The Castillo had triumphed in its first test, but the town of St. Augustine was virtually reduced to ashes. Spanish eyewitnesses testified that not a building was left standing except the Hermitage of Nuestra Señora de la Soledad, and some twenty houses of the meaner sort. These were probably scattered dwellings south of the Plaza.
Although disgraced by the failure of his expedition, Moore returned to Florida in 1704 with a large number of Indian allies. They overran the weakly garrisoned Indian towns of Apalache and the interior, taking 1,300 Indian prisoners back to Carolina. During this and subsequent invasions practically all of the outlying Franciscan Missions were destroyed. Only those in the immediate vicinity of St. Augustine remained.
Two stout defense lines protected the capital on the north.
The Capital’s Defenses
Moore’s siege of St. Augustine in 1702 showed a serious weakness in the capital’s defenses. The enemy were able to occupy and burn the town despite its impregnable Castillo. This led to the gradual construction of a system of outer defenses to protect the town itself from future invasion.
First an inner defense line was built extending westward from the Castillo to the San Sebastian River along what is now Orange Street. It eventually consisted of a moat, some fifty or more feet wide and six feet deep. Material from the ditch was used to build a sturdy wall of earth and palm logs. St. Augustine’s City Gate is all that remains of this defense work.
Later a fortified line was constructed extending across the peninsula between the bay and the San Sebastian River, “about a cannon shot north of the fort.” It was called the Hornwork because a portion of it resembled in shape the horn of a steer. It consisted of a wide ditch and embankment of earth and sod, at one time further strengthened by a stockade of logs, and a fort at its eastern extremity.
Another defense line extended north and south along Maria Sanchez Creek in the vicinity of present Cordova Street, marking the western boundary of the original settlement. Other defense works protected it on the south. The lines were strengthened at intervals by redoubts and angular projections, in some of which cannon were mounted. Sentinels manned the defense lines day and night, once each hour passing the Alerto.
When escaped Negro slaves began to find refuge in St. Augustine, a small fort was built for their protection two miles north of the town. It was called Fort Mosa, or the Negro Fort, and served as an anchor for another defense line running east and west. Practically no evidence of this fort and defense work has survived.