Florida – American Revolution
By Diane Barile
You have heard of the Revolution in Massachusetts, New Jersey, or Pennsylvania, but the Revolution in Florida? Indeed, it was the site of the southernmost skirmish and the last naval battle of the war.
Before 1776, England had thirty-two colonies, sixteen in the Caribbean, one in Canada, and fifteen in what became the United States. East and West Florida had been colonies only since 1763. East Florida had been invited to the Continental Congress of 1774, but declined the invitation.
In response to the Declaration of Independence in July 1776, the citizens of St. Augustine hung and burned effigies of John Hancock and Sam Adams. British troops attacked the borders of Georgia. St. Augustine was important to the British cause. It was the supply line from the Caribbean bringing troops, weapons, and stockpiles of war materials. The town was a Loyalist haven and a refuge for Tories from Georgia and the Carolinas. The Castillo de San Marcos was the only stone fort south of the Chesapeake.
George Washington, with the approval of the Continental Congress, authorized five attacks by the Americans on English East and West Florida. Three attacks were made before the plan was abandoned.
In May 1776, four hundred Continentals and sixty Georgia militia gathered at Sunbury, Georgia, for an expedition into Loyalist Florida. The Regulars invaded by sea; the militia by land. The militia was ambushed by the English militia at the mouth of Thomas Creek. The continentals made contact at Amelia Island. Both American troops were defeated. These battles were the most southern of the Revolution.
A second try for an invasion by the Continentals was organized by Major Generals Charles Lee and Robert Howe in August 1777. Sailing first from Savannah with twenty-five hundred troops, the attack was aborted due to desertions and lack of supplies.
Howe tried for another expedition in January 1778 with only the Georgia militia, but was defeated and surrendered. Howe succeeded in June in chasing Loyalist General Brown out of Georgia and back into Florida.
West Florida extended west almost to Spanish New Orleans. In 1779, Spain entered the war as an ally of France as part of the Revolution. Spanish General Bernardo de Galves entered the fray. By May 1781, he took all of West Florida from Baton Rouge to Mobile and to Pensacola. Galves’ troops included Spanish regulars, free blacks, Anglo Americans, Native Americans, and Acadians.
The last naval battle of the American Revolution occurred off Cape Canaveral on March 10, 1783. US ships, the Alliance, and the Duc Larezen, carrying payroll funds from Havana to Philadelphia, were attacked by the British vessel, the HMS Sybil. After a short battle, the HMS Sybil was defeated. This, the last battle of the Revolution, was fought just after the end of the war.
At the end of the war, in the Treaty of Paris in 1783, the British ceded Florida back to Spain in exchange for Havana. Spain did not hold Florida for long. In 1821, Florida became a territory of the United States and a State in 1843.