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War, Masculinity, and Alliances on the Carolina Frontiers Michelle LeMaster In August 1702 Governor James Moore of South Carolina led an expedition of about five hundred white men and 370 Indians in fourteen boats south from Charles Town to attack St. Augustine, Florida. Moore sent his deputy governor , Robert Daniel, with a small party of settlers and a much larger contingent of Indians to raid coastal mission villages. Meanwhile a smaller group of Yamasee , accompanied by the Scottish trader (and later agent) Thomas Nairne, attacked the Timucua along the St. Johns River. Although Moore’s army succeeded in destroying the town of St. Augustine itself and did substantial damage to surrounding Indian settlements, it failed to take the fortified Castillo de San Marcos. The arrival of a Spanish fleet from Havana forced Moore to burn several of his own boats and retreat to Charles Town. The English considered the invasion a failure because it did not completely rout the Spanish, and Moore lost his position of governor as a result. Moore and his Indian allies had, however, decimated the area surrounding the Spanish fort and taken numerous captives, which the natives deemed a tremendous success.1 Less than two years later, Moore led a second force of about fifty white men and more than a thousand Indians (largely Ochese) against the province of Apalachee. His allies raided mission villages, taking many captives and destroying churches and homes. Many more Apalachee chose to join Moore’s force, resettling along the Carolina frontier. The invasion shattered the Florida missions, and the Spanish in the region never really recovered from the losses inflicted. The cost to Spain’s Indian allies was even higher. The power of the Apalachee was broken, and remnants would be absorbed by other surrounding groups.2 The tactics Moore employed against the Spanish and especially against their Indian allies were nothing new in the colonial southeast, although his invasion force was unprecedented in size. Over the previous three decades, the English in the Carolinas had developed a military system that relied on both white recruits and Indian allies for both defensive and offensive operations. Still relatively few in number, the English depended on native warriors to protect their settlements, man defensive outposts, provide intelligence, and when necessary defeat troublesome native neighbors or erstwhile former allies. More War, Masculinity, and Alliances on the Carolina Frontiers 165 dangerous, perhaps, English traders had long accompanied Indian raiding parties when they attacked enemy villages in order to take captives for the slave trade. In short, over the years Englishmen and native warriors had created a series of practices that facilitated joint military expeditions and on which Moore was able to draw for his two invasions. Moore’s expeditions are now familiar to most students of the colonial southeast. An explosion of scholarship (some by contributors to this volume) in the last few years on Anglo-Indian relations in the southeast during the first few decades of English settlement has greatly expanded our knowledge of this long-neglected era. This work has helped us to understand the international implications of Anglo-Indian alliances, especially relating to the slave trade. It explains why Indians sought English friendship in spite of the threats it often posed. The desire for guns and other trade goods, a need for assistance against long-standing enemies, and internal political wrangling all shaped how Indian peoples pursued interactions with Europeans (French, Spanish, and English alike). Indian choices shaped the fates of empires and reconfigured the geopolitical landscape of the region.3 Further, military histories in other regions have investigated the significance of Indian warfare for the development of AngloAmerican military tactics.4 Little attention has yet been paid, though, to the impact of joint military ventures on the formation and maintenance of alliances in colonial America. Although scholars acknowledge English reliance on native allies, most discussions of military culture focus either on tactics or on negative English evaluations of native practices, especially those derived from outraged statements regarding “atrocities” committed by native enemies. Yet the English went to war together with Indian allies as often as they fought against Indian enemies. English soldiers and native warriors, for all their differences , learned to work together toward a common goal, building relationships of mutual reliance that grew out of the necessity of trusting one another for their very lives. Fighting together promoted a kind of masculine comradery and personal friendships that served to strengthen alliances. Although misunderstandings could and did arise and each...

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