Next Wednesday, July 27, will mark the 200th anniversary of the U.S. Navy's destruction of the Negro Fort on the Apalachicola River on Saturday, July 27, 1816.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Negro_Fort
This event would begin a series of violent confrontations which would finally result in the FIRST SEMINOLE WAR in 1818 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seminole_Wars
and the U.S. acquisition of Florida in 1819(few realize that regardless of the U.S. conquest of Mobile in 1813, neither Great Britain nor Spain recognized ANY U.S. sovereignty over Dauphin Island until after 1819's Adams-Onis Treaty.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adams%E2%80%93On%C3%ADs_Treaty American claims for reparations for slaves taken by the British from Dauphin Island in 1815 were completely IGNORED because Great Britain considered Dauphin Island to be Spanish and never recognized the April, 1813 U.S. conquest of Mobile Bay.).
Events involving Dauphin Island and the mouth of Mobile Bay would be central to the story of all this conflict from 1816 until 1818.
The Negro Fort on the Apalachicola was a bit of left-over-business that remained from Great Britain's North American Expeditionary Force's attempt to conquer New Orleans which involved the 1814-1815 occupation of Dauphin Island. Over 200 Negro slaves left Dauphin Island with the British and most eventually ended up being granted land to cultivate in Trinidad, although others ended up making lives for themselves in the Bahamas, Bermuda and Newfoundland, with some accompanying British servicemen home to England.
The British occupation of the Gulf Coast also resulted in a large group of Spanish-owned fugitive slaves living on the Apalachicola. These Negroes refused to evacuate and the British left them with promises of support in their struggle along with a fort stocked with cannons, tons of gunpowder as well as thousands of rifles.
By 1816, the State of Georgia along with the United States were already sending surveyors to lay off the 23 million acres taken from the Creeks by the 1814's Treaty of Fort Jackson.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Fort_Jackson
Fort Montgomery near Tensaw in Baldwin County was located in the southwest corner of this new land which went as far north as the south ridge Tennessee Valley and east to include all of wiregrass Georgia to the source of the St. Mary's River. From Fort Montgomery, E.P. Gaines (namesake for D.I.'s Fort Gaines) commanded the U.S. Army's 7th Infantry and their responsibility in 1816 was to make sure things were going to be safe for the surveyors who were about to enter this territory. The Negro Fort was believed to be a stronghold for the war parties responsible for the continuing state of chaos that existed along our present-day Alabama-Florida line.
Preceding the destruction of the Negro Fort, this letter from General Gaines at Fort Montgomery (near the present-day Baldwin County community of Tensaw) to Colonel Clinch at Fort Gaines, Georgia authorized Colonel Clinch to establish what was known as Camp Crawford (later Fort Scott) on the Flint River in present-day Decatur County, Georgia. I have emphasized the portion which deals with protecting the surveyors.
No. 19. General Gaines to colonel Clinch.
Head Quarters, Fort Montgomery, M T.(Mississippi Territory)
23d May, 1816.
Sir, — Your letters up to the 9th instant, have been received. The British agent Hambly, and the Little Prince, and others, are acting a part, which I have been at a loss for some time past to understand. Are they not endeavoring to amuse and divert us from our main object? Their tricks, if they be so, have assumed a serious aspect, and may lead to their destruction; but we have little to apprehend from them. They must be watched with an eye of vigilance. The post near the junction of the rivers, to which I called your attention, in the last month, must be established speedily, even if we have to fight our way to it through the ranks of the whole nation.
THE SURVEYORS HAVE COMMENCED LAYING OFF THE LAND TO BE SOLD AND SETTLED; AND THEY MUST BE PROTECTED. The force of the whole nation cannot arrest your movement down the river on board the boats, if secured up the sides with two inch plank, and covered over with clapboards; nor could all the nation prevent your landing and constructing a stockade work, sufficient to secure you, unless they should previously know the spot at which you intended to land, and had actually assembled at that place previous to. or within four hours of, your landing; but your force is not sufficient to warrant your march to the different villages, as suggested, by land. The whole of your force, (except about forty men, or one company, for the defence of fort Gaines,) should be kept near your boats and supplies, until the new post shall be established. You may then strike at any hostile party near you, with all your disposable force; but, even then, you should not go more than one or two days, march from your fort.
If your supplies of provision and ammunition have reached you, let your detachment move as directed in my letter of the 28th of last month.You can venture to move with twenty five days rations, but you should order a supply to the agency, or fort Gaines, where a boat should be built, and held in readiness to send down, in case any accident should prevent or delay the arrival of a supply which I have ordered from New Orleans.
I enclose you an extract of a letter containing an arrangement for the supply, by water, and have to direct that you will provide a boat, and despatch it with an officer and fifty men to meet the vessels from New Orleans, as soon as you are advised of their being on the river One of your large boats will answer the purpose, provided you have no barge or keel boat. Should the boats meet with opposition, at what is called the Negro Fort, arrangements will immediately be made for its destruction, and for that purpose you will be supplied with two eighteen pounders and one howitzer, with fixt ammunition, and implements complete, to be sent in a vessel to accompany the provision. 1 have likewise ordered fifty thousand musket cartridges, some rifles, swords, etc. Should you be compelled to go against the Negro Fort, you will land at a convenient point above it, and force a communication with the commanding officer of the vessels below, and arrange with him your plan of attack. Upon this subject, you shall hear from me again, as soon as I am notified of the time at which the vessels will sail from New Orleans.
With great respect and esteem, Your obedient servant,
(Signed) EDMUND P. GAINES, ) Major general commanding.
Lieut, col. 1). L. Clinch, or officer commanding on the Chattahooche.
A true copy. — Rob. R. Ruffin, Aid-de-camp.
The day before he ordered Clinch to establish Camp Crawford near present-day Bainbridge, Georgia, General Gaines had already decided it was not feasible to try to supply this new fort by road and ordered thirty thousand rations from New Orleans shipped along the coast by boat and then up the Apalachicola.
Fort Montgomery ~ May 22, 1816
Sir, — By a letter I have received from lieutenant colonel Clinch, commanding a battalion of the 4th regiment infantry, on the Chatahoochie, I learn that in the early part of the present month, a party of Indians surprized and took from the immediate vicinity of his camp, two privates sent out to guard a drove of beef cattle, purchased for the subsistence of the troops. The cattle, amounting to thirty head, were also taken; the Indians were pursued forty five miles, on a path leading to St. Marks, but being mounted and having travelled all night, escaped with their prisoners and booty. This outrage, preceded by the murder- of two of our citizens, Johnson and McCaskey, by Indians below the lines, and followed by certain indications of general hostility, such as the war dance, and drinking war physic, leaves no doubt that we shall be compelled to destroy the hostile towns. The detached situation of the post, which 1 have ordered lieutenant colonel Clinch to establish near the Apalachicola, will expose us to great inconvenience and hazard, in obtaining supplies by land, particularly in the event of war, as the road will be bad, and the distance from the settlements of Georgia near one hundred and fifty miles. Having advised with the commander in chief of the division upon this subject, I have determined upon an experiment by water, and for this purpose have to request your co-operation; should you feel authorized to detach a small gun vessel or two as a convoy to the boats charged with our supplies up the Apalachicola, I am persuaded that in doing so, you will contribute much to the benefit of the service, and accommodation of my immediate command in this quarter: the transports will be under the direction of the officer of the gun vessel, and the whole should be provided against an attack by small arms from shore. To guard against accidents, I will direct lieutenant colonel Clinch, to have in readiness, a boat sufficient to carry fifty men, to meet the vessels on the river and assist them up. Should you find it to be convenient to send a convoy, I will thank you to inform me of the date of its departure, and the time which, in your judgment, it will take to arrive at the mouth of the river (Apalachicola.) Enclosed you will receive the best account I can give you, from the information I have received, of the Negro fort upon the Apalachicola. Should we meet with opposition from that fort, it shall be destroyed: and for this purpose the commanding officer above, will be ordered to prepare all his disposable force, to meet the boats at, or just below, the fort, and he will confer with the commanding officer of the gun vessels, upon the plan of attack. I am, with great consideration and esteem, Your obedient servant, (Signed) EDMUND P. GAINES, Major general by brevet. Com. Daniel T. Patterson, U. S. Navy, commanding New Orleans station.
This event would begin a series of violent confrontations which would finally result in the FIRST SEMINOLE WAR in 1818 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seminole_Wars
and the U.S. acquisition of Florida in 1819(few realize that regardless of the U.S. conquest of Mobile in 1813, neither Great Britain nor Spain recognized ANY U.S. sovereignty over Dauphin Island until after 1819's Adams-Onis Treaty.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adams%E2%80%93On%C3%ADs_Treaty American claims for reparations for slaves taken by the British from Dauphin Island in 1815 were completely IGNORED because Great Britain considered Dauphin Island to be Spanish and never recognized the April, 1813 U.S. conquest of Mobile Bay.).
Events involving Dauphin Island and the mouth of Mobile Bay would be central to the story of all this conflict from 1816 until 1818.
The Negro Fort on the Apalachicola was a bit of left-over-business that remained from Great Britain's North American Expeditionary Force's attempt to conquer New Orleans which involved the 1814-1815 occupation of Dauphin Island. Over 200 Negro slaves left Dauphin Island with the British and most eventually ended up being granted land to cultivate in Trinidad, although others ended up making lives for themselves in the Bahamas, Bermuda and Newfoundland, with some accompanying British servicemen home to England.
The British occupation of the Gulf Coast also resulted in a large group of Spanish-owned fugitive slaves living on the Apalachicola. These Negroes refused to evacuate and the British left them with promises of support in their struggle along with a fort stocked with cannons, tons of gunpowder as well as thousands of rifles.
By 1816, the State of Georgia along with the United States were already sending surveyors to lay off the 23 million acres taken from the Creeks by the 1814's Treaty of Fort Jackson.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Fort_Jackson
Fort Montgomery near Tensaw in Baldwin County was located in the southwest corner of this new land which went as far north as the south ridge Tennessee Valley and east to include all of wiregrass Georgia to the source of the St. Mary's River. From Fort Montgomery, E.P. Gaines (namesake for D.I.'s Fort Gaines) commanded the U.S. Army's 7th Infantry and their responsibility in 1816 was to make sure things were going to be safe for the surveyors who were about to enter this territory. The Negro Fort was believed to be a stronghold for the war parties responsible for the continuing state of chaos that existed along our present-day Alabama-Florida line.
Preceding the destruction of the Negro Fort, this letter from General Gaines at Fort Montgomery (near the present-day Baldwin County community of Tensaw) to Colonel Clinch at Fort Gaines, Georgia authorized Colonel Clinch to establish what was known as Camp Crawford (later Fort Scott) on the Flint River in present-day Decatur County, Georgia. I have emphasized the portion which deals with protecting the surveyors.
No. 19. General Gaines to colonel Clinch.
Head Quarters, Fort Montgomery, M T.(Mississippi Territory)
23d May, 1816.
Sir, — Your letters up to the 9th instant, have been received. The British agent Hambly, and the Little Prince, and others, are acting a part, which I have been at a loss for some time past to understand. Are they not endeavoring to amuse and divert us from our main object? Their tricks, if they be so, have assumed a serious aspect, and may lead to their destruction; but we have little to apprehend from them. They must be watched with an eye of vigilance. The post near the junction of the rivers, to which I called your attention, in the last month, must be established speedily, even if we have to fight our way to it through the ranks of the whole nation.
THE SURVEYORS HAVE COMMENCED LAYING OFF THE LAND TO BE SOLD AND SETTLED; AND THEY MUST BE PROTECTED. The force of the whole nation cannot arrest your movement down the river on board the boats, if secured up the sides with two inch plank, and covered over with clapboards; nor could all the nation prevent your landing and constructing a stockade work, sufficient to secure you, unless they should previously know the spot at which you intended to land, and had actually assembled at that place previous to. or within four hours of, your landing; but your force is not sufficient to warrant your march to the different villages, as suggested, by land. The whole of your force, (except about forty men, or one company, for the defence of fort Gaines,) should be kept near your boats and supplies, until the new post shall be established. You may then strike at any hostile party near you, with all your disposable force; but, even then, you should not go more than one or two days, march from your fort.
If your supplies of provision and ammunition have reached you, let your detachment move as directed in my letter of the 28th of last month.You can venture to move with twenty five days rations, but you should order a supply to the agency, or fort Gaines, where a boat should be built, and held in readiness to send down, in case any accident should prevent or delay the arrival of a supply which I have ordered from New Orleans.
I enclose you an extract of a letter containing an arrangement for the supply, by water, and have to direct that you will provide a boat, and despatch it with an officer and fifty men to meet the vessels from New Orleans, as soon as you are advised of their being on the river One of your large boats will answer the purpose, provided you have no barge or keel boat. Should the boats meet with opposition, at what is called the Negro Fort, arrangements will immediately be made for its destruction, and for that purpose you will be supplied with two eighteen pounders and one howitzer, with fixt ammunition, and implements complete, to be sent in a vessel to accompany the provision. 1 have likewise ordered fifty thousand musket cartridges, some rifles, swords, etc. Should you be compelled to go against the Negro Fort, you will land at a convenient point above it, and force a communication with the commanding officer of the vessels below, and arrange with him your plan of attack. Upon this subject, you shall hear from me again, as soon as I am notified of the time at which the vessels will sail from New Orleans.
With great respect and esteem, Your obedient servant,
(Signed) EDMUND P. GAINES, ) Major general commanding.
Lieut, col. 1). L. Clinch, or officer commanding on the Chattahooche.
A true copy. — Rob. R. Ruffin, Aid-de-camp.
The day before he ordered Clinch to establish Camp Crawford near present-day Bainbridge, Georgia, General Gaines had already decided it was not feasible to try to supply this new fort by road and ordered thirty thousand rations from New Orleans shipped along the coast by boat and then up the Apalachicola.
Fort Montgomery ~ May 22, 1816
Sir, — By a letter I have received from lieutenant colonel Clinch, commanding a battalion of the 4th regiment infantry, on the Chatahoochie, I learn that in the early part of the present month, a party of Indians surprized and took from the immediate vicinity of his camp, two privates sent out to guard a drove of beef cattle, purchased for the subsistence of the troops. The cattle, amounting to thirty head, were also taken; the Indians were pursued forty five miles, on a path leading to St. Marks, but being mounted and having travelled all night, escaped with their prisoners and booty. This outrage, preceded by the murder- of two of our citizens, Johnson and McCaskey, by Indians below the lines, and followed by certain indications of general hostility, such as the war dance, and drinking war physic, leaves no doubt that we shall be compelled to destroy the hostile towns. The detached situation of the post, which 1 have ordered lieutenant colonel Clinch to establish near the Apalachicola, will expose us to great inconvenience and hazard, in obtaining supplies by land, particularly in the event of war, as the road will be bad, and the distance from the settlements of Georgia near one hundred and fifty miles. Having advised with the commander in chief of the division upon this subject, I have determined upon an experiment by water, and for this purpose have to request your co-operation; should you feel authorized to detach a small gun vessel or two as a convoy to the boats charged with our supplies up the Apalachicola, I am persuaded that in doing so, you will contribute much to the benefit of the service, and accommodation of my immediate command in this quarter: the transports will be under the direction of the officer of the gun vessel, and the whole should be provided against an attack by small arms from shore. To guard against accidents, I will direct lieutenant colonel Clinch, to have in readiness, a boat sufficient to carry fifty men, to meet the vessels on the river and assist them up. Should you find it to be convenient to send a convoy, I will thank you to inform me of the date of its departure, and the time which, in your judgment, it will take to arrive at the mouth of the river (Apalachicola.) Enclosed you will receive the best account I can give you, from the information I have received, of the Negro fort upon the Apalachicola. Should we meet with opposition from that fort, it shall be destroyed: and for this purpose the commanding officer above, will be ordered to prepare all his disposable force, to meet the boats at, or just below, the fort, and he will confer with the commanding officer of the gun vessels, upon the plan of attack. I am, with great consideration and esteem, Your obedient servant, (Signed) EDMUND P. GAINES, Major general by brevet. Com. Daniel T. Patterson, U. S. Navy, commanding New Orleans station.
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