Alabama and the Borderlands: From Prehistory To Statehood

10 William S. Coker and Hazel P. Coker - The Siege of Mobile, 1780, in Maps

10 The Siege of Mobile, 1780, in Maps William S. Coker and Hazel P. Coker There are a number of excellent accounts of the Spanish siege of British Mobile in 1780.1 The purpose of this study, therefore, is not to retell that familiar story but to provide a new dimension. Some histories of the siege include a map or two of Mobile Bay and its environs, showing the general location of Fort Charlotte and a few other principal landmarks, such as Dauphin Island, Mobile Point, and the major rivers that flow into the bay. Until 1981, no one had attempted a detailed presentation of the siege in maps, although the authors had used this approach with good results in studying the 1781 siege of Pensacola. They elected, therefore, in their reconsideration of the Anglo-Spanish confrontation at Mobile in 1780, to apply the same technique.2 With the end of the French and Indian War, Great Britain had eliminated France as a colonial power in North America. Spain lost Florida but received French Louisiana west of the Mississippi River, including the Isle of Orleans and the city of New Orleans, which lay south of the lakes IBorgne, Ponchartrain, and Maurepas and the Iberville Riverl and east of the Mississippi. Britain acquired everything else east of the Mississippi and north of the lakes. The British occupied Florida in 1763. In 1764 Britain divided Florida into two colonies, East Florida and West Florida. East Florida, with its capital at St. Augustine, included all territory east of the Apalachicola River and south of the 162 THE SIEGE OF MOBILE colony of Georgia. West Florida extended from the ApalachicolaChattachoochee rivers to the Mississippi. The Gulf of Mexico and the line of lakes that separated the Isle of Orleans from British territory were its southern boundary. The northern boundary was set at 32°28' north latitude, or a line from the mouth of the Yazoo River to the Chattachoochee. West Florida included Pensacola, the capital; Manchac, Baton Rouge, Natchez, and Mobile were its principal towns or villages.3 Campbell Town, a village about 10 miles north of Pensacola, founded by French Huguenots, existed briefly (from 1766 to 17701.4 British (mostly Scottishl merchants and traders along the east bank of the Mississippi and from Mobile and Pensacola, built a lucrative trade with the former French subjects of Louisiana and the few Spaniards and Anglos who came to the colony after 1763. For the most part, Spanish officials ignored this illegal British trade, but occasionally confiscated goods and ships and sold them at auction, much to the dismay of the merchants involved.s At the same time, Spaniards from Cuba fished and traded with the Indians in the Florida keys and along the Gulf Coast as far north as the Apalachicola River. British officials were not happy with the arrangement, but did little to interfere since British merchants were also trading in Havana and other Spanish Gulf and Caribbean ports.6 A series of military officers and civil officials governed West Florida between 1763 and 1770. Controversy and turmoil often marred their rule. One of these governors, John Eliot, committed suicide just one month after he arrived in Pensacola. Peter Chester, who reached the capital in August of 1770, remained in office for nearly eleven years, and was West Florida's last British governor. Parliamentary appropriations paid the cost of government in West Florida, and thus this province, as well as East Florida, escaped most of the problems that confronted the Northern colonies. In fact, East and West Florida became havens for loyalists who fled the thirteen colonies after the outbreak of the American Revolution in 1775.r At first, the rebellious English colonies had to go it alone. But in 1778 France joined the Americans in the war against Britain and recognized the independence of the thirteen colonies. France wanted revenge for her losses to the British in 1763. Spain also wanted revenge, not only for herlosses in 1763 budor those in 1713 as well, when Britain acquired Gibraltar. As early as 1776, moreover , both France and Spain had advanced funds for the manufacture of arms and ammunition for the colonies. The money was funneled 163 William S. Coker and Hazel P. Coker through a fictitious French firm. Later, Spain used the commercial house of Diego de Gardoqui and Sons (of Bilbao) to ship materiel to Havana and New Orleans for the...