Historical Sketches of Colonial Florida

by Richard L. Campbell

The gallant defense of Fort Charlotte by Durnford seems to have lead Galvez to reflections which ended in the conclusion that he was not, then, strong enough to attack Pensacola. He, accordingly, made no further movement, until he had procured from Havana a supply of heavy artillery, and a large additional force.

That it was a part of his plan to advance upon Pensacola immediately after the capture of Mobile, is evidenced by the Spanish Admiral Solana’s fleet appearing, and anchoring off the harbor, on March 27, hovering about as if in expectation of a signal from the land until the thirtieth, and then sailing away. The appearance of a scouting party of Spaniards about the same time, on the east side of the Perdido, likewise pointed to such a design.

Be that as it may, Galvez made no further movement in West Florida until February, 1781, the eventful year of the great American rally; the year that witnessed Morgan’s brilliant victory, on the seventeenth of January at the Cowpens; and Green’s masterly strategy, culminating on the fifteenth of March at Guildford Court House in an apparent defeat, but in sequence, a victory, for it sent Cornwallis to Yorktown for capture on the nineteenth of October.

As we contemplate that year, big with the fate of empire on this continent, the imagination is captivated by the spectacle of a line of battle extending from the northern limits of Maine to the mouth of the Mississippi; the intense 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 February, 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[^[30]] 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 Spanish scouts across the Perdido shortly after the capture of Mobile.

The three tribes were loyal to their white allies, even when the latter were no longer able to furnish them with their customary supplies. The Spaniards, on the other hand, with everything to offer them, utterly failed to shake their British loyalty. As illustrative of their devotion, it is related when the Waldecks landed at Pensacola, the Indians, inferring from their strange language that they were enemies, inclined to attack them. They had the prudence, however, to call upon Governor Chester for an explanation. After he had satisfactorily answered 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 honored 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 exciting occupation of taking Spanish scalps, for which £3[^[31]] 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 himself 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 the customary supplies from the rich country lying between Mobile Bay and the Mississippi.