One of the camps, nearer the Fort and the town 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 circumstances which implied desertion; that the deserter was a Catholic, the only one in the regiment, the rest being Protestant; and that it had been suspected by his comrades that his fanaticism would lead him, on the first opportunity, to desert to his co-religionists. That the suspicion 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, shrewdly calculating on the improbability in the enemy’s conception, that a surprise defeated on the twenty-third would be attempted on the twenty fifth, actually executed the movement on the latter day. The attacking force, composed of a part of the garrison, and a body of Indians, was commanded by the general in person. The Spaniards were driven from their entrenchments with considerable loss, and their works hastily destroyed. This proved, however, the last aggressive 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 attack on the Spaniards, General Campbell learned for the first time, that Charleston had been captured 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, probably, 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 illumination and a discharge of rockets.
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 Brooklyn.
The Spanish operations against Fort George were conducted with extreme caution. What, in the beginning, was one of a circle of intrenchments, 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 exigencies besides that of assailing the British works. 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 intrenchment was seen to be in the course of construction opposite to Waldeck, under cover of the woods. Against that intrenchment the besieged directed a heavy fire, but with little effect, as the work was nearly completed when discovered. This attack upon the besiegers was the signal for all their batteries to open fire upon Fort George and its defenses.