1.Thanks to everybody
2. My story on D.I.
3. Now I'm a resident and still learning Dauphin Island's story
4. But I came in here Tuesday and told Ann I've changed my way of thinking...
5. Dauphin the pirate story ~ Tall tale ~ World Class TALL TALE in the Gold Cross story
6. Back to telling the truth about D.I. Frequently asked questions I get...
DAUPHIN ISLAND: AMERICA'S MOST HISTORIC ISLAND
because it is...
subtitle DAUPHIN ISLAND: LOUISIANA'S PLYMOUTH ROCK
because it is...
but I got this question
"Dauphin Island is Alabama. I don't understand the 'Louisiana'. "
Alabama is a concept that came into being only 200 years ago. DAUPHIN ISLAND has been inhabited by Europeans for over 300 years. DAUPHIN ISLAND IS THE MOTHER SETTLEMENT FOR EVERY EARLY TOWN IN LOUISIANA, ALABAMA AND MISSISSIPPI. It may even be considered the mother settlement for NORTHWEST FLORIDA because the only reason the site of Pensacola was occupied by the Spanish in 1698 was to stop the French who declined to fight the Spanish and settled at Dauphin Island in 1699. Later the French from Dauphin Island CONQUERED Pensacola but gave it back to the Spanish in 1722 under the terms of the peace that terminated the WAR OF THE QUADRUPLE ALLIANCE that broke out in 1719. The continuous recorded history of the entire Gulf Coast, after 200 years of failed attempts at colonization, essentially begins with Iberville's landing here in January of 1699. By 1702, Dauphin Island was the governmental and military center for the entire colony of La Louisiane. By the time Crozat received his contract for a monopoly on trade from King Louis XIV in 1712, Dauphin Island was the ONLY geographic place name mentioned in the entire document which defines the boundaries of Louisiana and how they project from a single place: Dauphin Island. Crozat's 1712 Contract became the legal basis for all of America's claims from THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE of 1803. As early as 1758, the great Louisiana historian Du Pratz wrote that Mobile was the birthplace of Louisiana and that Dauphin Island was the cradle.
And Dauphin Island's story doesn't begin with these Europeans.
Since time immemorial, prehistoric man traveling down the Mississippi River and destined for Dauphin Island would leave the river at the present-day location of New Orleans in order to take advantage of the route through the lakes. On New Year's Eve-2017 , New Orleans kicked off their TRICENTENNIAL commemorating 300 years since Bienville and his men left Dauphin Island in 1718 on their voyage to break ground on Louisiana's newest municipality:La Nouvelle-Orléans .
In his first words of his Dauphin Island history, Professor Richebourg McWilliams wrote, "With the exception of Cuba, Dauphin is, historically, the most prominent and interesting island in the Gulf of Mexico."
Dauphin Island's first 100 years make it the STRATEGIC FOCUS of an amazing story of how two Catholic countries, France and Spain, reconciled their differences in order to try to stop the English.
So that's my answer to what DAUPHIN ISLAND has to do with Louisiana.
In their wisdom, the Mobile Chamber of Commerce made sure that no matter how much someone might like to dismiss, overlook or ignore Dauphin Island's story, they would find it impossible because our island's history would be told in its street names so I put together a game that's based upon a knowledge of Dauphin Island's streets and geographic place names. It's called the Dauphin Island History and Geography Trivia Game and it was played for the first time by six teams @ Waves this past February 13 and I want to show it to y'all tonight.
THE TWELVE AGES (or Chapters) OF THE HISTORY OF DAUPHIN ISLAND,
America's Most Historic Gulf Island With The Most Ignored, Overlooked and Misrepresented
Story in North America.
Age Number 1 (Chapter 1): Pre-historic Dauphin Island (this includes the island's transformation into being the most prominent landmark on European maps of the Northern Gulf Near the Mouth of the Mississippi River during almost 200 years of failed attempts at colonization)
Age Number 2 (Chapter 2): Cradle of the French Colony, 1699-1729
Age Number 3 (Chapter 3): French-Indian Trade Port of Call, 1729-1763
Age Number 4 (Chapter 4): British Dauphin Island, 1763-1780
Age Number 5 (Chapter 5): Spanish Outpost and Pilot House, 1780-1813
Age Number 6 (Chapter 6): A Leading Port of The Cotton Kingdom, 1813-1865
Age Number 7 (Chapter 7): An Occupying Army's Base of Operations and Fishing Village, 1865- 1898
Age Number 8 (Chapter 8): Island's Fortifications Strengthened, 1898-1918
Age Number 9 (Chapter 9): The Roaring Twenties, Great Depression & WWII, 1918-1945
Age Number 10 (Chapter 10): The Development of Dauphin Island Real Estate, 1945-1979
Age Number 11 (Chapter 11): Disaster Recovery and Natural Gas Drilling, 1979-2005
Age Number 12 (Chapter 12): Post-Katrina, BP and The Future, 2005- (until)
December 10, 1817: Congress finalized the creation of ALABAMA TERRITORY.
December 23, 1817: General Bernard at New Orleans submitted a plan for a fortification on Dauphin Island to the government and it was approved.
August 14, 1818: Harris entered into bond in the penalty of $100,000, with Nimrod Farrow as security, for fulfillment of the agreement to construct a fortification on Dauphin Island.
October 23, 1818: Nimrod Farrow executed a deed of trust with Joseph G. Swift as agent of the U.S., for "several tracts of land in Fauquier County, Virginia. This included 2,200 acres, two merchant mills, mill seats and other improvements". This property also included 130 slaves. All this property was endemnified to the U.S. for money advanced for the Dauphin Island fortification construction project.
November 4, 1818: Farrow and Harris entered into partnership. Harris would serve as site manager and Farrow would serve as purchasing agent with all profits divided equally.
August 2, 1819: W.K. Armistead, agent for the U.S., advanced Nimrod Farrow $50,000. Farrow had to put up an additional bond with a $111,951 penalty. N. Grigsby, J. Titball and J. Ashby signed for security and this and all other advances were to be considered part payment for the Dauphin Island fortification construction project.
1820: A large stone mansion, later named Wolf's Crag, is constructed on a hill overlooking Markham, Virginia on an estate owned by Nimrod Farrow. http://www.panoramio.
1820: from Theodore Dwight Weld's book , AMERICAN SLAVERY AS IT IS , page 85 EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM STEPHEN SEWALL, Esq., Winthrop, Maine, dated Jan. 12th, 1839. Mr. S. is a member of the Congregational church in Winthrop, and late agent of the Winthrop Manufacturing company....
" "I will now mention the case of cruelty before referred to. In 1820 or 21, while the public works were going forward on Dauphin Island, Mobile Bay, a contractor, engaged on the works, beat one of his slaves so severely that the poor creature had no longer power to writhe under his suffering: he then took out his knife, and began to cut his flesh in strips, from his hips down. At this moment, the gentleman referred to, who was also a contractor, shocked at such inhumanity, stepped forward, between the wretch and his victim, and exclaimed, 'If you touch that slave again you do it at the peril of your life." The slaveholder raved at him for interfering between him and his slave; but he was obliged to drop his victim, fearing the arm of my friend--whose stature and physical powers were extraordinary."
April 10, 1820: Farrow and Harris contract with Turner Starke of Clarke County for partnership in the Dauphin Island fortification construction project and the Red Bluff brick kiln. This gave the project the use of Turner Starke's slaves.
April 10, 1820: Turner Starke, superintendent for the Dauphin Island fortification construction and the Red Bluffs brick kiln, deeded all property, including slaves, connected to both projects to Captain James Gadsden, U.S. Army engineer in charge of the project. This was done to prevent foreclosure by the subcontractors and other creditors.
December 27, 1820: The sloop GENERAL JACKSON sank in Mobile Bay with 12,000 bricks bound for Dauphin Island.
1821: During its 2nd Session, the 17th Congress did not make an appropriation for the continuing of the construction of the Dauphin Island fortification.
February 10, 1821: The schooner UNION and sloop Brilliant sank in Mobile Bay with 16,000 bricks bound for Dauphin Island.
December 1, 1821: The date stipulated by the contract between the Congress and Farrow & Harris for the completion of construction of the Dauphin Island fortification.
April (August) 1, 1822: Farrow and Harris sold all their assets to Turner Starke for $40,000. This gave Starke title to all the 88 slaves working on Dauphin Island.
January 13, 1823: Nimrod Farrow of Markham, Virginia, for himself and Richard Harris of Richmond, Virginia, presented a petition to Congress for an allowance equal to the potential profit they would have made if the United States had not broken the contract for the Dauphin Island fortification construction.
March 3, 1823: An act passed Congress which authorized the Secretary of War to appoint someone to determine the extent of the failure of the U.S. to uphold its end of the Dauphin Island fortification construction contract. Thomas Swan of Alexandria was appointed commissioner. He determined that the U.S. broke the contract and recommending awarding $73,747.78 and dropping all the suits against Farrow and Harris.
March 3, 1825: An act passed Congress appropriating relief for Farrow and Harris. The act includes a provision for paying subcontractors but, according to Gilbert Russell (ed. note: namesake of Russell County), the Secretary of War, Barbour (ed. note: namesake of Barbour County), refused to pay the subs.
February 24, 1827: Committee of Claims Document #21 is printed by 2nd Session of the 20th Congress.
July 14, 1832: An act for the relief of the legal representatives of Nimrod Farrow and of Richard Harris passed the Congress.
December 18, 1832: Russell County (namesake of Gilbert Russell) was established from lands ceded by the State of Alabama from the Creek Indians.
July 31, 1833: Jeremiah Austill, U.S. marshall for the southern district of Alabama, reported the killing of Hardeman Owens, commission of roads and revenue for Russell County, by a U.S. soldier attempting to evict him from Indian land.
September 24, 1833: Colonel Gadsden was deposed on the matter of Farrow and Harris.
December 16, 1833: Francis Scott Key sent his first formal communication to Governor Gayle in Tuscaloosa. Francis Scott Key, District Attorney of D.C., had come to Alabama to mediate the dispute between the State of Alabama and the Federal troops protecting the Creek Indians.
March 12, 1834: Governor Gayle wrote President Jackson that the extra Federal troops had left Alabama.
November 18, 1834: Francis Scott Key wrote Hagner, Thornton and Gratiot concerning the claims of Farrow and Harris.
December 8, 1834: Francis Scott Key wrote Hagner, Thornton and Gratiot to arrange a meeting relative to the claims of Farrow and Harris.
January 12, 1835: Report on the Dauphin Island fortification construction project printed for 23rd Congress, 2nd Session, Document No. 78 by Peter Hagner (3rd Auditor) , J.B. Thornton (2nd Comptroller) and General Gratiot (Chief Engineer).
A CHRONOLOGY OF THE 20 ARMED AMPHIBIOUS INVASIONS OF DAUPHIN ISLAND
#1: On Saturday, January 31, 1699, Pierre LeMoyne Ecuyer,Seigneur d'Iberville and his men, sailing on three ships carrying a total of 110 cannon, occupied present-day Dauphin Island on an expedition sponsored by King Louis XIV of France to fortify the mouth of the Mississippi River in order to prevent other nations fromentering the river. Iberville named this place Massacre Island due to the bones from about sixty human skeletons he found heaped on the island.
#2: On Tuesday, September 9, 1710,Jamaican pirates, outfitted with a ship mounted with cannon, approached the mouth of Pelican Bay flying a French flag. The pirates fired their signal gun and the villagers welcomed what they thought to be a long awaited supply ship from overseas.
#7: On Tuesday September 5, 1719, a French squadron under the command of Commodore Desnos de Champmeslin consisting of the flagship Hercule and twelve smaller ships sailed from Dauphin Island to Pensacola while Bienville marched one hundred troops and almost 500 Indians overland. On September 16, the French fleet was anchored off Pensacola while Bienville and his Indians prepared to attack. On the morning of September 17, Bienville’s Indians and the Canadians began their attack upon Fort San Carlos as the French fleet battled the Spanish ships anchored in the bay. The Spanish commander had “had no stomach for a fight with Indians” and so he surrendered to Champmeslin. The French had lost six men; the Spaniards, a hundred. Bienville also captured 47 French deserters fighting for the Spanish. Twelve of these men were condemned to be hanged from the yardarm of a French ship anchored in Pensacola harbor and the other 35 were sentenced to serve ten years as galley slaves for the Company of the West.
Spain’s long-awaited naval expedition to drive the French out of Louisiana was finally launched in 1720 before news of peace had arrived. It accomplished nothing because Commander Francisco Cornejo “promptly ran his ships aground on the Campeche Banks in a violent storm.”
France continued to hold Pensacola while flying Spanish flags so they could capture Spanish supply ships that took the bait. Finally, on November 26, 1722, the French “destroyed the fort and town and returned the site to the Spaniards in conformity with the peace treaty in Europe.”
#8: On Sunday, October 9, 1763, British Major Farmar , commanding a convoy of six troop transports and a warship carrying three regiments dropped anchor off Dauphin Island with orders to occupy French Louisiana east of the Mississippi River as well as Spanish Pensacola. Farmar had earlier received an official French authorization for the commander of Fort Conde' in Mobile to surrender the fort.
Dauphin Island at the time mainly served as "a sea-girt cattle pen" for Frenchmen living in Mobile while the only residents were a French sergeant's guard and a harbor pilot, both of whom would soon leave the island.
For over a week after arriving at Mobile Bay, Farmar had his men sounding the channel and setting out buoys to guide three of the smaller troop transports over the bar. The 32 gun frigate, H.M.S. Stag, and a larger troop transport sailed over to Ship Island to find safe anchorage. Earlier in October, while Farmar had been in Pensacola, two French pilots from the mouth of Mobile Bay had arrived and warned him that they doubted whether the large British ships could clear the bar at Mobile.
The problems Major Farmar encountered entering Mobile Bay emphasized his dependency upon the French pilot who resided on Dauphin Island and was needed to navigate any large vessel intending to enter Mobile Bay. Only one month after taking possession of Mobile Bay, Farmar wrote ".....A corporal and six men I have sent to the Island Dauphin to be assisting the Pilot in going off to ships, as the bar is very dangerous, and there are no inhabitants upon the island."
#9: On Monday, May 1, 1769, Major Farmar violently evicted Lieutenant Governor Montforte Brown's employees from Dauphin Island.
#10: February 10, 1780, Spanish Governor of Bernardo de Galvez led a fleet of warships and troop transports into Mobile Bay to begin the SIEGE OF FORT CHARLOTTE.
#11: In early 1781, the British launch an offensive from Pensacola to take Dauphin Island but fail.
#12: In May of 1781, the Spanish under Galvez launch an invasion from Mobile Bay and take Pensacola from the British.
#13: In July of 1812, Troops under General Ferdinand Claiborne raised the American flag on Isla Delphina(Dauphin Island) and ordered the Spanish guard on the island “to withdraw or be regarded as prisoners of war.” The pilot was ordered not to aid Spanish or British vessels. The Spanish guard remained on Dauphin Island.
#14: In April of 1813,the U.S. under the command of General James Wilkinson capture Dauphin Island.
#15: In September of 1814, the British based on Dauphin Island unsuccessfully attack Fort Bowyer on Mobile Point.
#16: In February of 1815, the entire British Expeditionary Force regroups on Dauphin Island and launched a siege upon Fort Bowyer. The U.S. troops in Fort Bowyer surrender.
#17: On January 18, 1861, the militia of the Republic of Alabama seize Fort Gaines on Dauphin Island from U.S. troops.
#18 In February of 1864, The U.S. Navy ships performed a two-week-long bombardment of Fort Powell @ Grant's Pass which included landings in the area of the west point of Dauphin Island.
#19: In August of 1864, U.S. troops forced the surrender of Confederate States of America forces which occupied Fort Gaines and Dauphin Island.
#20: In March of 1865, the 32,000 man U.S. invasion of Baldwin County began with the movement of Federal troops across the Mobile Bay from Dauphin Island.
DAUPHIN ISLAND FORTIFICATION link http://reclaimalabama.blogspot.com/2016/09/1830-harris-farrow-claims-httpsbooks.html
"LOUISIANA PURCHASE:
2. My story on D.I.
3. Now I'm a resident and still learning Dauphin Island's story
4. But I came in here Tuesday and told Ann I've changed my way of thinking...
5. Dauphin the pirate story ~ Tall tale ~ World Class TALL TALE in the Gold Cross story
6. Back to telling the truth about D.I. Frequently asked questions I get...
DAUPHIN ISLAND: AMERICA'S MOST HISTORIC ISLAND
because it is...
subtitle DAUPHIN ISLAND: LOUISIANA'S PLYMOUTH ROCK
because it is...
but I got this question
"Dauphin Island is Alabama. I don't understand the 'Louisiana'. "
Alabama is a concept that came into being only 200 years ago. DAUPHIN ISLAND has been inhabited by Europeans for over 300 years. DAUPHIN ISLAND IS THE MOTHER SETTLEMENT FOR EVERY EARLY TOWN IN LOUISIANA, ALABAMA AND MISSISSIPPI. It may even be considered the mother settlement for NORTHWEST FLORIDA because the only reason the site of Pensacola was occupied by the Spanish in 1698 was to stop the French who declined to fight the Spanish and settled at Dauphin Island in 1699. Later the French from Dauphin Island CONQUERED Pensacola but gave it back to the Spanish in 1722 under the terms of the peace that terminated the WAR OF THE QUADRUPLE ALLIANCE that broke out in 1719. The continuous recorded history of the entire Gulf Coast, after 200 years of failed attempts at colonization, essentially begins with Iberville's landing here in January of 1699. By 1702, Dauphin Island was the governmental and military center for the entire colony of La Louisiane. By the time Crozat received his contract for a monopoly on trade from King Louis XIV in 1712, Dauphin Island was the ONLY geographic place name mentioned in the entire document which defines the boundaries of Louisiana and how they project from a single place: Dauphin Island. Crozat's 1712 Contract became the legal basis for all of America's claims from THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE of 1803. As early as 1758, the great Louisiana historian Du Pratz wrote that Mobile was the birthplace of Louisiana and that Dauphin Island was the cradle.
And Dauphin Island's story doesn't begin with these Europeans.
Since time immemorial, prehistoric man traveling down the Mississippi River and destined for Dauphin Island would leave the river at the present-day location of New Orleans in order to take advantage of the route through the lakes. On New Year's Eve-2017 , New Orleans kicked off their TRICENTENNIAL commemorating 300 years since Bienville and his men left Dauphin Island in 1718 on their voyage to break ground on Louisiana's newest municipality:La Nouvelle-Orléans .
In his first words of his Dauphin Island history, Professor Richebourg McWilliams wrote, "With the exception of Cuba, Dauphin is, historically, the most prominent and interesting island in the Gulf of Mexico."
Dauphin Island's first 100 years make it the STRATEGIC FOCUS of an amazing story of how two Catholic countries, France and Spain, reconciled their differences in order to try to stop the English.
So that's my answer to what DAUPHIN ISLAND has to do with Louisiana.
In their wisdom, the Mobile Chamber of Commerce made sure that no matter how much someone might like to dismiss, overlook or ignore Dauphin Island's story, they would find it impossible because our island's history would be told in its street names so I put together a game that's based upon a knowledge of Dauphin Island's streets and geographic place names. It's called the Dauphin Island History and Geography Trivia Game and it was played for the first time by six teams @ Waves this past February 13 and I want to show it to y'all tonight.
The disastrous tragedy of Dauphin Island’s sole pirate raid did produced one of Dauphin Island’s most enduring legends, “THE STORY OF THE GOLD CROSS.” Immortalized in Carl Carmer’s 1934 book of folklore, STARS FELL ON ALABAMA, the version recounted by Carmer was the one that was current among folks living in the village back in the 1920’s when Carmer visited while he was working as a professor at the University in Tuscaloosa. As told to Carmer by his island host(who Carmer called “Sandinier” which may have been the author’s version of the common Dauphin Island name “Sandagger”), the local priest jumped into action when he heard that the pirates were attacking the village. He climbed to the top of the church tower , where the big gold cross stood as a landmark to local mariners. When the priest reached the top of the church tower, he janked the shining cross loose and clutching it, he dove straight down into the well that was dug beside the church. He and the cross landed in the well and both disappeared, never to be seen again. The priest and his disappearing act with his church’s big gold cross made the pirates so mad they burned down the church and then everyone on the island forgot where it had been located but that hasn’t stopped folks from looking for it ever since. http://mobilebicentennial.blogspot.com
THE TWELVE AGES (or Chapters) OF THE HISTORY OF DAUPHIN ISLAND,
America's Most Historic Gulf Island With The Most Ignored, Overlooked and Misrepresented
Story in North America.
Age Number 1 (Chapter 1): Pre-historic Dauphin Island (this includes the island's transformation into being the most prominent landmark on European maps of the Northern Gulf Near the Mouth of the Mississippi River during almost 200 years of failed attempts at colonization)
Age Number 2 (Chapter 2): Cradle of the French Colony, 1699-1729
Age Number 3 (Chapter 3): French-Indian Trade Port of Call, 1729-1763
Age Number 4 (Chapter 4): British Dauphin Island, 1763-1780
Age Number 5 (Chapter 5): Spanish Outpost and Pilot House, 1780-1813
Age Number 6 (Chapter 6): A Leading Port of The Cotton Kingdom, 1813-1865
Age Number 7 (Chapter 7): An Occupying Army's Base of Operations and Fishing Village, 1865- 1898
Age Number 8 (Chapter 8): Island's Fortifications Strengthened, 1898-1918
Age Number 9 (Chapter 9): The Roaring Twenties, Great Depression & WWII, 1918-1945
Age Number 10 (Chapter 10): The Development of Dauphin Island Real Estate, 1945-1979
Age Number 11 (Chapter 11): Disaster Recovery and Natural Gas Drilling, 1979-2005
Age Number 12 (Chapter 12): Post-Katrina, BP and The Future, 2005- (until)
December 10, 1817: Congress finalized the creation of ALABAMA TERRITORY.
December 23, 1817: General Bernard at New Orleans submitted a plan for a fortification on Dauphin Island to the government and it was approved.
August 14, 1818: Harris entered into bond in the penalty of $100,000, with Nimrod Farrow as security, for fulfillment of the agreement to construct a fortification on Dauphin Island.
October 23, 1818: Nimrod Farrow executed a deed of trust with Joseph G. Swift as agent of the U.S., for "several tracts of land in Fauquier County, Virginia. This included 2,200 acres, two merchant mills, mill seats and other improvements". This property also included 130 slaves. All this property was endemnified to the U.S. for money advanced for the Dauphin Island fortification construction project.
November 4, 1818: Farrow and Harris entered into partnership. Harris would serve as site manager and Farrow would serve as purchasing agent with all profits divided equally.
August 2, 1819: W.K. Armistead, agent for the U.S., advanced Nimrod Farrow $50,000. Farrow had to put up an additional bond with a $111,951 penalty. N. Grigsby, J. Titball and J. Ashby signed for security and this and all other advances were to be considered part payment for the Dauphin Island fortification construction project.
1820: A large stone mansion, later named Wolf's Crag, is constructed on a hill overlooking Markham, Virginia on an estate owned by Nimrod Farrow. http://www.panoramio.
1820: from Theodore Dwight Weld's book , AMERICAN SLAVERY AS IT IS , page 85 EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM STEPHEN SEWALL, Esq., Winthrop, Maine, dated Jan. 12th, 1839. Mr. S. is a member of the Congregational church in Winthrop, and late agent of the Winthrop Manufacturing company....
" "I will now mention the case of cruelty before referred to. In 1820 or 21, while the public works were going forward on Dauphin Island, Mobile Bay, a contractor, engaged on the works, beat one of his slaves so severely that the poor creature had no longer power to writhe under his suffering: he then took out his knife, and began to cut his flesh in strips, from his hips down. At this moment, the gentleman referred to, who was also a contractor, shocked at such inhumanity, stepped forward, between the wretch and his victim, and exclaimed, 'If you touch that slave again you do it at the peril of your life." The slaveholder raved at him for interfering between him and his slave; but he was obliged to drop his victim, fearing the arm of my friend--whose stature and physical powers were extraordinary."
April 10, 1820: Farrow and Harris contract with Turner Starke of Clarke County for partnership in the Dauphin Island fortification construction project and the Red Bluff brick kiln. This gave the project the use of Turner Starke's slaves.
April 10, 1820: Turner Starke, superintendent for the Dauphin Island fortification construction and the Red Bluffs brick kiln, deeded all property, including slaves, connected to both projects to Captain James Gadsden, U.S. Army engineer in charge of the project. This was done to prevent foreclosure by the subcontractors and other creditors.
December 27, 1820: The sloop GENERAL JACKSON sank in Mobile Bay with 12,000 bricks bound for Dauphin Island.
1821: During its 2nd Session, the 17th Congress did not make an appropriation for the continuing of the construction of the Dauphin Island fortification.
February 10, 1821: The schooner UNION and sloop Brilliant sank in Mobile Bay with 16,000 bricks bound for Dauphin Island.
December 1, 1821: The date stipulated by the contract between the Congress and Farrow & Harris for the completion of construction of the Dauphin Island fortification.
April (August) 1, 1822: Farrow and Harris sold all their assets to Turner Starke for $40,000. This gave Starke title to all the 88 slaves working on Dauphin Island.
January 13, 1823: Nimrod Farrow of Markham, Virginia, for himself and Richard Harris of Richmond, Virginia, presented a petition to Congress for an allowance equal to the potential profit they would have made if the United States had not broken the contract for the Dauphin Island fortification construction.
March 3, 1823: An act passed Congress which authorized the Secretary of War to appoint someone to determine the extent of the failure of the U.S. to uphold its end of the Dauphin Island fortification construction contract. Thomas Swan of Alexandria was appointed commissioner. He determined that the U.S. broke the contract and recommending awarding $73,747.78 and dropping all the suits against Farrow and Harris.
March 3, 1825: An act passed Congress appropriating relief for Farrow and Harris. The act includes a provision for paying subcontractors but, according to Gilbert Russell (ed. note: namesake of Russell County), the Secretary of War, Barbour (ed. note: namesake of Barbour County), refused to pay the subs.
February 24, 1827: Committee of Claims Document #21 is printed by 2nd Session of the 20th Congress.
July 14, 1832: An act for the relief of the legal representatives of Nimrod Farrow and of Richard Harris passed the Congress.
December 18, 1832: Russell County (namesake of Gilbert Russell) was established from lands ceded by the State of Alabama from the Creek Indians.
July 31, 1833: Jeremiah Austill, U.S. marshall for the southern district of Alabama, reported the killing of Hardeman Owens, commission of roads and revenue for Russell County, by a U.S. soldier attempting to evict him from Indian land.
September 24, 1833: Colonel Gadsden was deposed on the matter of Farrow and Harris.
December 16, 1833: Francis Scott Key sent his first formal communication to Governor Gayle in Tuscaloosa. Francis Scott Key, District Attorney of D.C., had come to Alabama to mediate the dispute between the State of Alabama and the Federal troops protecting the Creek Indians.
March 12, 1834: Governor Gayle wrote President Jackson that the extra Federal troops had left Alabama.
November 18, 1834: Francis Scott Key wrote Hagner, Thornton and Gratiot concerning the claims of Farrow and Harris.
December 8, 1834: Francis Scott Key wrote Hagner, Thornton and Gratiot to arrange a meeting relative to the claims of Farrow and Harris.
January 12, 1835: Report on the Dauphin Island fortification construction project printed for 23rd Congress, 2nd Session, Document No. 78 by Peter Hagner (3rd Auditor) , J.B. Thornton (2nd Comptroller) and General Gratiot (Chief Engineer).
A CHRONOLOGY OF THE 20 ARMED AMPHIBIOUS INVASIONS OF DAUPHIN ISLAND
#1: On Saturday, January 31, 1699, Pierre LeMoyne Ecuyer,Seigneur d'Iberville and his men, sailing on three ships carrying a total of 110 cannon, occupied present-day Dauphin Island on an expedition sponsored by King Louis XIV of France to fortify the mouth of the Mississippi River in order to prevent other nations from
#2: On Tuesday, September 9, 1710,Jamaican pirates, outfitted with a ship mounted with cannon, approached the mouth of Pelican Bay flying a French flag. The pirates fired their signal gun and the villagers welcomed what they thought to be a long awaited supply ship from overseas.
Without firing a shot, the little port, housing about 20 families and the King’s warehouses, was at the mercy of a pirate crew. For two days the crew made life miserable for the village and stole everything that wasn’t nailed down before they burned down all the buildings in town. The pirates loaded their ship with thousands of furs and hides which the French had gathered from all over the province of Louisiana and had stored in Massacre Island’s warehouses.
#3: Later, during the same month of September, 1710, the pirates decided to return to the island to rustle up a shipload of the villagers’ cattle and to collect a live specimen of a buffalo for the pirate captain but the islanders fought them off during their attempt to make a second landing. No casualties were reported to be a consequence of this attempted second invasion by the Jamaican pirates.
#4:On Saturday, May 13, 1719, a French naval attack on Pensacola embarked from Dauphin Island and approached Pensacola Bay the evening of the same day. The French naval force consisted of a squadron of at least three large company ships from France carrying over 600 officers, soldiers and volunteers commanded by Serigny and Larcebault. Bienville commanded the rest of the naval force of 80 men on three skiffs along with some supply barges and initiated the invasion by taking over the Spanish battery located on Santa Rosa Island near present-day Ft. Pickens without firing a shot. The company ships were then free to enter Pensacola Bay and by firing their sixty naval cannon into town for three hours, they silenced the 29 cannon in Pensacola’s Spanish Fort San Carlos.
#5: On Friday, August 4, 1719, a Spanish fleet carrying over 1300 troops and consisting of two captured French ships, a Spanish flagship and nine two-masted coastal schooners forced the French surrender of Pensacola and the French lost their ships anchored in the harbor that were filled with John Law’s Company of the West’s supplies.The French retreat from Pensacola led the French back to Dauphin Island and required them to reinforce Dauphin Island’s defenses.
#6: OnSunday , August 13, 1719, Louis Juchereau de St. Denis brought 50 Pascagoula Indians to Dauphin Island on . By August 20, the French had assembled between 200 to 400 Indians between Mobile and Dauphin Island and these natives represented “the backbone of the French defensive forces.”
The Spanish fleet was limited to privateers who sailed from Pensacola on 9 two-masted coastal schooners and two brigantines. The Spanish sent the French on Dauphin Island a message that demanded unconditional surrender and made some violent threats. The French on shore showed their contempt for the Spanish privateers and decided to “make a gallant defense.”
After their bluff failed, the Spanish decided to put off a full frontal assault upon the improvised French fortress hastily constructed on the shore near an inlet the French called Trou du Major. The Spanish decided to impose a naval blockade and began to capture all ships bringing supplies to the island. For over two weeks the Spanish privateers continued their blockade on the mouth of Mobile Bay and executed raids on the warehouses and farms in the area. During a raid on a Mon Luis Island farm, the French and their Indian allies captured 18 French deserters who were fighting for the Spanish. One of the deserters was condemned to a public hanging on Dauphin Island which served as a strong lesson in civic responsibility for the islanders and the other 17 were turned over to the Indians so they could be dragged to Mobile to be tortured and killed.
#5: On Friday, August 4, 1719, a Spanish fleet carrying over 1300 troops and consisting of two captured French ships, a Spanish flagship and nine two-masted coastal schooners forced the French surrender of Pensacola and the French lost their ships anchored in the harbor that were filled with John Law’s Company of the West’s supplies.The French retreat from Pensacola led the French back to Dauphin Island and required them to reinforce Dauphin Island’s defenses.
#6: On
The Spanish fleet was limited to privateers who sailed from Pensacola on 9 two-masted coastal schooners and two brigantines. The Spanish sent the French on Dauphin Island a message that demanded unconditional surrender and made some violent threats. The French on shore showed their contempt for the Spanish privateers and decided to “make a gallant defense.”
When a large French fleet carrying 2000 troops arrived at Dauphin Island on September 1, the few Spanish vessels still maintaining the blockade retreated back to Pensacola.
#7: On Tuesday September 5, 1719, a French squadron under the command of Commodore Desnos de Champmeslin consisting of the flagship Hercule and twelve smaller ships sailed from Dauphin Island to Pensacola while Bienville marched one hundred troops and almost 500 Indians overland. On September 16, the French fleet was anchored off Pensacola while Bienville and his Indians prepared to attack. On the morning of September 17, Bienville’s Indians and the Canadians began their attack upon Fort San Carlos as the French fleet battled the Spanish ships anchored in the bay. The Spanish commander had “had no stomach for a fight with Indians” and so he surrendered to Champmeslin. The French had lost six men; the Spaniards, a hundred. Bienville also captured 47 French deserters fighting for the Spanish. Twelve of these men were condemned to be hanged from the yardarm of a French ship anchored in Pensacola harbor and the other 35 were sentenced to serve ten years as galley slaves for the Company of the West.
#8: On Sunday, October 9, 1763, British Major Farmar , commanding a convoy of six troop transports and a warship carrying three regiments dropped anchor off Dauphin Island with orders to occupy French Louisiana east of the Mississippi River as well as Spanish Pensacola. Farmar had earlier received an official French authorization for the commander of Fort Conde' in Mobile to surrender the fort.
Dauphin Island at the time mainly served as "a sea-girt cattle pen" for Frenchmen living in Mobile while the only residents were a French sergeant's guard and a harbor pilot, both of whom would soon leave the island.
For over a week after arriving at Mobile Bay, Farmar had his men sounding the channel and setting out buoys to guide three of the smaller troop transports over the bar. The 32 gun frigate, H.M.S. Stag, and a larger troop transport sailed over to Ship Island to find safe anchorage. Earlier in October, while Farmar had been in Pensacola, two French pilots from the mouth of Mobile Bay had arrived and warned him that they doubted whether the large British ships could clear the bar at Mobile.
The problems Major Farmar encountered entering Mobile Bay emphasized his dependency upon the French pilot who resided on Dauphin Island and was needed to navigate any large vessel intending to enter Mobile Bay. Only one month after taking possession of Mobile Bay, Farmar wrote ".....A corporal and six men I have sent to the Island Dauphin to be assisting the Pilot in going off to ships, as the bar is very dangerous, and there are no inhabitants upon the island."
#9: On Monday, May 1, 1769, Major Farmar violently evicted Lieutenant Governor Montforte Brown's employees from Dauphin Island.
#10: February 10, 1780, Spanish Governor of Bernardo de Galvez led a fleet of warships and troop transports into Mobile Bay to begin the SIEGE OF FORT CHARLOTTE.
#11: In early 1781, the British launch an offensive from Pensacola to take Dauphin Island but fail.
#12: In May of 1781, the Spanish under Galvez launch an invasion from Mobile Bay and take Pensacola from the British.
#13: In July of 1812, Troops under General Ferdinand Claiborne raised the American flag on Isla Delphina(Dauphin Island) and ordered the Spanish guard on the island “to withdraw or be regarded as prisoners of war.” The pilot was ordered not to aid Spanish or British vessels. The Spanish guard remained on Dauphin Island.
#14: In April of 1813,the U.S. under the command of General James Wilkinson capture Dauphin Island.
#15: In September of 1814, the British based on Dauphin Island unsuccessfully attack Fort Bowyer on Mobile Point.
#16: In February of 1815, the entire British Expeditionary Force regroups on Dauphin Island and launched a siege upon Fort Bowyer. The U.S. troops in Fort Bowyer surrender.
#17: On January 18, 1861, the militia of the Republic of Alabama seize Fort Gaines on Dauphin Island from U.S. troops.
#18 In February of 1864, The U.S. Navy ships performed a two-week-long bombardment of Fort Powell @ Grant's Pass which included landings in the area of the west point of Dauphin Island.
#19: In August of 1864, U.S. troops forced the surrender of Confederate States of America forces which occupied Fort Gaines and Dauphin Island.
#20: In March of 1865, the 32,000 man U.S. invasion of Baldwin County began with the movement of Federal troops across the Mobile Bay from Dauphin Island.
DAUPHIN ISLAND FORTIFICATION link http://reclaimalabama.blogspot.com/2016/09/1830-harris-farrow-claims-httpsbooks.html
from BOUNDARIES OF THE UNITED STATES AND THE SEVERAL STATES BY FRANKLIN K. VAN ZANDT, 1966
The entire basin of the Mississippi and its tributaries, and much of the coast region of the Gulf of Mexico which were subsequently known as the Territory of Louisiana, were originally claimed by La Salle in 1682 for France by virtue of discovery and occupation. The area claimed on the Gulf extended west and south to the mouth of the 'Rio de las Palmas,' which was probably the stream now known as the Rio Grande. In 1712, France made a grant to Antoine de Crozat of the exclusive right to the trade of this region. Because this grant gives the limits of the vast region as they were understood by France, a part of it is here quoted: 'We have by these presents signed with our hand, authorized, and do authorize the said Sieur Crozat to carry on exclusively the trade in all the territories by us possessed, and bounded by New Mexico and by those of the English in Carolina, all the establishments, ports, harbors, rivers, and especially the port and harbor of DAUPHIN ISLAND, formerly called Massacre Island, the river St. Louis, formerly called the Mississippi, from the seashore to the Illinois, together with the river St. Philip, formerly called the Missouries River, and the St. Jerome formerly called the Wabash [the Ohio], with all the countries, territories, lakes in the land, and the rivers emptying directly or indirectly into that part of the river St. Louis. All the said territories, countries, rivers, streams, and islands we will to be and remain comprised under the name of the government of Louisiana, which shall be dependent on the General Government of New France and remain subordinate to it, and we will, moreover, that all the territories which we possess on this side of the Illinois be united, as far as need be, to the General Government of New France and form a part thereof, reserving to ourself, nevertheless, to increase, if we judge proper, the extent of the government of the said country of Louisiana.'
This document indicates that France regarded Louisiana as comprising the drainage basin of the Mississippi at least as far north as the mouth of the Illinois and those branches of the Mississippi that enter it be low this point, including the Missouri, but excluding land in the Southwest claimed by Spain. It is, more over, certain that the area now comprised in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho was not included. Crozat surrendered this grant in 1717."
posted by robertoreg at 7:32 AM
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