Montiano's Georgia Campaign: Part Four

Having successfully driven back the advance troops of the Spanish at the Battle of Gully Hole Creek, General James Oglethorpe followed them up the Military Road across St. Simons Island.

As the Spanish fell back on reinforcements sent out by Florida Governor Don Manuel de Montiano, Oglethorpe put his Highlanders, rangers, Indian allies and three companies from the 42nd Regiment of Foot into position along the edge of a wooded area that overlooked a wide expanse of marsh. Montiano's soldiers would have to cross the marsh to resume their advance on Fort Frederica.

With his men in position, Oglethorpe went back down the road to hurry forward additional troops. During his absence, however, Spanish troops could be heard approaching the marsh. As the Highlanders and other English soldiers prepared for battle, the Spanish stormed onto the marsh yelling their battle cries.

Unnerved by the attack, the men of the 42nd Regiment of Foot retreated, but the Highlanders, rangers and Indians withstood the initial assault and fought the larger Spanish force to a standoff. Running low on ammunition, Montiano's men finally withdrew before Oglethorpe could reform his regulars and return them to action.

The English later claimed that the marsh ran red with the blood of Spanish soldiers and named the engagement the Battle of Bloody Marsh. Although casualties were actually lighter than sustained in the fight earlier in the day at Gully Hole Creek, the battle forever ended Spain's hopes of reclaiming Georgia and permanently established the northern line of Florida at the St. Mary's River.

After attempting several other minor movements, Montiano gave up and withdrew his army of 5,000 men to his ships. A subsequent attempt to capture an English fort on Cumberland Island failed and the Spanish finally sailed back to St. Augustine. Oglethorpe, through bold action and the hard fighting of a single company of Highlanders, had defeated a much larger Spanish force. Montiano's Georgia Campaign was over.

To learn more about the Battle of Bloody Marsh, please visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com/bloodymarsh.

Montiano's Georgia Campaign: Part Three

Once ashore on St. Simons Island, the Spanish troops from Florida occupied the ruins of Fort St. Simons, repaired the fortification and mounted cannon of their own. Then, on July 7, 1742, an advance force was sent up the Military Road carved across the island by the English, to establish a fortified line near Fort Frederica.

These troops, numbering only around 200, encountered English pickets as they approached the swath of open marsh surrounding Gully Hole Creek near today's Christ Church. The pickets alerted General James Oglethorpe at nearby Fort Frederica and he began to rush troops to the scene.

Fortunately for the English, the first of Oglethorpe's commands to reach the scene was the Independent Company of Highlanders from Darien, Georgia. A unit of hard-fighting Scottish Highlanders, they stormed into the intensifying fight and actually won the Battle of Gully Hole Creek before the rest of Oglethorpe's troops could come up.

Leaving 12 soldiers dead on the field and losing another 10 as prisoners of war, the Spanish withdrew back down the island to meet reinforcements being sent forward by Governor Don Manuel de Montiano. The withdrawal was the first in a series of blows that would forever end Spain's hopes of reclaiming its lost lands in Georgia.

To learn more about the Battle of Gully Hole Creek, please visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com/gullyholecreek.

Montiano's Georgia Campaign - Part Two

This is Part Two of a series on a military campaign launched from St. Augustine in 1742. To read Part One, please click here.

The Spanish finally launched their campaign to retaliate for Oglethorpe's attacks on St. Augustine in the summer of 1742. Sailing north with an impressive fleet and an army of nearly 5,000 men, Governor Don Manuel de Montiano arrived off St. Simons and Jekyll Islands.

Ashore on St. Simons Island, General James Oglethorpe and his English troops prepared for battle as well as they could. The primary defense for St. Simons Sound, the entrance to the harbor and mouth of the Frederica River, by which the important post of Fort Frederica could be reached, was Fort St. Simons. Built on the southern point of St. Simons Island, the fort mounted a number of 18-pounder cannon positioned to sweep the sound.

It took some time for weather conditions to favor an attempt by the Spanish fleet to run past the guns of Fort St. Simons, but on July 5. 1742, the winds turned. With a strong gale blowing, Montiano led his fleet into St. Simons Sound.

The battle was fierce, as the cannon from the ships exchanged fire with the guns of Fort St. Simons, but despite its firepower, the fort was unable to stop the passage of the Spanish fleet. More fighting took place between Spanish soldiers and sailors and the men aboard English vessels, but Oglethorpe quickly realized he could not hope to prevail in the unequal contest and withdrew back up the river to Fort Frederica.

With the Spanish fleet now in the harbor, the general also realized that Fort St. Simons would likely fall to a land attack, so to avoid the losses such a battle would incur, he ordered the garrison to withdraw to the main post at Frederica. The cannon were spiked and as much damage as possible done to the works. The English then pulled back up the island's Military Road to the much stronger defenses of Fort Frederica.

I will continue with more on Montiano's campaign in the next post. Until then, you can read more on Fort St. Simons by visiting www.exploresouthernhistory.com/fortstsimons.

Montiano's Georgia Campaign - A Turning Point in Florida History

One of the least known yet most important events in Florida history took place primary across the line in Georgia.

In 1742, Spanish Governor Don Manuel de Montiano launched a campaign against the English in Georgia and the Carolinas from his capital of St. Augustine, Florida. Montiano was outraged over an attack on St. Augustine carried out two years earlier by English General James Oglethorpe, the founder of the Georgia colony. The attack failed when Oglethorpe's army was unable to take the power fort of Castillo de San Marcos.

The unusually named War of Jenkins' Ear was then raging between England and Spain (it took its name from the severed ear of an English sea captain who had been captured by the Spanish), but Spain was equally outraged by England's blatant planting of the Georgia colony on lands claimed by the Spanish since the 1500s.

Anticipating a move against his new colony even before the outbreak of fighting in the Americas, General Oglethorpe had built a military town named Fort Frederica on St. Simons Island in 1736. A powerful fortress on the Frederica River which formed the landward coast of the island, Frederica controlled the inland passage up the Georgia coast. To further protect the island, Oglethorpe had built Fort St. Simons on the site of today's St. Simons Lighthouse. Armed with 18-pounder cannon, it was designed to prevent Spanish ships from entering St. Simons Sound.

In addition, as he had moved down the coast against St. Augustine, Oglethorpe built other forts on Cumberland, Amelia and Fort George Islands. These would provide early warning of a Spanish move up the coast. As Montiano would learn, the English had built at least the appearance of a strong defense.

Over the coming days I will post on some of the surviving sites associated with Montiano's Georgia Campaign and look closer at the dramatic effects of English victory in the fighting that was come. Be sure to check back regularly. Until the next post, you can read more about Montiano's base of operations at www.exploresouthernhistory.com/staugustine1 and Oglethorpe's base at www.exploresouthernhistory.com/fortfrederica.