldiers led forays into the wilderness. Two
British citizens; Robert Ambrister, an adventurer, along with Scottish
trader Alexander Arbuthnot, were encountered and captured. The General
quickly concluded they were spies aiding the Indians and after a brief
court-martial, had the two executed an international outrage that Britain
would severely protest when the facts were later disclosed.
With most of the Seminole villages burned and warriors run to ground and
eliminated, Jackson turned back to the North but with an addition-al, lesser
heralded, agenda that would turn his armies west towards the Spanish
stronghold and port town of Pensacola, on the Gulf of Mexico. This was the
unspoken objective- the back channel orders that Washington had inferred to
Jackson regarding "other objectives" while in Florida. Permitting British
troops to operate against America in the recent War of 1812, and the
sup-port, harboring and providing for warring Indians seemed justification
for the siege and occupation of the town. On May 27, The Americans were
positioned to the North of the town where an exchange of cannon fire
commenced. A cease fire was declared briefly as Jackson and his staff met
with Spanish Governor, Col. Jose Masot and city officials protested with
out-rage the invasion and with equal rage, Jackson demanded surrender of the
town immediately. No compromise was attained, so Jackson declared that the
siege would continue at dawn, During the night, Masot and his governmental
staff made their way to Ft. San Carlos de Barrancas where they would oversee
the defense of the town. Jackson moved his men around a bayou to the West of
the fort and waited for first light. With the coming of dawn, another brief
exchange of guns began during which Masot clearly realized the power
arranged before him and the futility of his own position. He conceeded the
town to Jackson. No further hostilities were committed. General Andrew
Jackson, seeing his mission concluded, returned again to his home in
Tennessee.
The power of the American military and her determination of continental
expansion convinced the King of Spain to sell off the troublesome colony of
Florida to the Americans who were obviously prepared to shed blood for the
place. Andrew Jackson would return to the new American territory of Florida
as the first Governor. In 1829, Andrew Jackson became the seventh President
of the United States but his administration would again have to go to war
with the Seminoles beginning in 1835 and lasting throughout his term and
beyond until 1842 and a third time a decade later.
With this tortuous beginning, Florida eventually found its way to becoming
the 27th State in 1845 ...a long journey from the humid and hostile Spanish
outpost to what it is today.
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