May 2018 ROBERTOREG Projects
1) City Map of Aven (circa 1915) for decoding the novel DEVIL MAKE A THIRD.
https://privatepropertynotrespass.blogspot.com/
2) A DAUPHIN ISLAND HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY TRIVIA CONTEST based upon the Franco-Spanish War on the Gulf Coast from 1719-1720 in anticipation of its 300th anniversary in 2019.
http://dauphinislandhistory.blogspot.com/2015/04/the-twelve-ages-or-chapters-of-history.html
3) The May 28, 2018 commemoration of the 200th anniversary of General Jackson's U.S. Army conquest of Pensacola in May, 1818.
https://scholarworks.umt.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2580&context=etd
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Masot
1818 ANDREW JACKSON CORRESPONDENCE
https://books.google.com/books?id=JxA1t3UD9qwC&pg=PA210&lpg=PA210&dq=killed+Pensacola+Masot+%22Andrew+Jackson%22+%22May+25,+1818%22&source=bl&ots=ZOf-d7rUZD&sig=vvBRvH0ZJCm1_uW-wC6yc-pD-c8&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjq14ijjIvbAhWDz1MKHeSqCFcQ6AEwAHoECAEQLA#v=onepage&q=killed%20Pensacola%20Masot%20%22Andrew%20Jackson%22%20%22May%2025%2C%201818%22&f=false
4) Document the commencement of the construction of a U.S. fortification on Dauphin Island in 1818 for the 200th anniversary of that endeavor.
1818 ANDREW JACKSON CORRESPONDENCE
https://books.google.com/books?id=JxA1t3UD9qwC&pg=PA210&lpg=PA210&dq=killed+Pensacola+Masot+%22Andrew+Jackson%22+%22May+25,+1818%22&source=bl&ots=ZOf-d7rUZD&sig=vvBRvH0ZJCm1_uW-wC6yc-pD-c8&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjq14ijjIvbAhWDz1MKHeSqCFcQ6AEwAHoECAEQLA#v=onepage&q=killed%20Pensacola%20Masot%20%22Andrew%20Jackson%22%20%22May%2025%2C%201818%22&f=false
Don José Masot, who was governor of West Florida, having received intelligence of Jackson’s westward march and his designs on Pensacola, sent him a written protest against his invasion, as an offence against the Spanish king, “exhorting and requiring him to retire from the Province,” threatening if he did not, to use force for his expulsion. This protest was delivered by a Spanish officer, on May 23, after Jackson had crossed the Escambia river and was within a few hours’ march of Pensacola. Notwithstanding Masot’s threat, instead of advancing to meet the invader, he hastily retired with most of his troops to Fort San Carlos, leaving 255a few only at Pensacola, under the command of Lieutenant-colonel Don Lui Piemas, for the purpose of making a show of resistance.
Masot’s protest, instead of retarding, seems to have accelerated Jackson’s advance. In the afternoon of the same day on which it was received, the American army was in possession of Fort St. Michael and encamped around it. Thence, immediately upon its occupation, Jackson sent Masot a dispatch in reply to his protest, in which he demanded an immediate surrender of Pensacola and Barrancas. In his answer, on May 24, to that demand, Masot, as to Pensacola, referred Jackson to Don Lui Piemas; as to San Carlos he replied: “This fortress I am resolved to defend to the last extremity. I shall repel force by force, and he who resists aggression can never be considered an aggressor. God preserve your excellency many years.” Upon the receipt of this communication, Jackson, by arrangement with Colonel Piemas, took possession of Pensacola.
On the twenty-fifth, Jackson replied to Masot’s dispatch of the twenty-fourth, in which he tells him he is aware of the Spanish force, 256and hints at the folly of resistance to an overwhelming enemy. In conclusion he says: “I applaud your feelings as a soldier in wishing to defend your post, but when resistance is ineffectual and the opposing force overwhelming, the sacrifice of a few brave men is an act of wantonness, for which the commanding officer is accountable to his God.”
In the evening of the day on which Jackson’s communication was written, and within a few hours after it was received by Masot, Fort San Carlos was invested by the American army. On the night of the twenty-fifth, batteries were established in favorable positions within three hundred and eighty-five yards of the fort, though the work was interrupted by the Spanish guns. Before the American batteries replied, Jackson, in his anxiety to spare the effusion of blood, sent Masot, under a flag of truce, another demand to surrender, accompanied by a representation of the futility, if not the folly, of further resistance. The refusal of the demand was followed by the batteries and the fort opening upon each other. The firing continued until evening, when a flag from the fort invited 257a parley, which resulted in a truce until the following day, the twenty-seventh, when, at eight o’clock in the morning, articles of capitulation were signed. Such was Masot’s defense to “the last extremity,” and such the fruit of Jackson’s expostulation with his fiery but feeble antagonist.
The military features of the capitulation were that the Spanish surrender should be made with the honors of war, drums beating, and flags flying, during the march from the gate of the fort to the foot of the glacis, where the arms were to be stacked; the garrison to be transported to Havana; and their rights of property, to the last article, strictly respected.
