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Invasion of Georgia (1742) | |||||||
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Part of War of Jenkins' Ear | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
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Commanders and leaders | |||||||
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Strength | |||||||
Land: 900 soldiers, militia & Indians [1] [2] sea: 5 vessels [3] | Land: 1,950 soldiers, marines & militia sea: 36 vessels [1] [2] [4] | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
Light | Over two hundred killed, more captured or wounded |
In the 1742 Invasion of Georgia, Spanish forces based in Florida attempted to seize and occupy disputed territory held by the British colony of Georgia. The campaign was part of a larger conflict which became known as the War of Jenkins' Ear. Local British forces under the command of the Governor James Oglethorpe rallied and defeated the Spaniards at the Battle of Bloody Marsh and the Battle of Gully Hole Creek, forcing them to withdraw. Britain's ownership of Georgia was formally recognized by Spain in the subsequent Treaty of Madrid.
The colony of Georgia had been an issue of contention between Britain and Spain since its foundation in 1733. Spain claimed the territory for its own colony of Florida and disputed what was regarded as an illegal occupation by the British settlers. The Convention of Pardo in 1739 had attempted to settle the dispute, but Spain still refused to abandon its claim. When the War of Jenkins' Ear broke out that same year, Spain began drawing up plans for an invasion.
The British governor of Georgia, James Oglethorpe, organized a small force and launched a British invasion of Florida in 1740, hoping to preempt a Spanish invasion of Georgia. The British besieged St. Augustine but were forced to withdraw. The stage was then set for the Spanish commander Manuel de Montiano to launch his long-awaited attack on Georgia. Because of the pressing demands on British resources in other theatres, no further reinforcements or aid could be dispatched to defend the colony from attack.
Spanish governor Don Manuel de Montiano commanded the invasion force, which by some estimates totalled between 4,500 and 5,000 men. Of that number, roughly 1,900 to 2,000 were ground assault troops. Oglethorpe's forces, consisting of regulars, militia, and native Indians numbered fewer than 1,000. The garrison at Fort St. Simons resisted the invasion with cannonade, but was not able to prevent the landing. On the 5 July 1742 Montiano landed nearly 1,900 men from 36 ships near Gascoigne Bluff, close to the Frederica River. Faced with a superior force, Oglethorpe decided to withdraw from Fort St. Simons before the Spanish could mount an assault. He ordered the small garrison to spike the guns, and to slight the fort (doing what damage they could), to deny the Spanish full use of the military asset. The Spanish took over the fort the following day, establishing it as their base on the island. Montiano began gathering intelligence about the strength of British opposition.
After landing troops and supplies, and consolidating their position at Fort St. Simons, the Spanish began to cautiously reconnoiter beyond their perimeter. They found the road between Fort St. Simons and Fort Frederica, but first assumed the narrow track was just a farm road. On July 18, the Spanish undertook a reconnaissance in force along the road with approximately 115 men under the command of Captain Sebastian Sanchez. One and a half miles from Fort Frederica, Sanchez' column made contact with Oglethorpe's soldiers, under command of Noble Jones. The ensuing skirmish became known as the Battle of Gully Hole Creek. The Spanish were routed, with nearly a third of their soldiers either killed or captured. Oglethorpe's forces advanced up Military Road in the direction of Fort St. Simons, in pursuit of the retreating Spanish. Spanish prisoners revealed that a larger Spanish force was advancing in the opposite direction, along the road from Fort St. Simons to Frederica. Oglethorpe left to gather reinforcements.
The British advance party, in pursuit of the defeated Spanish reconnaissance force, engaged in a subsequent skirmish, then fell back in face of advancing Spanish reinforcements. When the British reached a bend in the road, Lieutenants Southerland and Macoy ordered the column to stop. There, the regiments and allied Indians took cover in the dense forest. They watched as the Spanish broke ranks, stacked arms and, taking out their kettles, prepared to cook dinner. The British forces attacked the Spanish off-guard, killing roughly two hundred Spaniards. [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] The Battle of Bloody Marsh blunted the Spanish advance, and ultimately proved decisive. Oglethorpe was credited with the victory.
Montiano regrouped his forces and stood poised for a further advance. Oglethorpe continued to press the Spanish, trying to dislodge them from the island. A few days later, approaching a Spanish settlement on the south side, he learned of a Frenchman who had deserted the British and gone to the Spanish. Worried that the deserter might report the true number of the small British force, Oglethorpe spread out his drummers, to make them sound as if they were accompanying a larger force. He wrote to the deserter, addressing him as if a spy for the British, saying that the man just needed to continue his stories until Britain could send more men. The prisoner who was carrying the letter took it to the Spanish officers, as Oglethorpe had hoped. The timely arrival of British ships reinforced the misconception among the Spanish that British reinforcements were arriving. The Spanish left St. Simons on 25 July, ending their last invasion of colonial Georgia.
In the months after the invasion, Oglethorpe considered launching further counter-attacks against Florida, but circumstances were not favourable. The focus of the war had shifted from the Americas to Europe and arms, supplies and troops were not readily available. The region descended into an uneasy peace, occasionally punctuated by minor skirmishes. The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle ended the war in 1748 and recognised the status of Georgia as a British colony, formally ratified by Spain in the subsequent Treaty of Madrid. Its position was further secured in 1763 when Florida became a British possession as part of the Treaty of Paris ending the Seven Years' War.
The War of Jenkins' Ear is commemorated annually on the last Saturday in May at Wormsloe Plantation in Savannah, Georgia. [12]
The War of Jenkins' Ear was a conflict lasting from 1739 to 1748 between Britain and Spain. The majority of the fighting took place in New Granada and the Caribbean Sea, with major operations largely ended by 1742. It was related to the 1740 to 1748 War of the Austrian Succession. The name was coined in 1858 by British historian Thomas Carlyle, and refers to Robert Jenkins, captain of the British brig Rebecca, whose ear was allegedly severed by Spanish coast guards while searching his ship for contraband in April 1731.
St. Simons Island is a barrier island and census-designated place (CDP) located on St. Simons Island in Glynn County, Georgia, United States. The names of the community and the island are interchangeable, known simply as "St. Simons Island" or "SSI", or locally as "The Island". St. Simons is part of the Brunswick metropolitan statistical area, and according to the 2020 U.S. census, the CDP had a population of 14,982. Located on the southeast Georgia coast, midway between Savannah and Jacksonville, St. Simons Island is both a seaside resort and residential community. It is the largest of Georgia's renowned Golden Isles. Visitors are drawn to the Island for its warm climate, beaches, variety of outdoor activities, shops and restaurants, historical sites, and natural environment.
The Province of Georgia was one of the Southern colonies in British America. It was the last of the thirteen original American colonies established by Great Britain in what later became the United States. In the original grant, a narrow strip of the province extended to the Pacific Ocean.
The Battle of Alligator Bridge took place on June 30, 1778, and was the only major engagement in an unsuccessful campaign to conquer British East Florida during the American Revolutionary War. A detachment of Georgia militiamen under the command of General James Screven chased Thomas Brown's Loyalist company into a large position of British regulars established by British Major Mark Prevost and were turned back.
Fort Frederica National Monument, on St. Simons Island, Georgia, preserves the archaeological remnants of a fort and town built by James Oglethorpe between 1736 and 1748 to protect the southern boundary of the British colony of Georgia from Spanish raids. About 630 British troops were stationed at the fort.
Amelia Island is a part of the Sea Islands chain that stretches along the East Coast of the United States from South Carolina to Florida; it is the southernmost of the Sea Islands, and the northernmost of the barrier islands on Florida's Atlantic coast. Lying in Nassau County, Florida, it is 13 miles (21 km) long and approximately 4 miles (6.4 km) wide at its widest point. The communities of Fernandina Beach, Amelia City, and American Beach are located on the island.
The Battle of Bloody Marsh took place on 7 July 1742 between Spanish and British forces on St. Simons Island, part of the Province of Georgia, resulting in a victory for the British. Part of the War of Jenkins' Ear, the battle was for the British fortifications of Fort Frederica and Fort St. Simons, with the strategic goal the sea routes and inland waters they controlled. With the victory, the Province of Georgia established undisputed claim to the island. The British also won the Battle of Gully Hole Creek, which took place on the island the same day.
The Golden Isles of Georgia consist of barrier islands, and the mainland port cities of Brunswick and Darien, on the 100-mile-long coast of the U.S. state of Georgia on the Atlantic Ocean. They include St. Simons Island, Sea Island, Jekyll Island, Little St. Simons Island, Sapelo Island, Blackbeard Island, Historic Darien and Historic Brunswick. The islands are part of a long chain of barrier islands known as the "Sea Islands", located along the coasts of South Carolina, Georgia and northern Florida.
The Battle of Gully Hole Creek was a battle that took place on July 18, 1742 between Spanish and British forces in the Province of Georgia, resulting in a victory for the British. Part of a much larger conflict, known as the War of Jenkins' Ear, the battle was for control of St. Simons Island, the British fortifications of Fort Frederica and Fort St. Simons, and the strategic sea routes and inland waters they controlled. After the victory, the Province of Georgia established undisputed claim to the island, which is now part of the U.S. state of Georgia. The better-known Battle of Bloody Marsh, a skirmish also won by the British, took place on the island the same day.
Fort Mose, originally known as Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose, and later as Fort Mose, or alternatively, Fort Moosa or Fort Mossa, is a former Spanish fort in St. Augustine, Florida. In 1738, the governor of Spanish Florida, Manuel de Montiano, had the fort established as a free black settlement, the first to be legally sanctioned in what would become the territory of the United States. It was designated a US National Historic Landmark on October 12, 1994.
Fort King George State Historic Site is a fort located in the U.S. state of Georgia in McIntosh County, adjacent to Darien. The fort was built in 1721 along what is now known as the Darien River and served as the southernmost outpost of the British Empire in the Americas until 1727. The fort was constructed in what was then considered part of the colony of South Carolina, but was territory later settled as Georgia. It was part of a defensive line intended to encourage settlement along the colony's southern frontier, from the Savannah River to the Altamaha River. Great Britain, France, and Spain were competing to control the American Southeast, especially the Savannah-Altamaha River region.
The siege of St. Augustine was a military engagement that took place during June–July 1740. It involved a British attack on the city of St. Augustine in Spanish Florida and was a part of the much larger conflict known as the War of Jenkins' Ear.
Tabby is a type of concrete made by burning oyster shells to create lime, then mixing it with water, sand, ash and broken oyster shells. Tabby was used by early Spanish settlers in present-day Florida, then by British colonists primarily in coastal South Carolina and Georgia. It is a man-made analogue of coquina, a naturally-occurring sedimentary rock derived from shells and also used for building.
The Wormsloe Historic Site, originally known as Wormsloe Plantation, is a state historic site near Savannah, Georgia, in the southeastern United States. The site consists of 822 acres (3.33 km2) protecting part of what was once the Wormsloe Plantation, a large estate established by one of Georgia's colonial founders, Noble Jones. The site includes a picturesque 1.5 miles (2.4 km) oak avenue, the ruins of Jones' fortified house built of tabby, a museum, and a demonstration area interpreting colonial daily life.
Manuel Joaquín de Montiano y Sopelana was a Spanish General and colonial administrator who served as Royal Governor of La Florida during Florida's First Spanish Period and as Royal Governor of Panama. He defended Florida from an attack by British forces in 1740 and launched his own unsuccessful Invasion of Georgia during the War of Jenkins' Ear.
The Battle of Fort Mose was a significant action of the War of Jenkins' Ear that took place on June 14, 1740 in Spanish Florida. Captain Antonio Salgado commanded a Spanish column of 300 regular troops, backed by the free black militia under Francisco Menéndez and allied Seminole warriors consisting of Indian auxiliaries. They stormed Fort Mose, a strategically crucial position newly held by 170 British soldiers under Colonel John Palmer. Palmer and his garrison had taken the fort from the Spanish as part of James Oglethorpe's offensive to capture St. Augustine.
James Edward Oglethorpe was a British soldier, Member of Parliament, and philanthropist, and the founder of the Province of Georgia in what was then colonial-era British America. As a social reformer, he hoped to resettle Britain's "worthy poor" in the New World, initially focusing on those in debtors' prisons.
Fort St. Andrews was a British colonial coastal fortification built on Cumberland Island, Georgia, in 1736. The fort was built by the British as part of a buffer against Spanish Florida and the colonies to the north. The fort was abandoned and later destroyed by the Spanish in mid-1742.
Fort San Francisco de Pupo was an 18th-century Spanish fort on the west bank of the St. Johns River in Florida, about eighteen miles from St. Augustine, the capital of Spanish Florida. Lying on the old trail to the Spanish province of Apalachee in western Florida, Fort Pupo and its sister outpost, Fort Picolata on the opposite shore of the river, controlled all traffic on the ferry crossing. The remains of Fort Pupo are situated about three miles south of Green Cove Springs in Clay County, near the end of Bayard Point opposite Picolata. The surrounding area is a hammock of southern live oak, southern magnolia, pignut hickory and other typical trees native to the region.
Fort Picolata was an 18th-century Spanish fort on the east bank of the St. Johns River, about eighteen miles from St. Augustine, the capital of Spanish Florida. Lying on the old trail to the Spanish province of Apalachee in western Florida, Fort Picolata and its sister outpost, Fort San Francisco de Pupo, controlled all traffic at the ferry crossing where the river narrows considerably, a natural pass called "Salamatoto" by the Indians. The first defense works at the site, built soon after 1700 as an outpost of the military defensive network of St. Augustine, were little more than a sentry box surrounded by a palisade.