Attack on Fort Boyer by Percy and Nicholls—Jackson’s March on Pensacola
in 1814—The Town Captured—Percy and Nicholls Driven Out—Consequences
of the War to the Creeks—Don Manuel Gonzalez.
The first aggressive operation of Percy and Nicholls against the
Americans after they had established themselves at Pensacola was an
attack on Fort Boyer on Mobile Point, preparatory to an advance on
Mobile. But General Jackson’s great victory of the Horse Shoe over the
Creeks on the twenty-seventh of March had effectually crushed them, and
the treaty with them which followed enabled him to direct his attention
exclusively to the movements of the British at Pensacola.
His first step was to put Fort Boyer in condition to resist an attack,
by repairing it, mounting additional guns and placing an ample garrison
in it. This preparation had hardly been accomplished, when, early in
September, 1814, the British commanders made a combined attack upon it
by land and water. The former was repulsed, and the latter resulted in
the destruction of the _Hermes_, Percy’s flag ship, and the drawing off
of the other vessels in a crippled condition. After the inglorious
expedition, the British fleet and land forces retired to Pensacola—a
result hardly in keeping with the vaunts of Percy and Nicholls in their
several proclamations issued in August.
Pensacola having lost all claim to neutrality, as well by being under
the British flag, as by becoming a refuge for the hostile Indians who
declined to bring themselves within the terms of the treaty which
General Jackson had made with the Creeks after the victory at the Horse
Shoe, he resolved to advance upon it. He had previously written Maurique
a letter reminding him of the peaceful relations between Spain and the
United States, expostulating with him upon his permitting the British to
make Pensacola the base of their operations, and allowing it to be an
asylum for the hostile Creeks, naming two of them especially, McQueen
and Francis, whose strange adventures will be mentioned in a future
page. To this mild expostulation the governor made an ambiguous and
insulting reply, ending with the threat “that Jackson should hear from
him shortly.”[54] The correspondence occurred just before the Percy and
Nicholls’ attack on Fort Boyer, and doubtless it was their bombastic
prediction of success which prompted old Maurique to send Jackson so
defiant reply.
General Jackson, however, did not wait longer than the last days of
October, 1814, for the execution of the Spanish governor’s threat.
Having collected his forces at Fort Montgomery, on the twenty-seventh he
took up his line of march for Pensacola, the Indian trail referred to in
an early chapter being its guiding thread. The troops consisted of the
Third, Thirty-ninth and Forty-fourth infantry, Coffee’s brigade, a
company of Mississippi dragoons and part of a West Tennessee regiment,
numbering three thousand effective men, besides a band of friendly
Choctaws.
He reached the vicinity of the town on the evening of the sixth of
November. He first appeared on its western side, and there, having
halted, he says, in the dispatch containing an account of the
expedition, “On my approach I sent Major Pierre with a flag to
communicate the object of my visit. He approached the Fort St. George
with his flag displayed, and was fired on by the cannon from the
fort.”[55] Immediately afterwards, with the adjutant and a small party,
he himself made a reconnoissance. He found the fort manned by Spanish as
well as English troops. He likewise observed that there were in the
harbor seven English war vessels, which it was necessary for him to
consider in his future movements. His plans were at once formed. A force
under Captain Denkins, with several pieces of artillery, occupied the
site of Fort St. Barnardo, which was once again to be pitted against its
old antagonist, Fort George.[56] Inferring that the enemy would expect
his attack from the west, General Jackson, on the night of the sixth,
caused the main body of his army to make a circuitous march, so that the
morning would find it on the eastern extremity of the town.[57] This
movement shielded him from the guns of St. George or St. Michael, whilst
by entering the town at the eastern end of Government street he would,
in a measure, be protected from the guns of the English vessels. But he
encountered a battery of two guns as he entered the street, which fired
upon the centre column with ball and grape, whilst there opened upon the
troops a shower of musketry from houses, fences and gardens.[58] The
battery was soon silenced, however, by a storming party led by Captain
Laval, who lost a leg at the last fire of the guns. All the Spanish
forces at the battery fled as Laval’s command rushed upon it except a
gallant Spanish officer, who, refusing to fly, was taken prisoner. But
tradition says, instead of laurels, he won from his own people the
imputation of “fool” for his rashness—a rashness, however, which, had it
been crowned with success, would probably have secured him the praise of
a hero.
When the command had well advanced into the town it was met by the
governor in person, with a white flag, and an offer of surrender at
discretion. The offer was accepted, but solely for the purpose of
enabling General Jackson to accomplish the declared object of the
expedition—which was not conquest—but to expel the British, whose
presence was due to the imbecility of Maurique, as well as the small
Spanish force at his command, consisting, as it did, of two or three
companies of the regiment of Tarragona. In order to attain that object,
possession of Forts Barrancas and St. Michael by the Americans was
indispensable, and, to the extent of his ability, the governor made the
surrender. But when Captain Denkins and his command were about to
proceed to take possession of St. Michael, Captain Soto, the Spanish
officer in command, refused to obey the governor’s instructions to make
the surrender. Preparations that were immediately made to take it by
storm, however, induced Soto to reconsider his refusal and to admit the
American command. The demand was made at six o’clock on the evening of
the seventh, and the surrender occurred at midnight. The purpose of
Soto’s delay cannot be divined, for Nicholls having on the night of the
sixth withdrawn his men to the shipping, there remained in the fort but
a small band of Spaniards.
As General Jackson withdrew his forces from the town, which he did on
the evening of the same day of its capture, they were fired upon by the
British vessels, but without inflicting any injury.
Whilst, on the morning of the eighth, a detachment was preparing to
march on Barrancas, with the purpose of cutting off the retreat of the
British fleet, there was heard a great explosion, which it was at once
concluded was occasioned by the blowing up of San Carlos. General
Jackson nevertheless sent the detachment there to verify the fact. On
its return in the night it reported the fort blown up, everything
combustible burned, and cannon spiked by the British, who had taken to
their ships, and sailed out of the harbor.
The only casualties which occurred during these operations on the part
of the Americans were seven killed and eleven wounded, including Captain
Laval; and on the part of the Spaniards four killed and six wounded.
Captain William Laval was a South Carolinian, the son of a French
officer of the Legion of Lauzun, belonging to the French forces in the
Revolutionary war. In 1808 he received the commission of ensign in the
American army. In 1812, he became a first lieutenant. The breaking out
of the Creek war found him a captain. He was with the third regiment, to
which his company belonged, at the battle of Holy Ground. For the
service of charging the Spanish battery at Pensacola he was specially
selected by General Jackson. The loss of his leg prevented his sharing
with his regiment in the glorious victory of New Orleans, and ended his
military career as well. His aptitude for civil as well as military life
was manifested by his filling the offices of Secretary of State,
Comptroller General, and Treasurer of South Carolina, as well as
Assistant Treasurer of the United States under Polk’s administration.
That the presence of the British was enforced, and by no means agreeable
to the Spaniards, was promptly manifested by the good feeling exhibited
by the latter towards the Americans, as soon as Percy and Nicholls had
taken their departure. The inhabitants were much impressed by the kind
and generous conduct of General Jackson; who seems fully, to have
appreciated the peculiar position in which the town was placed, by the
pretentious audacity of Percy and Nicholls, the feebleness of its
garrison, and above all the imbecility of Maurique. In the dispatch
before referred to he says: “The good order and conduct of my troops,
whilst in Pensacola, have convinced the Spaniards of our friendship and
our prowess; and have drawn from the citizens an expression, that ‘The
Choctaws are more civilized than the British.’” In letters written from
Pensacola to Havana, in relation to the capture of the place, the
comparison is thus expressed: “the American Choctaws were more civilized
than the religious English.” These letters teem with the praises of the
considerate conduct of General Jackson and his army.
When the first account of the invasion reached Havana, American vessels
were seized as a retaliatory measure; but when all the particulars of
the expedition were learned they were promptly released.
Having blown up St. Michael, General Jackson left Pensacola, on November
9, to go to the defence of New Orleans, which from all indications was
threatened with an attack by the British. There he arrived with his
army, on December 2, to begin those preparations which were to end on
January 8, in the grand and glorious land victory of the War of 1812.
When Percy and Nicholls left Pensacola, they took with them, not only
their Indian allies, but also about one hundred negro slaves belonging
to the inhabitants of the town. Sailing to Appalachicola, they there
landed the Indians and negroes. Still bent on instigating a savage
warfare against the American settlements, a fort under their directions
was built on the Appalachicola river, which they supplied with guns and
ammunition. It was designed to serve as a refuge for fugitive slaves,
and a resort for hostile Indians, as well as a salient point from which
to carry on an exterminating warfare against the white settlements in
southern Georgia and Alabama.
Such were the inglorious results of the Percy-Nicholls expedition to
Florida, beginning, as we have seen, with stilted proclamations to the
people of Louisiana and Kentucky, coupled with an invitation to a nest
of pirates to become their allies; and ending with the robbing and
destruction of the property of a community to which they had come under
the guise of friendship, and as its shield from wrongs which existed in
their own imaginations only.
Aside from the barbarity which marked the warfare instigated by Britain
against the Americans in Florida and Alabama during the years 1812-1814,
history has cause to lament its fatal consequences to the people who
were the cruel instruments by which it was waged.
At the time of Tecumseh’s mission to the Creeks, about twenty years had
elapsed since the death of their Great Chief, McGillivray. In that
interval, under the impulse of his teachings and example, continued and
increased by the fostering care of the United States, they had made
considerable advance in civilization. Large numbers of them had learned
to rely more upon tillage and their herds for a livelihood, than on the
chase. It was no uncommon thing to see in the nation, well-built houses
standing in the midst of considerable farms. They owned slaves and large
herds of cattle. The hum of the spinning wheel, and the noise of the
shuttle, moved by the deft hands of Indian matrons, were common sounds
throughout the Creek country; whilst an Indian maiden with her milk
pail, or at her churn, was no unusual sight. The schools established
amongst them were gradually shedding upon them the light and mellowing
influence of knowledge.[59]
The large infusion of white blood into the tribe, owing to the
attractions of the Creek women, which have already been noticed,
likewise, added the hope of a civilization resting upon the strongest
instincts of human nature. Of the possibility of this civilizing and
ennobling influence, gradually permeating and elevating the Creeks as a
people, we have the evidence in some of their descendants, who at this
day, are amongst the most respectable citizens in several communities in
Alabama and Florida.
Such was the state of the Creek nation, when the British at Detroit sent
Tecumseh, like another Prince of Evil, into that fair garden of a
nascent civilization, to convert its peaceful scenes into fields of
slaughter, with all the woes that follow in the footsteps of war.
The first fruit of that cruel scheme, as we have seen, was the tragedy
of Fort Mims. Then followed in rapid succession the avenging battles of
Tallasehatchee, Talladega, Auttose, and Holy Ground. To those succeeded
the last great heroic struggle at the Horse Shoe, in which, of one
thousand Red Sticks engaged, two hundred only survived. Afterwards came
the surrender of Weatherford with that speech[60] which comes to us as
the dirge-like epilogue of the woeful drama; and a memorial of that
prophetic shadow which fell on his people when they learned their Grand
Chief was lying in the “sands of the Seminoles.”
The Spaniards criticised General Jackson’s Florida campaign, because he
did not, instead of advancing on Pensacola, proceed at once to
Barrancas, to capture San Carlos, and thereby prevent the escape of the
British vessels. But the answer to the criticism is, that he was not
aware, perhaps, of all the conditions known to the Spaniards, which in
their judgment, would have facilitated a surprise, or contributed to a
successful assault. Besides, such a movement would have been
inconsistent with the purpose of his invasion, which was to procure the
exclusion of the British from Florida, by the action of the Spaniards
themselves; a consideration which was due to the amicable relations
existing between Spain and the United States. Entertaining these views,
General Jackson did not deem it proper to seize the Spanish forts in the
first instance without communicating with the Governor. This he
attempted to do, and it was only after the outrage of firing on his
flag, he resolved, without further parley or remonstrance, by his own
arms to drive out the British.
That, however, he had considered a movement on Barrancas, before or at
the time of his advance on Pensacola, is evidenced by an interview which
he had with Don Manuel Gonzalez, who was an officer in the Spanish
commissary department, and who had a cattle ranch at a place then known
as Vacaria Baja, now as Oakfield, one mile from the trail the American
army was following. Don Manuel, with his family, was at the ranch, when
the General rode up to the house, and accosted him. There was with the
Don at the time, his son, Celestino, then a young man. Through an
interpreter, the General made known, that the purpose of his visit was
to require the Don, or his son, to guide the army to Barrancas. The Don
boldly refusing, the General became insistent, to the degree of
threatening the use of force to secure compliance. Roused by the threat,
with a mien as dauntless as Jackson’s, Don Manuel replied: “General, my
life and my property are in your power; you can take both; but my honor
is in my own keeping. As to my son, I would rather plunge a sword into
his bosom than see him a traitor to his king.” The General replied by
extending his hand with the exclamation, “I honor a brave man,” and
thenceforth became his friend.
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Footnote 54:
Niles’ Weekly Register, Vol. VII., p. 11.
Footnote 55:
Niles’ Weekly Register, Vol. VII., p. 281.
Footnote 56:
Niles’ Weekly Register, Vol. VII., p. 281.
Footnote 57:
Niles’ Weekly Register, Vol. VII., p. 281.
Footnote 58:
Niles’ Weekly Register, Vol. VII., p. 281.
Footnote 59:
Niles’ Weekly Register, Vol. 6, p. 370.
Footnote 60:
Weatherford having boldly ridden up to General Jackson’s tent, was met
by the threatening question: “How dare you, sir, ride up to my tent
after having murdered the women and children at Fort Mims?”
Weatherford replied: “General Jackson, I am not afraid of you. I fear
no man, for I am a Creek warrior. I have nothing to request in behalf
of myself; you can kill me if you wish. I come to beg you to send for
the women and children of the war party who are now starving in the
woods. Their fields and cribs have been destroyed by your people, who
have driven them to the woods without one ear of corn. I hope you will
send out parties to safely bring them here in order that they may be
fed. I exerted myself in vain to prevent the massacre of the women and
children at Fort Mims. I am now done fighting. The Red Sticks are
nearly all killed. If I could fight you any longer I would most
heartily do so. Send for the women and children; they never did you
any harm. But kill me if the white people want it done.”—Pickett’s
History of Alabama, Vol. II., p. 349.
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