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Back The Hornet's Nest
Chapters (67)
  1. Cover
  2. Contents
  3. Dedication
  4. Acknowledgments
  5. Principal Characters
  6. BOOK I
  7. CHAPTER 1
  8. CHAPTER 2
  9. CHAPTER 3
  10. CHAPTER 4
  11. CHAPTER 5
  12. CHAPTER 6
  13. CHAPTER 7
  14. CHAPTER 8
  15. CHAPTER 9
  16. CHAPTER 10
  17. CHAPTER 11
  18. CHAPTER 12
  19. CHAPTER 13
  20. BOOK II
  21. CHAPTER 14
  22. CHAPTER 15
  23. CHAPTER 16
  24. CHAPTER 17
  25. CHAPTER 18
  26. CHAPTER 19
  27. CHAPTER 20
  28. CHAPTER 21
  29. CHAPTER 22
  30. CHAPTER 23
  31. CHAPTER 24
  32. CHAPTER 25
  33. CHAPTER 26
  34. CHAPTER 27
  35. CHAPTER 28
  36. CHAPTER 29
  37. CHAPTER 30
  38. BOOK III
  39. CHAPTER 31
  40. CHAPTER 32
  41. CHAPTER 33
  42. CHAPTER 34
  43. CHAPTER 35
  44. CHAPTER 36
  45. CHAPTER 37
  46. CHAPTER 38
  47. CHAPTER 39
  48. CHAPTER 40
  49. CHAPTER 41
  50. CHAPTER 42
  51. CHAPTER 43
  52. CHAPTER 44
  53. CHAPTER 45
  54. CHAPTER 46
  55. CHAPTER 47
  56. CHAPTER 48
  57. CHAPTER 49
  58. CHAPTER 50
  59. CHAPTER 51
  60. CHAPTER 52
  61. CHAPTER 53
  62. CHAPTER 54
  63. CHAPTER 55
  64. CHAPTER 56
  65. Epilogue
  66. About the Author
  67. Copyright
Document

CHAPTER 23

A Rebirth at St. Augustine

OCTOBER 1775

When Brown arrived at St. Augustine, he was surprised and impressed with the fortifications that had been built by the Spaniards thirty-five years earlier to protect their forces from a British sea attack. But he soon learned that although there were about 150 well-trained troops present and British ships were dominant in the Caribbean, the primary defense of the fort came from its geographical location. To the west and north was the St. Johns River, and farther north the wide St. Marys River flowed eastward to form Florida’s boundary with Georgia. St. Augustine was almost impervious to attack, except from a formidable force at sea, which the French and Spanish could most certainly not deploy. In fact, the British had not gained Florida from Spain in 1763 by any military attack in the area, but by the terms of a general treaty signed in Paris that ended both the Seven Years War in Europe and the French and Indian War in the New World.

As a result, St. Augustine was now a secure military base of the British government, from which the defense of eastern Florida was assured, and forays might even be launched northward into Georgia. Its primary vulnerability came from its being surrounded by water and thin, sandy soil, making it difficult for settlers in the region to produce enough food to support the army detail and the few civilians who lived there. Recently, with Whigs becoming more dominant in Georgia and the Carolinas, there were a growing number of loyal Tory families moving to Florida to avoid harassment from the American rebels.

It soon became obvious to Brown that Governor Patrick Tonyn and the military commanders in St. Augustine had great influence in London, far exceeding that of the royal governors in either Charles Town or Georgia. In the continuing competition for troops and supplies, the Florida post always seemed to prevail. It seemed that London authorities had relegated the two other southern colonies to a low priority, and that the days of Lord William Campbell and Sir James Wright might be numbered. Except for sporadic Spanish threats to Pensacola, in western Florida, British control of the colony was not seriously challenged, even after fighting had broken out in the northern colonies and radical groups, with which Brown had become all too familiar, were threatening the peace in the southern colonies.

Here, also, the British were able to have friendly and mutually supportive relations with the Indian tribes along the coast, whose influence extended all the way northward to Virginia and westward to the Mississippi River. In all the coastal regions, there was a constant pressure on the American settlers to move westward, always arousing the animosity of the native tribes. The British officials, and especially those in Florida, were not considered guilty of this obsession with new lands, since their duty assignments in the colonies were relatively brief and their homes and families remained in England.