Siege of St. Augustine

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Siege of St. Augustine
Date June 13 - July 20, 1740
Location St. Augustine, Florida
Result Decisive Spanish Victory
Belligerents
United Kingdom Flag of Spain Spain
Commanders
General James Oglethorpe
Commodore Pearce		 Governor Manuel de Montiano
Strength
1,000 regulars and militia,
1,200 natives[1][2]
5 frigates,
3 sloops,
900 sailors[3]		 750 regulars,
50 guns,
6 small sail
Casualties and losses
several hundred dead or wounded,
18 cannon,
34 small mortars,
1 schooner
 
War of Jenkins' Ear

The Siege of St. Augustine was a part of the War of Jenkins' Ear during which England and her colonies attacked Spanish colonies in the Americas. After some mutual minor skirmishes, Governor Oglethorpe of the colony of Georgia raised a mixed force of British regulars, the 'Old' 42nd Regiment of Foot, colonial milita from Georgia and Carolina, Hugh MacKaye's Highlanders and American Creek and Chickasaw, or Uchee Indians. The campaign began in December 1739, by January Oglethorpe was raiding Spanish forts west of St. Augustine. By May, 1740 he led this force on an expedition into Spanish Florida in an attempt to capture St. Augustine, first capturing Fort San Diego, Fort Picolotta and Fort Mose, the first free black settlement in America.[4]

Oglethorpe invested St. Augustine deploying his batteries on the island of Santa Anastasia while the naval squadron blockade the port. When Oglethorpe began a 27 day bombardment on June 24, the Spanish colonist families, some 2,000 people, all sought refuge within the fort, Castillo de San Marcos. Both sides suffered serious losses to disease with about half their troops incapacitated. On June 26, a sortie by 300[5] Spanish and free blacks attacked Fort Mose held by 120 Highlander Rangers and 30 Indians. The garrison was taken by surprise with 68 killed and 34 captured while the Spanish loss was 10 killed.[6]

The Spanish managed to send supply ships through the Royal Navy blockade and any thought of starving St. Augustine into capitulation was lost. Oglethorpe now planned to storm the fortress by land while the navy ships attacked the Spanish ships and half-galleys in the harbor. Commodore Pearce, however resolved to forgo the attack during hurricane season. Oglethorpe gave up the siege and returned to Georgia abandoning his artillery.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Accounts vary considerably from 900 to 2,000 with the number of Indians especially at variance from 100 to 1100.
  2. ^ Letter of Governor Montiano to the Governor of Cuba, July 28, 1740
  3. ^ Robert Beatson, Naval and Military Memoirs of Great Britain, from 1727 to 1783, London, 1804, p.20
  4. ^ Black soldiers aided in the defeat of a British attack on St. Augustine in 1728, a grateful Governor Montiano abolished slavery in Florida.
  5. ^ Letter of Governor Montiano to the Governor of Cuba, July 6, 1740; Collection of the Georgia Historical Society. This letter also contains detailed and accurate intelligence from English prisoners about the large fleet and expedition that will be sent to Admiral Vernon for the attack on Cartagena de Indias: "consisting of 30 ships of the line and of a landing party of 10,000."
  6. ^ Report of the Committee Appointed by the General Assembly of South Carolina in 1740. On the St. Augustine Expedition under General Oglethorpe. Published by the South Carolina Historical Society. (Charleston, S.C. : Walker, Evans & Cogswell Co., Printers, Nos. 3 and 5 Broad and 117 East Bay Streets, 1887.) Extract No. 32Deposition of Thomas Jones, survivor of the Battle of Fort Mose. His account naturally varies with that of Montiano.

[edit] See also

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