It was the English settlement of Georgia that had spurred all this activity. In fact, Spain’s plan for recovery of Georgia and other Spanish-claimed land was well past the first stages. Troops were assembling in Havana and reinforcements of 400 had already come to Florida. The situation came to a head when Spanish officials boarded Capt. Robert Jenkins’ ship Rebecca, believing the English mariners to be illegally carrying goods to Spanish settlements, an enterprise forbidden by Spanish law. In the ensuing scuffle, Jenkins’ ear was sliced off. Jenkins, back in London, reported to Parliament that the Spanish officer who handed him back his ear said: “Carry it to your King and tell his majesty that if he were present I would serve him in the same manner.”
Alexander Pope, the couplet maker, smiled and said: “The Spaniards did a waggish thing/Who cropped our ears and sent them to the King.” But others were not amused, and England and Spain declared war in 1739. It was called, of course, the War of Jenkins’ Ear.
England’s main target was the Caribbean, with Havana at center with Portobelo, Cartagena, and St. Augustine on the perimeter. Admiral Edward Vernon quickly won fame with his capture of Portobelo in 1739. Oglethorpe tried to imitate him in Florida. Already he had probed the St. Johns River approaches; St. Augustine would be next.
Governor Montiano, however, was fully aware of weaknesses. “Considering that 21 months have been spent on a bastion and eight arches,” he pointed out, “we need at least eight years for rehabilitation of the Castillo.”
How a Siege Works, Circa 1700
The Mechanics of a Siege
Military engineers built forts for several reasons: to protect cities, to protect strong points from falling into enemy hands, to be a visible symbol of governmental authority. If a fort could not be taken by surprise, an attacking party had to take the fort by force. The process of surrounding an enemy’s strong point and slowly cutting off all contact with the outside world is known as a siege. Sieges go back to Biblical times, but the principles were formulated by Sébastien le Prestre de Vauban (1633-1707), a French military engineer who served in the armies of Louis XIV. He created a very formal, disciplined science, and his plan was maddeningly simple. First a trench parallel to the fort was dug out of gun range so the attackers could move in supplies and troops. Sappers—crews of trench diggers—then dug zigzag trenches toward the fort; the zigzag pattern made it more difficult for defenders to hit the trenches. Next the sappers dug a second parallel that included some batteries for shelling the fort. Additional zigzag trenches and parallels would be dug until the attackers were in a position to concentrate their fire at one point on the fortification to breach its walls. The fortress would then have no alternative but to surrender or be stormed. Conducting a textbook perfect siege did not always result in success, for the fort’s defenders would not have been idle. They would fire cannon at the sappers. Often they dug counter trenches out from the fortress and planted mines to blow up the work of the attackers. And they would send out nighttime raiding parties, too.
1st Parallel
Military engineers, called sappers, construct trenches and raise earthworks to protect the attacking forces.
Line of attack
Mortar fire destroys cannon and drives defenders to cover; siege lines prevent supplies from reaching the fort.
2nd Parallel
Siege guns destroy cannon and weaken fort walls.
3rd Parallel
Siege guns breach the walls, enabling attacking forces to enter the fort.
A Fort’s Defenses
Attackers OUTER WORKS Glacis Covered Way Moat Ravelin INNER FORT Moat Parapet Scarp Rampart Magazine
The Cubo Line originally stretched from the Castillo to the San Sebastian River. It was strengthened and rebuilt repeatedly by both the Spaniards and the British. The city gate, a part of the line, was built in 1808, only a few years before the United States took control of Florida.
His concerns were genuine, for work on the vaults had to stop as the war dried up construction funds. The fort was left in a strangely irregular shape. The east side, including San Carlos bastion, was at the new height, but all others were several feet lower. The old rooms still lined three sides of the courtyard.
On June 13, 1740, seven British warships dropped anchor outside the inlet. The long-expected siege of St. Augustine had begun. Montiano hastily sent the news to Havana and with it a plea for help. He had 750 soldiers and the 120 or more sailors who manned the galliots. Rations would last only until the end of June.