USA > Florida > Historical sketches of colonial Florida > Part 6
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As we contemplate that year, big with the fate of empire on this continent, the imagina-
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tion is captivated by the spectacle of a line of battle extending from the northern limits of Maine to the mouth of the Mississippi; the in- tense points of action being Cowpens, Guildford Court House, Pensacola and Yorktown.
That no reinforcement was sent to General Campbell, although the fall of Fort Charlotte was a warning that Galvez's next effort would be against Pensacola, manifests the strain which Britain's contest with her colonies and France had brought upon both her naval and military resources. When, therefore, in Febru- ary, 1781, Galvez was about to advance against the place with a large fleet and an army of 15,- 000 men, according to the lowest estimate, the British force numbered about 1,000* regular troops, besides some provincials.
The British looked for some aid from the Creek, Choctaw and Chickasaw Indians. It was a body of the latter which drove the Span- ish scouts across the Perdido shortly after the capture of Mobile.
The three tribes were loyal to their white
* Von Elking, Vol. II., p. 152.
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allies, even when the latter were no longer able. to furnish them with their customary supplies. The Spaniards, on the other hand, with every- thing to offer them, utterly failed to shake their British loyalty. As illustrative of their devo- tion, it is related when the Waldecks landed at Pensacola, the Indians, inferring from their strange language that they were enemies, in- clined to attack them. They had the prudence, however, to call upon Governor Chester for an
explanation. After he had satisfactorily an- swered the question "whether the men of strange speech were the friends or foes of their Great White Brother on the other side of the big water," they manifested great joy and hon- ored the strangers with a salute from their rifles.
When, however, the advance on Pensacola by the Spaniards was abandoned in the spring of 1780, and thence up to the following December General Campbell found his savage allies rather an encumbrance than a benefit. That time was devoted to strengthening Fort George and the defenses of the harbor, a labor in which no reward could induce them to assist. The excit-
تشهد
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ing occupation of taking Spanish scalps, for which £3" were paid, however, was one in which they could render a barbarous service to the British.
The Indians were under the command of a Marylander, formerly an ensign in the British army, who, whilst stationed at Pensacola, had been cashiered for misconduct. He afterwards went to the Creek Nation, where he married the daughter of a chief. Though vainly styling him- self General William Augustus Bowles, he was content to accept restoration to his rank of ensign as a reward for the service, which, at the head of his band of Creeks, Choctaws and Chickasaws, he was expected to render to the British during Galvez's operations in West Florida.
In the latter months of 1780, Pensacola and the garrison of Fort George were on the point of starvation. All the resources of the British government seem to have been required for the great struggle of 1781 on the Atlantic coast, and Galvez's conquest had cut off thecustomary
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* Von Elking, Vol. II., p. 140.
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supplies from the rich country lying between Mobile Bay and the Mississippi.
Field-preacher Stuernagel says in his journal: "This morning we drank water and ate a piece of bread with it. At mid-day we had just noth- ing to drink but water. Our evening meal con- sists of a pipe of tobacco and a glass of water. A ham was sold for seven dollars. A pound of tobacco cost four dollars. A pound of coffee one dollar. The men have long been without rum. From hard service, and such want, dis- eases were more and more engendered."*
But that state of want was suddenly changed to superabundance. A British cruiser captured in the gulf a number of merchant vessels loaded with supplies, embracing "rum, meal, coffee, sugar and other welcome provisions," and an- other exclusively with powder.i Not long afterwards a more brilliant, although not as useful, a prize was captured. It contained $20,000 in coin, a large collection of silver-plate, fine wines, "all sorts of utensils for the kitchen and things of the same kind, being General
*Von Elking, Vol. II., p. 146.
/ Id. 147.
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Galvez's outfit and requirements" for his in- tended campaign of 1781 .* Fortune thus feasted and gilded the victim for the coming sacrifice.
Having perfected the defenses of Fort George, General Campbell turned his attention to Red Cliff, in which, on November 19, he placed a small garrison of 50 Waldecks, under the com- mand of Major Pentzel, at the same time pro- viding it with some heavy artillery, which could be spared from Fort George.
Apparently, tired of waiting for Galvez's at- tack, or presuming from his delay in making a movement that he had abandoned the intention of attacking Pensacola, General Campbell sent an expedition against a Spanish post, on or near the Mississippi, called French Town by the British. The force consisted of 100 in- fantry of the Sixtieth regiment, and 60 Wal- deckers, besides 300 Indians, commanded by Colonel Hanxleden, the senior officer of the Waldecks, and next in command to General Campbell. It was an unfortunate enterprise,
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*Von Elking, Vol. II., p. 149.
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resulting in the death of the gallant Hanxleden, as well as other veteran officers and soldiers who were soon to be greatly needed at Pensa- cola. In the retreat, the body of their brave commander was borne by his men from the field of battle to a large oak in its vicinity under the shade of which it was buried. Gratefully did the Waldecks, on their return to Germany, re- member and record the chivalric conduct of "the gallant Spaniards who honored fallen gallantry by enclosing the grave with a rail- ing."* On January 9 the remnant of the expe- dition reached Fort George.
On the ninth of March General Campbell's impatient waiting for Galvez was brought to a close. On that day a preconcerted signal of seven guns from the war-ship Mentor told the British that the Spaniards were at last ap- proaching for the final struggle for mastery in West Florida .; By 9 o'clock of the next morn- ing, thirty-eight Spanish ships, under Admiral Solana, were lying off the harbor, or landing troops and artillery. During the night a British
*Von Elking, Vol. II., p. 148.
¡ Von Elking, Vol. II., p. 148.
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vessel glided out of the harbor with dispatches to the commandant of Jamaica, pleading for reinforcements, which however were not to be had, for the movements of de Grasse on the Atlantic coast required all the attention of the British navy, whilst Cornwallis and Clinton had drawn, or were drawing, there every avail- able man to meet the great American rally.
On March 11, the Spaniards opened fire upon the Mentor, then lying in the harbor, from a battery on Santa Rosa island. She replied to the attack until she had received 28 shots from twenty-four pound guns, when she retired near- er the town.
After this affair there were no further move- ments by the Spaniards until the eighteenth, when a brig and two galleons, taking advan- tage of a verr favorable wind, sailed past the batteries defending the mouth of the harbor, without receiving any perceptible injury. Think- ing they might sail up to the town, and find cover from some structures on the beach, Gen- eral Campbell caused them to be burned down.
On the nineteenth, the entire Spanish fleet, excepting a few vessels, sailed past the batter-
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ies, though subjected to a heavy fire from Red Cliff, which lasted for two hours.
Galvez, even after he found himself in posses- sion of the harbor with a fleet of 38 vessels, and a large land force, consisting not only of troops brought directly from Havana, but those also with which he had captured the posts west of the Perdido, sent to Havana for reinforcements; and remained inactive until they reached him on April 16. The reinforcement consisted of eighteen more ships, and an additional land force, with heavy siege artillery.
Whilst awaiting that addition to his strength, a landing was attempted. The attempt was re- sisted by a body of Indians and a part of the garrison of Fort George with two field pieces of artillery. The Spaniards, taken by surprise, were driven to their boats. In the attack many were killed, and in the confusion of re-embarking others were drowned. On April 22, however, + a second and successful attempt to land was made by the invaders, followed by the estab- lishment of camps where batteries were to be erected.
One of the camps, nearer the Fort and the town
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than the others, by its temerity invited rebuke. Accordingly, a surprise for it, to be executed on the twenty-third, was prepared, but defeated by a fanatic. On the night of the twenty-second, a Waldeck private reported to his captain, that a Waldeck corporal was missing, under circum- stances which implied desertion; that the de- serter was a Catholic, the only one in the regi- ment, the rest being Protestant; and that it had been suspected by his comrades that his fanat- icism would lead him, on the first opportunity, to desert to his co-religionists. That the sus- picion was well founded was manifested by the movements of the enemy the next morning.
The enterprise, however, though arrested, was not abandoned. The British commander, shrewd- ly calculating on the improbability in the ene- my's conception, that a surprise defeated on the twenty-third would be attempted on the twenty fifth, actually executed the movement on the lat- ter day. The attacking force, composed of a part of the garrison, and a body of Indians, wascom- manded by the general in person. The Spaniards were driven from their entrenchments with considerable loss, and their works hastily de-
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stroyed. This proved, however, the last ag- gressive act of the British. By the twenty- seventh of April, batteries mounted with heavy siege artillery completely invested Fort George.
On the twenty-fourth, the day before the at- tack on the Spaniards, General Campbell learned for the first time, that Charleston had been cap- tured by General Clinton on the eleventh of May, 1780. We are not informed of the channel through which the information came to him; but as it could not have come by sea, it must have reached him through the Indians, who obtained it, pro- ably, from traders of the Atlantic coast. His ignorance for nearly a year of so important an event impresses us with his isolation, and the courage with which he bore it. The event was duly celebrated in Fort George by an illumina- tion and a discharge of rockets.
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CHAPTER XIV.
Fort San Bernardo-Siege of Fort George-Explosion of Magazine-The Capitulation-The March Through the Breach-British Troops Sail from Pensacola to Brook- lyn.
THE Spanish operations against Fort George were conducted with extreme caution. What, in the beginning, was one of a circle of intrench- ments, developed into a fort as extensive and strong as the former. Like Fort George, it was built of earth and timber. Its position was about one-third of a mile to the northward of the latter. During its construction it was hidden from observation by a dense pine forest and undergrowth, which, after its completion, were cleared to give play to its guns. It was named San Bernardo, for the patron saint of the Spanish commander.
The magnitude of San Bernardo indicated that it must have been constructed for exigen- cies besides that of assailing the British works.
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Galvez probably feared an attack in his rear from the Indians coming to the relief of their allies, or that he might have to encounter a relieving expedition coming by sea. In either event his fortress would be a place of security for his supplies and a rallying point in case of disaster.
The siege was a struggle between two forts, with the advantage to one of them in being supported by intrenchments which with itself formed a circle around its antagonist. The latter began the contest.
Among the works constructed by the British to strengthen their position, was a redoubt, named Waldeck. On April 27, a Spanish in- trenchment was seen to be in the course of con- struction opposite to Waldeck, under cover of the woods. Against that intrenchment the be- sieged directed a heavy fire, but with little effect, as the work was nearly completed when discov- ered. This attack upon the besiegers was the signal for all their batteries to open fire upon Fort George and its defenses.
The firing was incessant on both sides until May 1, when that of the British was almost
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entirely suspended, for the purpose of enabling the garrison to make some indispensable repairs on their works. On the second, however, the British guns were again in full play.
But the demand for repairs was so continu- ous and urgent as to impose a heavy tax upon the limited numbers of the besieged. Short re- liefs from duty became a stern necessity, and want of rest, as well as overexertion, so im- paired their strength that men were seen fall- ing prostrate beside their guns from fatigue and exhaustion.
Galvez's failure to storm the British works, during the silence of their guns on May 1, seemed to indicate his determination to reduce the contest to the question, how long the am- munition of the besieged would last and their artillery remain serviceable ? He may, however, have regarded the suspension of the British firing as a strategem to invite an assault.
There was a vital spot in the defenses for which the Spanish shot and shell had been vainly seeking -- the powder magazine. But as the gunners were without requisite information to enable them to procure its range, it was but
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a wild chance that a shell would strike it. That its position was not drawn from the Waldeck corporal, is an impeachment of the military sagacity of the Spanish officers, and an act of gross negligence which would have prolonged the siege indefinitely, but for an imprudence of the British commander equally as gross.
A provincial colonel for infamous conduct-of what character we are uninformed-was drum- med out of the Fort, instead of being, as prudence required, carefully kept within it dur- ing the siege. The man, as should have been expected, went to the Spaniards and informed them of the condition of the garrison and de- fenses, and especially of the angle in which the magazine was situated. That disclosure sealed the fate of Fort George. Thenceforward, that angle became the mark of every Spanish shot and shell. For three days and nights did those searching missiles beat upon it, until at last on the morning of May 8, there occurred an ex- plosion that shook Gage Hill to its deep foun- dations as though once again in the throes of an earthquake.
A yawning breach was made in the Fort.
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Fifty men were killed outright and as many more wounded fatally and otherwise.
At that thunder-like signal 15,000 men are marshalled for the assault. But there is no panic in Fort George. Calmly the British com- mander orders every gun to be charged, and many to be moved so as to sweep the breach. That work done, he hoists a white flag and sends an officer under another to the Spanish general with a communication, which doubtless had been prepared in anticipation of the conjunc- ture in which he at last found himself. It was . an offer to capitulate upon the following terms : "The troops to march out at the breach with flying colors and drums beating, each man with six cartridges in his cartridge box; at the dis- tance of 500 paces the arms were to be stacked; the officers to retain their swords; all the troops to be shipped as soon as possible, at the cost of the Spaniards to a British port, to be designated by the British commander, under parole not to serve against Spain or her allies, until an equal number of the same rank of Spaniards, or the troops of her allies, were ex- changed by Great Britain, and the best care to
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be taken of the sick and wounded remaining behind, who were to be forwarded as soon as they recovered."
Knowing that those were the terms which the gallant Dickson and Durnford had demand- ed and obtained at Baton Rouge and Mobile, the spirit in which General Campbell dictated the terms of the capitulation can be readily im- agined. To submit to less than had been con- ceded to his inferior officers would be dishonor.
Galvez answered, that the terms proposed could not be conceded without modification. General Campbell replied that no modification was permissible; adding, that in case they were not conceded he would hold "the Fort to the last man." That bold reply was followed by the consent of Galvez to the capitulation pro- posed by the British commander.
It would be a grateful task to record human- ity or chivalry as the motive for the concession; and it would be the duty of history to assign it, in the absence of facts, inconsistent with such a conclusion. But the victor, by his own confes- sion, has precluded such a presumption. * In a
*Sparks, Vol: S, p. 175.
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letter of General Washington's to Don Francis- co Rendon, agent of the Spanish government in the United States, written at "Headquarters before Yorktown, twelfth of October, 1781," occurs the following: "I am obliged by the extract of General Galvez's letter to Count de Grasse, explaining at large the necessity he was under of granting the terms of capitulation to the garrison at Pensacola, which the command- ant required. I have no doubt, from General Galvez's well known attachment to the cause of America, that he would have refused the arti- cles, which have been deemed exceptionable, had there not been very powerful reasons to induce his acceptance of them."
What, it may be asked, were "those very powerful reasons ?" He had an army at his command only one thousand less in number than General Washington had before York- town, when he wrote the letter to Rendon ; he had ample supplies of every description ; he was backed by a powerful fleet; he had selected for his expedition a time when de Grasse's movements on the Atlantic coast required the presence, in that quarter, of the whole
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British naval force on this side of the Atlantic; and hence, we can find no " necessity he was under of granting terms," which Gen- eral Campbell "required, " unless we find it in his want of faith in his ability by force of arms, to compel the British commander to modify his requirements.
In order to fully appreciate the transaction, it should be borne in mind that there was an understanding between Galvez and the French commanders in America, that he should not grant to British troops that might fall into his power during his operations in West Florida, such terms as would enable them to become a part of the armies operating against the United States.
This understanding Galvez violated at Baton Rouge and Mobile, and again for the third time, in conceding the terms demanded by Gen- eral Campbell; for the articles bound the gar- rison not to serve against Spain and her allies only, and the United States was not her ally, but only a sympathizer.
To say that the "powerful reasons," to quote from General Washington, were not in Fort
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George, would be to accuse Galvez of bad faith to his French ally, and untruth, as to the exist- ence of any necessity for his concession to the British.
Such being the conclusions that impartial his- tory must draw, impressive was the spectacle presented, on the ninth of May, 1781, upon that hill now crowned by the monument to the Confederate dead. In a circle around Fort George the Spanish army stands in array. The roll of a drum breaks the stillness, followed by the sound of mustering in the Fort. Again as it beats to the fife's stirring military air, the British commander, in the dress of a major-gen- eral, sword in hand, emerges from the breach, followed by his less than eight hundred heroes. Proudly does the gallant band step the five hun- dred paces ; then successively come the orders to halt, fall into line, and stack arms.
The scene would have thrilled the heart of every soldier whose memory is consecrated by the shaft that springs from that historic hill, then the centre of a landscape, whence, north- ward, the eve could rest on a limitless expanse of verdure; eastward and westward upon the
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far-sweeping curves of the shore; southward upon the glorious mirror of the Bay, with the hills of Santa Rosa rising out of the blue waters like snow-clad peaks above the azure of a dis- tant horizon, and far beyond them upon the tremulous sky-line of the heaving gulf.
The formal signing of the articles of capitula- tion in the Council Chamber of Fort George, which occurred on the ninth of May, immediate- ly before the British marched out, was antici- pated in a former page.
On June the fourth the British troops sailed for Havana, where they arrived on the fourteenth of the same month; and thence the same vessels transported them to Brooklyn. A further ad- dition was made to the strength of the British, by the garrisons of Baton Rouge and Fort Charlotte, which after many obstacles, and several voyages from point to point, finally reached Brooklyn about the time the Pensacola troops arrived there. And thus, in consequence of Galvez's breach of faith, a force of 1,200 vet- erans, with their gallant officers, was added to the British army.
It was doubtless this accession of British
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strength, at New York, in that rallying year, when each side required every available man, that caused de Grasse to complain to the Span- ish government of the capitulation at Pensa- cola, and called forth the apology of Galvez referred to by General Washington in his letter to Rendon.
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CHAPTER XV.
Political Aspect of the Capitulation-Treaty of Versailles- English Exodus-Widow of the White House.
THE terms of the surrender of Fort George, as stated in the previous chapter, present the strictly military side of the capitulation. But there was also a political aspect to the formal articles, signed on the ninth of May, by General Campbell, Governor Chester, and General Gal- vez. West Florida was surrendered to Spain, and it was stipulated, that "the British inhabi- tants, or those who may have been subjects of the King of Great Britain in said countries, may retire in full security, and may sell their estates, and remove their effects as well as their persons; the time limited for their emigration being fixed at the space of eighteen months."
It was that political feature of the capitula- tion which made Governor Chester's signature necessary, and to that it related exclusively.
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That of General Campbell referred to the strictly military stipulations only. In the former we may find one of General Galvez's inducements to submit to the British general's "require- ments."
The object of the Spanish government in di- recting the invasion of West Florida was to per- manently regain the territory which Spain had surrendered to Great Britain in 1763; and in · addition, to obtain that part of Louisiana on the Gulf of Mexico which the latter had acquired from France. Consequently, the large expedition so long in preparing against Pensacola, and so disproportionate to the mere capture of the place, was intended for colonization, as well as conquest. Such being the policy of his govern- ment, Galvez necessarily subordinated all other considerations toits achievement. Accordingly, his overwhelming numbers designed to over- awe opposition; his ponderous siege artillery intended to batter Fort George into ruins with- out danger to the town; avoidance of all move- ments by his fleet against it as well as all injury to it by his artillery during the siege ; and, lastly, the article above quoted pointed to the coloni-
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zation of a Spanish population, for the accommo- dation of which the English homes were ;to be vacated, and their inmates forced into exile. If that object could be obtained by the capitula- tion, there was nothing within the lines of Span- ish policy to be gained by taking Fort George by storm, at the fearful sacrifice of human life which it would have cost. The French might, indeed, complain that the agreement with them respecting British troops in Florida was vio- lated by conceding the terms demanded by General Campbell; but diplomacy, the science of excuses and pretexts, would beequal to the task of satisfying them. As to the Americans, it was of little consequence to Spain that General Clinton's forces would be strengthened by the reinforce- ment of the Florida troops, albeit at a con- juncture when every available man was required to sustain Britain's tottering North American empire. For though Spain became an ally of France in order to place herself in a position to claim a fragment of that empire when it fell, yet her purpose was to attain that end with the least possible inconvenience or sacrifice to her- self.
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