1816 and 1817 saw U.S. surveyors taking the field to lay off the 23 million acres of land in present-day Alabama and Georgia lost by the Creeks after the defeat of the Red Sticks at Horseshoe Bend in 1814. This began a new phase in the conflict between the United States and the rebellious Indians and fugitive slaves of the Gulf frontier. To protect the surveyors and the settlers who would follow them, the U.S. Army established remote posts in Georgia: Fort Gaines on the Chattahoochee and Camp Crawford (later renamed Fort Scott) on the Flint near present-day Bainbridge. General E.P. Gaines (namesake of D.I.'s Fort Gaines as well as General Gaines Street) who was stationed at Fort Montgomery near present-day Tensaw in northern Baldwin County decided to experiment with a Gulf route to supply these remote posts that were not served by any major roads. Fort Bowyer on Mobile Point became a major port of call on this Gulf route with flotillas and convoys bound for Apalachicola Bay stopping there for mail, for passengers or for refuge from bad weather. A lieutenant and about 20 enlisted men occupied the fort and it was considered a dependency of Fort Charlotte (earlier named Fort Conde) in Mobile.

After American troops attacked Fowltown across the Flint River from Camp Crawford in November of 1817, the Lower Creek chiefs appealed for ammunition to the British Governor of the Bahamas, Cameron. In their request for arms, the chiefs wrote ,"... they[Americans] have also settlers and troops which come from Mobile, and go up the Appalachicola river ; thus seeing no end to those invaders, necessity compelled us to have recourse to arms, and our brethren are now fighting for the land they inherited from their fathers, for their families and forces."

In the late fall of 1817, one of these U.S. Army supply flotillas taking the Gulf route to Apalachicola Bay passed Mobile Point on a voyage that would result in the death of many of its passengers and would launch the first of many so-called Seminole Wars which would at intermittent intervals consume the resources of the U.S. for the next forty years. This Indian attack occurred on the Apalachicola River near the present-day Chattahoochee, Florida, on November 30, 1817. Known as Scott's Massacre, the Indians killed about 34 soldiers, 6 women and 4 children. http://twoegg.blogspot.com/2008/11/remembering-scotts-massacre-of-1817.html
This horrible event caused President Monroe to order General Jackson to raise militia and to attack the Indians in what would end up being called THE FIRST SEMINOLE WAR. Below you will find a chronology of the events leading up to SCOTT'S MASSACRE. This list of events will show that this tragic incident that led to war was produced by the necessity of using the Gulf route to supply the new American outposts established on the newly opened land acquired by the U.S. by the Treaty of Fort Jackson.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Im89zeoPTkE

A CHRONOLOGY OF THE EVENTS LEADING UP TO SCOTT'S MASSACRE http://www.exploresouthernhistory.com/scottmassacre.html

Early 1816: General E.P. Gaines https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_P._Gaines ordered Lt. Col. Duncan Clinch https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duncan_Lamont_Clinch to march his battalion of the 4th Infantry from Charleston to Fort Mitchell https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Mitchell_Historic_Site on the Chattahoochee River just south of present-day Phenix City.

Mid-March 1816: Lt. Col. Clinch and the 4th Infantry arrived at Fort Mitchell to protect the surveyors who were laying out the north line of the Fort Jackson Treaty cession.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Fort_Jackson

March 15, 1816: Secretary of War Crawford wrote General Jackson in Nashville and instructed him to write the Spanish Governor at Pensacola about what the Governor intended to do about the Negro Fort on the Apalachicola.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Negro_Fort

March 21, 1816: General Gaines arrived at Fort Mitchell and found Clinch's soldiers building flatboats. At this time Fort Mitchell could only be supplied via the Federal Road from Georgia http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-2999 or from the roads coming from Fort Jackson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Jackson_(Alabama) located at the confluence of the Coosa and the Tallapoosa near present-day Wetumpka. These roads were so bad that wagons often had to be abandoned and horses used as pack animals.

March 31, 1816: The soldiers of the 4th Infantry along with Clinch and Gaines departed Fort Mitchell on flatboats headed downriver to the point on the Chattahoochee where the north line of the Fort Jackson cession met with the river.

April 2, 1816: The troops of the 4th Infantry selected a spot on the east bank of the Chattahoochee where they began to construct a stockade which would be called Fort Gaines.

April 23, 1816: General Jackson sent the letter about the Negro Fort to the Spanish Governor of Pensacola by way of an aide.

May 24, 1816: General Jackson's aide reached Pensacola and delivered his letter to the Spanish Governor.

Early June, 1816: Lt. Col. Clinch and the 4th Infantry made camp on the west bank of the Flint River near its confluence with the Chattahoochee. This camp was named Camp Crawford after the Secretary of War and was located near present-day Bainbridge, Georgia.

June 15, 1816: General Jackson received a letter from the Spanish Governor of Pensacola which stated that the governor could do nothing about the Negro Fort until he received orders from the Captain-General of Cuba. Jackson immediately wrote the Secretary of War and recommended that the 4th and 7th Infantry along with a small naval force be used to destroy the Negro Fort.

July 27, 1816: A U.S. Navy gunboat which had accompanied a flotilla of supply boats along the Gulf route from New Orleans fired a hot shot into the powder magazine of the Negro Fort on the Apalachicola and destroyed it.

July 30, 1816: The supply boats from the armed flotilla could not ascend the Apalachicola to Camp Crawford so their cargo was transferred to small boats in order to ascend to the U.S. Army post on the Flint.

September, 1816: Lt. Col. Clinch had his troops build a permanent installation at Camp Crawford. This stockade would become known as Fort Scott.

December 1816: Due to an absence of major conflict with the Indians, Fort Scott was abandoned and the 4th Infantry troops were transferred to Fort Montgomery by an unknown route but it is presumed to have been via Fort Mitchell to Fort Jackson.

February, 1817: Georgia Governor Mitchell wrote protest letters to the Secretary of War and to General Gaines stating that the evacuation of Fort Scott had left South Georgia defenseless. 

February 2, 1817: The commander at Fort Gaines(Ga.) wrote to the commander at Fort Hawkins (present-day Macon) that the Red Sticks had stolen all the army property left at Fort Scott and had burned three of the buildings.

April or May, 1817: A company of artillery from Charleston, acting as infantry, reoccupied Fort Scott.

June, 1817: The Prophet Francis https://www.nps.gov/people/josiah-francis.htm returned from England to Ocklockonee Bay aboard Alexander Arbuthnot's ship.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbuthnot_and_Ambrister_incident

July, 1817: Troops from Fort Scott were reinforced with 73 men from the 7th Infantry bringing this post's strength to 112 men. The post began to buy corn, coffee and sugar from the Forbes & Co. store at Prospect Bluff (former location of the Negro Fort) on the lower Apalachicola. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Gadsden

September 6, 1817: Major David Twiggs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_E._Twiggs
of the 7th Infantry had a talk from General Gaines translated and read to the Indians at Mickasuky near present-day Tallahassee. Gaines had demanded that the Indians surrender the individuals who were guilty of murdering Americans.

September 18, 1817: The Chief of Mikasucky responded to General Gaines demand and declined to surrender the guilty Indians.

October 30, 1817: The Secretary of War ordered the 1st Brigade consisting of the 4th and 7th Regiments to leave Forts Montgomery and Montpelier in Baldwin County and march to Fort Scott. The order also authorized Gaines to remove the Indians from the land ceded to the U.S. by the Treaty of Fort Jackson. 

November 19, 1817: Colonel Matthew Arbuckle  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Arbuckle,_Jr.
commanded the 4th and 7th Regiments when they arrived at Fort Scott after they had marched across South Alabama from Forts Montgomery and Montpelier in Baldwin County. These soldiers had to build a new route by constructing 90 miles of new road during their journey. With these reinforcements, the total strength at Fort Scott was 876 men. The difficulty of supplying these men caused General Gaines to order 3 provision vessels with 160 men to leave Camp Montgomery and Mobile at about the same time that the troops began their march toward Fort Scott. These vessels would more than likely have stopped at Fort Bowyer on Mobile Point before embarking for Apalachicola Bay. It is believed that these vessels arrived in Apalachicola Bay at about the same time that the troops arrived at Fort Scott from their march from Baldwin County.

November 20, 1817: General Gaines ordered Major Twiggs and his troops to march on Fowltown near present-day Bainbridge and capture their chief and return him to Fort Scott. The troops were fired upon when they reached Fowltown and returned fire. There were no U.S. casualties but four Indian men and one woman were killed.

November 23, 1817: U.S. troops commanded by Colonel Arbuckle returned to Fowltown and found it abandoned. While loading corn from the Indians' cribs the troops were fired upon and they returned fire. One U.S. soldier was killed. He was the first casualty of the Seminole Wars. The soldiers burned all the buildings in the town and returned to Fort Scott. The chief of Fowltown called for all Indians in the present-day Tri-State Region (AL-FL-GA) to gather on the Apalachicola to attack the supply boats destined for Fort Scott.

November 30, 1817: In order to move the supply boats upriver, a line had to be attached to a tree on the shore and the boat "warped" upriver by rolling the line onto a spool located on the bow of the boat. As the boat was close to shore near the present-day boat landing at Chattahoochee, Florida, the Indians fired a volley into the crowd of soldiers, women and children on board the boat. Most were killed at that moment but the Indians waded out to the boat and continued the carnage. 6 of the 40 soldiers survived with 4 of the survivors wounded. 6 or the 7 women were killed along with all 4 of the children. This incident set into motion the series of events known in the present-day as THE FIRST SEMINOLE WAR. In late December of 1817 another shipment of rations arrived in Apalachicola Bay via the Gulf route but the boats were unable to ascend the river due to the hostility of the Indians.


July 27, 2016 marked 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.


In the spring of 1816, General Gaines decided it was not feasible to try to supply his new fort located near present-day Bainbridge, Georgia 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.

Sailing Master Loomis of Gunboat #149 arrived at Pass Christian and put together a convoy consisting of Gunboat #154, the schooner Semilante and the schooner General Pike. They sailed for Apalachicola Bay and arrived on July 10, 1816. On August 16 in a letter to  Commodore Patterson mailed from Bay St. Louis, Loomis described the July 27th destruction of the Negro Fort. 

J. Loomis to Commodore Patterson. Bay St. Louis, 13th August, 1816,5 U. S. Gun Vessel, No. 149

 Sir, — In conformity with your orders of the 24th June, 1 have the honor to report, that with this vessel and No. 154, sailing master James Bassett, I took under convoy the schooners General Pike and Semilante, laden with provisions and military stores, and proceeded for Apalachicola river; oft' the mouth of which we arrived on the 10th July. At this place 1 received despatches from lieutenant colonel Clinch, commanding the 4th regiment United States infantry, on the Chattahoochie river, borne by an Indian, requesting me to remain off the mouth of the river, until he could arrive with a party of men to assist in get ting up the transports; desiring me also, to detain all vessels and boats that might attempt to descend the river.

On the 15th, I discovered a boat pulling out of the river, and being anxious to ascertain whether we should be permitted peaceably to pass the fort above us, I despatched a boat with an officer to gain the necessary information; on nearing her, she fired a volley of musketry into my boat, and immediately pulled in for the river, I immediately opened a fire on them from the gun vessels, but with no effect.

On the 17th, at 5 A. M. I manned and armed a boat with a swivel and musketry and four men, and gave her in charge of midshipman Luflborough, for the purpose of procuring fresh water, having run short of that article. At 11 A. M. sailing master Bassett, who had been on a similar expedition, came along side with the body of John Burgess, 0. S. who had been sent in the boat With midshipman Luffborough; his body was found near the mouth of the river, shot through the heart. At 4 P. M. discovered a man at the mouth of the river on a sand bar; sent a boat and brought him on board; he proved to be John Lopaz, O. S. the only survivor of the boat's crew sent with midshipman Luffborough. He reports, that on entering the river, they discovered a negro on the beach near a plantation; that Mr. Luffborough ordered the boat to be pulled directly for him; that on touching the shore he spoke to the negro, and directly received a volley of musketry from two divisions of negroes and Indians, who lay concealed in the bushes on the margin of the river; Mr. Luffborough, Robert Maitland, and John Burgess, were killed on the spot; Lopaz made his escape by swimming, and states that he saw the other seaman, Edward Daniels, made prisoner. Lopaz supposed there must have been forty negroes and Indians concerned in the capture of the boat.

On the 20th July, I received by a canoe with five Indians, despatches from colonel Clinch, advising that he had arrived with a party of troops and Indians at a position about a mile above the negro fort requesting that I would ascend the river and join him with the gun vessels He further informed me, that he had taken a negro bearing the scalp of one of my unfortunate crew, to one of the unfriendly Indian chiefs. On the 22d, there was a heavy cannonading in the direction of the fort. On the 23d, I received a verbal message from colonel Clinch; by a white man and two Indians, who stated that colonel Clinch wished me to ascend the river to a certrain bluff, and await there until I saw him Considering that by so doing, in a, narrow and crooked river, from both sides of which my decks could be command ed, and exposed to the fire of musketry, without enabling me to act in my own defence; and also, that something like treachery might be on foot, from the nature of the message; I declined acting, retained the white man and one of the Indians as hostages, and despatched the other, with my reason for so doing, to colonel Clinch, that his views and communications to me in future must be made in writing, and by an officer of the army.

Lieutenant Wilson and thirteen men joined me on the 24th to assist in getting up with the trans ports; he likewise informed me that colonel Clinch had sent the canoe the day before.

 On the 25th I arrived with the Convoy at Duelling Bluff, about four miles below the fort, where I was met by colonel Clinch: he informed me that in attempting to pass within gun shot of the fortifications, he had been fired upon by the negroes, and that he had also been fired upon for the last four or five days, whenever any of his troops appeared in view; we immediately reconnoittred the fort, and determined on a site to erect a small battery of two eighteen pounders to assist the gun vessels to force the navigation of the river, as it was evident from their hostility we should be obliged to do.

On the 26th the colonel began to clear away the bushwood for the erection of the battery; he however stated to me that he was not acquainted with artillery, but that lie thought the distance was too great to do execution. On this subject we unfortunate!) differed totally in opinion, as we were within point blank range; he however ordered his men to desist from further operations; I then told him that the gun vessels would attempt the passage of the fort in the morning, without his aid. At 4 A M on the morning of the 27th, we began warping the gun vessels to a proper position, at 5 getting within gun shot, the fort opened upon us, which we returned, and after ascertaining our real distance with cold shot, we commenced with hot, (having cleared away our coppers for that purpose,) the first one of which entering their magazine, blew up and completely destroyed the fort. The negroes fought under the English Jack, accompanied with the red or bloody flag.

 This was a regularly constructed fortification, built under the immediate eye and direction of colonel Nicholls of the British army ; there were mounted on the walls, and in a complete state of equipment for service, four lung 24 pounders, cannon; four long 6 ditto; one 4 pounder field piece, and a 5 and one half inch brass howitz, with three hundred negroes, men, women, and children, and about 20 Indian warriors of the renegade Choctaws; of these 270 were killed, and the greater part of the rest mortally wounded; but three es caped unhurt; among the prisoners were the two chiefs of the negroes and Indians On examining the prisoners they stated that Edward Daniels,O S who was made prisoner in the boat on the 17th July, was tarred and burnt alive. In consequence of this savage act, both the chiefs were executed on the spot by the friendly Indians.

From the best information we could ascertain there were, '

2,500 stand of musketry, with accoutrements complete.
500 carbines
500 steel scabbard swords
4 cases containing 200 pair pistols.
300 qr. casks rifle powder.
762 barrels of cannon powder, besides a large quantity of military stores and clothing, that I was not able to collect any account of, owing to an engagement made by colonel Clinch with the Indians, in which he promised them all the property captured, except the cannon and shot.

The property captured on the 27th July, ac cording to the best information we could obtain, and at the lowest calculation, could not have been less than $200,000 in value, the remnant of the property, that the Indians did not take, was transported to fort Crawford, and to this place, an inventory of which I have the honor to transmit for your further information.

 On sounding the river, I found it impassable for vessels drawing more than four and a half feet water, consequently, colonel Clinch took the provision from the General Pike into flats, and lightened the Semilante, so as to enable her to ascend the river as high as fort Crawford. On the 3rd August, after setting fire to the remaining parts of the fort and village, I left the river and arrived at this anchorage on the 12th current.

I cannot close this letter without expressing to you. my entire approbation of the conduct of sailing master James Bassett, commanding gun vessel No. 154, for his cool, deliberate, and masterful conduct, and the support I received from him in ill cases of difficulty and danger.
In fact, Sir, every man and officer did his duty.
Very respectfully,
Your obedient servant,
(Signed) J. Loomis,

Commodore Daniel T. Patterson, commanding U. S. Naval Forces, New Orleans station.