SW021 Prelude to the Seminole Wars: American 'Patriot' Invasion of Spanish East Florida in 1812

To explain how the Patriot War set the stage for an early military showdown between American forces and Seminole Indians, one that would chart the course of US-Seminole relations in Florida for the next half century, is James G. Cusick. Dr. Cusick is the author of The Other War of 1812: The Patriot War and the American Invasion of Spanish East Florida. He is the curator of the P. K. Yonge Library of Florida at the University of Florida, a research associate with the Saint Augustine Historical Society, and a former board member and officer of the Seminole Wars Foundation, producer of this podcast.  

In March of 1812, on the eve of a major war with Great Britain, the United States became embroiled in a military incursion with Spain on its southern doorstep, in Spanish East Florida. Called the Patriot War, the Georgia militia "assisted" local English-speaking Floridians (e.g., "Patriots") in laying siege to Saint Augustine. They occupied nearby Spanish towns and forts in an attempt to seize East Florida from Spain by force. The US Government's special envoy to the Seminole, a retired Georgia governor, George Mathews, sought to keep them neutral in any conflict between the Patriots and Spain. This covert and unjustified military occupation of Spanish territory destroyed livestock and countless homesteads, The "Patriots" claimed to have established a free republic in East Florida. They drafted and approved a constitution, and called for US annexation. All that remained for success was for Spain to surrender her garrison at the Castillo de San Marcos in Saint Augustine.

That surrender never took place. Spain steadfastly held out. The Alachua Seminole ultimately decided to back the Spanish, concluding that while the Spanish would not seek to encroach upon their lands, the Americans, in contrast, likely would, soon or later. Mathews' black interpreter, a slave called Tony Proctor, had escaped his servitude and sought refuge with the Seminole. He confirmed their worst suspicions about the Americans ultimate designs upon their territory. Soon after, as British-aligned Spain vigorously protested this illegal occupation to the Madison Administration, the Patriot's Mission: Impossible began to falter. With America on the cusp of war with Great Britain, and seeking to avoid a two-front conflict, the Madison Administration denied any culpability for the so-called Patriot's conduct. It refused to support or recognize the fledgling Patriot Republic.

Nevertheless, the United States feared Britain might use the port of its Spanish ally at Saint Augustine to land an invasion force against Georgia. So, Madison, as a deterrent to Britain, dispatched the U.S. Army to occupy captured Spanish East Florida posts in place of the Patriots. Spain stayed neutral. Soon, Patriot military forces began to withdraw in quiet ignominy.

Spain's stubborn defense raised the Georgians’ ire. But what they really found intolerable was the Spanish use of black troops to defend Florida from outside its Saint Augustine military garrison. These forces clashed with the Georgians on Sept. 9, 1812 when a war party of Free Black militia and Black Maroon Seminoles, dressed as Indians, boldly attacked and destroyed the storehouses at the Patriot outpost at Picolata on the St. Johns River. This, despite the presence of 250 Georgia Volunteer soldiers. A humiliation such as this would simply have to be avenged.

 

Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. He is a combat veteran and of the U.S. Army, serving in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, and Kosovo, and at the Pentagon after 9/11. A military historian, he holds masters degrees in Public History, Communication, and Homeland Security, and is a graduate of the US Army War College with an advanced degree in strategic studies. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Florida. 

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