The End of Tory Dominance

…Peariman had started for pen returned back to his town where their is one of the British offersers and said afte he could send a runner to pencecoler he would cum on -- the British offerser told them if they did not go and spil blood -- he would take from them all his guns again – (letter from Henry Wiggington to Benjamin Hawkins, Dec. 2, 1814)…

The British continued their hostilities even after the end of the War of 1812. The Battle of New Orleans, was actually fought in 1815 after the war had ended but the news had not reached the Southwestern frontier. In May, 1814, British Captain Hugh Pigot had landed Lt. George Woodbine at Apalachicola and began arming the local Indians against the Americans. He also had orders to feed and house those Red Sticks fleeing the Creek nation. Pigot assured his superiors he could arm at least 2800 Indians and perhaps take New Orleans in a quick assault (Mahon, April, 1966: 289). He further sought the alliance with Pirate Jean Lafitte and his Baratarian forces in this effort but Lafitte sided with the Americans.

Meanwhile, Captain Woodbine had worked his way about fifteen miles up the Apalachicola to a place called Prospect Bluff. There, he started what was to become a center of British, Indian, and Negro opposition to the United States for the next two years. He also made an agreement with two chiefs in which they promised to turn all prisoners over to him. One chief, Thomas Perry man, marked the agreement as "King" of the Seminoles, and the other, Cappachamico, as "King" of the Mikasuki. They claimed to represent all the Indians of the region (290)…

Woodbine saw the results of the Red Stick defeat and did what he could to keep them alive and ready to fight the Americans:

…When he first landed, he found the Red Sticks dying of starvation in the swamps around Pensacola, and he saved them with the small quantities of supplies he could spare (293)…**

Col. Edward Nicholls, in late 1814, was in Pensacola at Fort San Miguel. The Spanish had looked the other way when he landed to take up operations against the Gulf Coast settlements. Nicholls and his 100 men had several artillery pieces, 1000 stands of rifles and 300 uniforms to give to Indians and runaway slaves. He began drilling them in the streets of Pensacola in the fine points of British warfare. Unfortunately, Gen. Jackson appeared before Pensacola with 3,000 men and 5 cannon and Nicholls fled with all the Indians and Slaves in tow…much to the concern of those owning the slaves. Fort Barrancas and San Miguel were blown up so as not to fall into Jackson’s hands and the town was left for the Americans to occupy (302).

Nicholls and his new friends removed to Prospect Bluff to join Woodbine in his activities with the Red Stick survivors of Horse Shoe Bend. Benjamin Hawkins had warned the War Department that the British were intent on rescuing the defeated Indians and setting them against our interests again.

He reported to the Secretary of War on July 13th that he had examined an intelligent runner from the store of John Forbes and Co., east of the Apalachicola, who stated that three British officers had sent him to Coweta and Cussetah to invite the chiefs down to receive arms and ammunition, ostensibly to kill game, and various individual Indians were reported to have already received supplies. He further mentioned that a chief had been sent to invite the surviving hostile Indians from Konocau (Conecuh) to Apalache and had reported they were coming, but so exhausted by famine that many must perish on the way. In a further report dated Aug. 16, Hawkins says that while the British have undoubtedly furnished a considerable supply of ammunition for war, they have deceived the Indians by landing and reembarking men from their armed vessels. They are training the Indians and some negroes for purposes hostile to us (Boyd, October, 1937: 70)…

Nicholls opened a factor or store near the confluence of the Chattahoochee and Flint Rivers to supply the Indians with shot and powder. When the war of 1812 ended, Hawkins was quick to remind Nicholls that British Admirals Cochrane and Cockburn had ordered all British troops out of the Floridas. The troops left but Nicholls stayed. He argued that the Treaty of Ghent ending the war was being misinterpreted and he had every right to arm the Indians (73). Then there was the problem of the 300 slaves Nicholls had taken with him from Pensacola. He had in fact black-birded them against the wishes of their Spanish owners. Panton-Leslie’s slaves were involved and complaints were made. The activity of Nicholls and Woodbine at Panton-Leslie had created considerable bad feelings and had the effect of turning the Creek away from the old trading Company. Company manager Edmund Doyle, in a letter to John Innerary, in 1815, chronicled the activities of the British at Apalachicola:

Good God, of what substance must the hearts of these inhuman men be made of: figure to yourself a British Colonel and a respectable character a British agent, to sit down coolly at a post belonging to their friends and allies, and meditate the destruction of a poor defenceless set of indians, already ruined by their enemies whom they were sent to protect, and which common humanity would dictate to preserve but hearts hardened with iniquity, such as Nicols and Woodbine are only actuated by private interests …

…It is well ascertained that hundreds of negroes was carried away from the Nation, that many are left behind, we all know by common report, and every negro I saw says they were seduced from their Masters-we also know that there were only a very few (not more than ten) American Negroes, arrived at the Bluff: Still this villainous affair was so ably managed that it will be difficult to prove that they were seduced from their masters except by the Black people who voluntarily return-all we can say is that the hero Nicolls and Woodbine sat down at the Bluff (except Woodbines trip to St. Augustine) and by help of their agents and black spies, corrupted the negroes of their friends and Spanish allies-(1939: 242)…

Suddenly, things got worse for Doyle and Panton-Leslie. Nicholls and Woodbine left, putting Alexander Arbuthnot in charge of the Nicholls’ store. Doyle was forced to work for Arbuthnot, abandoning the interests of Panton-Leslie. The Indians were also looting the assets of Doyles factor and taking his cattle (FHQ, April, 1933: 192):

To the Honble. R. C. Spencer Captn. R. [oyal] N. [avy] and Robert Gamble Esqr. * * *

Pensacola2d May 1815**

The Honourable the Commissioners for Victualling his Majesty's Navy London. Debtors to John Forbes & Co. for the amount of upwards of four hundred Heads of Cattle of different sizes and ages Killed by the Red Stick Indian allies of His Britannic Majesty in the Creek Nation at a time of extreme distress for want of provisions as p. account of same kept in the Books at their Establishment at Prospect Bluff on the River Appalachicola …………………………………………….. $2,668 3 1/2 Deduct**

The value of 50 Heads which is reported still exists on the Cattle range ……………………………….. 400 Dollars 2,268 3 1/2

Arbuthnot opened a second store on the Wakulla River at the location of the old Panton-Leslie store and was soon arming Indians and runaway slaves from that location as well. The Indians began a series of raids on Georgia and on boats coming upriver. In 1816, several U.S. Whaleboats were attacked from the Nicholls fort, now called the “Negro Fort”. In response Gen. Jackson sent ground troops under Gen. Duncan Clinch and Gunboats under Jarius Loomis to destroy the fort. After several days of bombardment a heated ball was sent into the powder magazine of the fort. It exploded, killing mostly women and children. The fort’s black commander, Garcia was arrested and shot and Jackson hoped the whole affair was at an end.

The fort was found to possess a surprising armament mounted and ready for use. It included 4 twenty-four-pound cannons, 4 six-pound cannons, beside a field piece and howitzer. In addition there were found 2,500 stands of muskets with accoutrements, 500 carbines and 500 swords. The Americans were informed that it also contained 300 quarter-basks of rifle powder and 162 barrels of cannon powder, besides other stores and clothing; the whole appraised at not less than $200,000 in value. Nicholls' project had not failed for lack of supplies (Boyd,October, 1937: 81,82).

But the plans of Nicholls and Woodbine were still in play. Woodbine sent Robert Armbrister into Florida to more aggressively implement what was now a plot to take East Florida from Spain and threaten the Americans. Attacks became more ominous and another war was almost at hand. In November, 1817, Lt. Edward Scott was sent downriver to assist Major Muhlenberg’s three supply boats headed for Montgomery and Mobile. Scott and 27 passengers were returning north and when they approached the confluence of the Chattahoochee and Flint Rivers they were attacked by Blacks and Indians under Homathlemicco. All were killed save six men who escaped. This incident was soon forgotten by everyone except Gen. Jackson, who was later that year ordered to take Gen. Gaines command at Ft. Scott at the confluence of the two rivers.

Meanwhile, Armbrister’s attempts to take East Florida were augmented by General Gregor McGregor, formerly associated with Simon Bolivar in South American revolutions, who with a hundred or so men invaded Florida from Georgia.

East Florida had not changed an ounce since Mcgirth and Bloody Bill Cunningham ruled there. In fact, a contemporary letter to President Adams, dated 1818, indicates things might have even gotten worse:

…The people who inhabit the Territory which lays between the two rivers mentioned before are a hardy and desperate set of men who generally possess but little, if any, property except a rifle, a horse, and perhaps a few cattle or hogs - and whom the barrenness, extent and nature of the country have served to assimilate in character to the aborigines of America, or the tribes of wandering Arabs who roam about Africa. These men who had generally been engaged in the Insurrection which took place in the country in the year 1812 absolutely put the Spanish authorities at defiance from that time till sometime in the year 1816. During the time of their complete Independence they established a kind of Government amongst themselves, having found it impossible to live in a complete state of nature - and as but a few of them had any inclination for agriculture, the general poverty of the soil of the country not being adapted indeed to afford any considerable prospect to the honest and laborious husbandman, it being principally that description of land called Pine Barren which this people live on and which is only fit for grazing, they subsisted chiefly by aggression on the property of the people who were well disposed to the Spanish Government and under its authority - negroes and cattle were what pleased the rapacity of this people most as they were able to turn the above description of property to a better and more speedy account than any other kind. The former they generally carried to the back country where people are too anxious to obtain that description of property that they rarely troubled themselves about the title of the seller whether just or unjust - and with the cattle they have helped to supply our markets in these frontier counties with beef - not a single individual's property in that country was safe who was not inimical to the Spanish Government. A number of plantations were indeed entirely broken up and the least connection with the constituted authority was sufficient to provoke aggression on their part (as specially aggressor was so much to their interest) against any individual who was unfortunate enough (I may say) to be any considerable proprietor of negroes and cattle. There has been too for a long time another source for the active exertion of this people and which kind of depredation has been carried to a very great extent by this and another set of unprincipled men belonging to our country; it has been bringing Indian cattle from the Atlotehawa Territory where they were obtained without a purchase.

It is presumed a number of 1000 head of cattle have been taken in this manner which have generally been driven into the U. S. and here disposed of in the same way as the same kind of property belonging to the peaceable inhabitants of the Province has been. This kind of injustice with which the Indians have been treated has no doubt more than any other aggression provoked the vengeance of that misguided people and has been the primitive cause of involving this country in the present war with them. With this horde of men at last the Governor of East Florida was obliged to humiliate himself so far as to enter into a negotiation and make peace with, having found it impossible with his slender forces to reduce them to a state of subjection. The Treaty was principally made in consideration of the deplorable situation of the people belonging to the Province who were disposed to live quietly. The conditions of which were that the Insurgents should consent to be at peace with the rest of the Province for which concession on their part they were invested with the right of trying their own criminals, of making their own laws, and of regulating themselves generally as they pleased, but what those Insurgents principally gained and what was the only cause, I presume, that they were willing to conclude in a treaty (when war on their part was in many respects so much more advantageous) was that the Spanish Government agreed to perfect their different titles to the lands they occupied which they knew in case of a change of Government they held by a somewhat precarious tenure. As to the depredations committed on the Indians by stealing their cattle, they still continued (FHQ, Jan., 1927, 164 -166)….

T. Frederick Davis, Writing about the events following the first “Patriot War”, also describes the banditti that made East Florida their home in the absence of real law and order from the Spanish or any other Government:

…Altogether they were a collection of roving frontiersmen who deemed it advisable to make it as uncomfortable for the Dons and the Indians, and everybody else, as possible. As a consequence, there was little attempt to occupy the country for legitimate and peaceable pursuits. The main stamping-ground of this class of people was the territory between the St. Johns and St. Marys rivers, eastward of the King's highway, which led from the cow-ford (now Jacksonville) to the** St. Marys River at Colerain,** Georgia…**

Occasionally Lynch's law, then popular in Georgia, was resorted to with efficacious results. Gradually the people become comparatively quiet. It must be said, however, that their laws did not contemplate the business of smuggling, and the old system of taking cattle from the Indians still continued (July, 1928: 10 -11).**

Into all this stepped McGregor, who immediately sold a number of slaves captured on Amelia Island…this served to alarm anyone who owned slaves. At his Headquarters on Amelia Island he outfitted a gunboat and sent it to privateer down the Mosquito way. These pirates and banditti were surprised by regular Spanish troops and 10 were killed plundering a plantation:

…The following are the names of the killed: Capt. Morrisson, Sandford, Robert Wilson, Wm. Wilson, Ledlow, Thomas Williamson, Wellibey, Thomas Osman, Alexandro, and a Frenchman. All were Irishmen, Scotchmen, and citizens of the United States, except the Frenchman ( 22)…**

As McGregor’s influence waned in this operation others would appear to take over. One of them was a French Pirate whom McGregor had obviously met in South America, Luis Aury. Aury took over Amelia Island, annexing it to Mexico and used it as a base of operations for his pirates. When he was able to smuggle over 1000 slaves into Georgia in less than two months, locals became interested in his ability to boost the economy and his support among the population rose. At this point the United States Navy stepped in, taking Amelia Island and witnessing the departure of Aury and his thugs.

Woodbine rescued McGregor and brought him to New Providence, the Bahamas to encourage him to continue the quest for East Florida. In the meantime, Armbrister landed at Tampa to build a settlement that would be the springboard of his Florida empire. He ransacked the Arbuthnot store, commandeered Woodbine’s schooner and sailed to the Suwanee River to collect Woodbines Indian allies (Davis, July 1928: 656, 657) But Gen. Jackson was also on the move. Prophet Francis and Homathlemicco made the mistake of boarding a schooner they thought was British and were caught by Jackson’s men. After Jackson took Fort St. Marks, the two were brought before him and hanged. Arbuthnot was captured at the fort and Armbrister was later caught at Old Town. Both were court martialled at St. Marks and executed by Jackson. So ended the First Seminole War.

(from History of the Pony Club, unpublished)

October, 1937 Boyd, Mark F., Events at Prospect Bluff on the ApalachicolaRiver, 1808-1818: The Florida Historical Quarterly volume 16 issue 2, Florida Historical Society pages 56-97.

Oct 1926 Cubberly, Frederick, John Quincy Adams and Florida, The Florida Historical Quarterly volume 5 issue 2, Florida Historical Society, pages 89-94.

2000 De Wire, Elinor, Guide to Florida Lighthouses, Pineapple Press: Sarasota

July 1928 Davis, T. Frederick, MacGregor's Invasion of Florida, The Florida Historical Quarterly** volume 7 issue 1, Florida Historical Society, pages 4-72.

July 1944 Davis, T. Frederick, Pioneer Florida, The Florida Historical Quarterly** volume 23 issue 1 Florida Historical Society, pages 40-45.

July 1933 Letters of John Innerarity and A. H., The Florida Historical Quarterly volume 12 issue 1, Gordon Florida Historical Society,

Pages 38-42.

July 1926 Letters Relating to MacGregor's Attempted Conquest of East Florida, 1817, The** Florida Historical Quarterly volume 5 issue 1, Florida Historical Society, pages 55-58.

July, 1966 Lowe, Richard G., American Seizure of Amelia Island, The Florida Historical Quarterly volume 45 issue 1, Florida Historical Society, pages 19-31.

April 1966. Mahon, John K., British Strategy and Southern Indians: War of 1812, The Florida Historical Quarterly volume 44 issue 4 Florida Historical Society, pages 286-303.

Jan 1939 The Panton, Leslie Papers: Letters of Edmund Doyle, 1815, The Florida Historical Quarterly volume 17 issue 3 Florida Historical Society pages 238-243.

April 1939 The Panton, Leslie Papers: Two letters of Edmund Doyle, Trader, 1817, The Florida Historical Quarterly volume 17 issue 4, Florida Historical Society, pages 313-319.

July 1939 The Panton, Leslie Papers: A letter of Edmund Doyle, Trader, 1817, The Florida Historical Quarterly volume 18 issue 1, Florida Historical Society, pages 62-64.

Jan 1927 The Patriot War-A Contemporaneous Letter, The Florida Historical Quarterly volume 5 issue 3,Florida Historical Societypages 163-168

July 1952 Rutherford, Robert E. (ed.), Settlers from Connecticut in Spanish Florida, 1808-1816, The Florida Historical Quarterly** volume 31 issue 1, Florida Historical Society, pages 34-51.

Jan 1960 Szaszdi, Adam, Governor Folch and the Burr Conspiracy, The Florida Historical Quarterly volume 38 issue 3, Florida Historical Society, pages 240-252

The First Seminole War