The Fort at Frederica

In the first decade of the Eighteenth Century, the Englishmen of South Carolina were still uneasy about the security of their southern border. Spain continued to press her claim to the lands south of the Savannah River. The Yamassee War of 1715 heightened English insecurities. Abused by dishonest traders and crowded by ever-increasing settlers, the frustrated Yamassees rose against their former Carolina allies and initiated a blood bath that was put down with matching ferocity by the colonists.

The ever-present Spanish menace in St. Augustine and the fear of encirclement by the French coming down the Mississippi and seeking an outlet to the Atlantic prompted the Carolinians to build Fort King George in 1721, at the mouth of the Altamaha River just above St. Simons Island. This lonely outpost was abandoned in 1727 because of its expense and a mutinous garrison. The southern boundary of South Carolina was still undecided.

While the Carolinians were fretting about their frontier, many at home in England were more concerned about how the colonies might fit in with the "mercantile ideology" that was a prominent topic of the day. This pragmatic economic philosophy called for producing in the American colonies raw materials that would be processed and manufactured in Britain. Entrepreneurs soon appeared with grand schemes to tap the riches of the New World.

Sir Robert Montgomery published promotional literature in 1717 on the "Margravate of Azilia . . . the most delightful country in the universe.'" From the King, he acquired rights to the land between the Savannah and Altamaha Rivers; but, aside from creating considerable interest in the area, his far-fetched dreams of colonial empire were never realized.

In 1721 a Swiss, John Pierre Purry, also turned his attention to the Savannah River region. He proposed that refugees from the Protestant states populate the colony and become British subjects. And it was Purry who first suggested that this region formerly known as Florida should be called "Georginia" or "Georgia." He eventually founded a settlement of Swiss emigrants on the Savannah River in 1732. In a less idealistic vein, Joshua Gee in 1729 published the Trade and Navigation of Great Britain Considered, which called for the removal of "convicts, vagrants, and useless people" to the colonies.

As the dreamers were waxing euphoric about the new colony in Georgia, a great depression gripped England. Thousands were jobless - particularly in London. Even the well to do were suffering from the economic malaise, and the debtors' prisons were overflowing.

It took an idealistic young member of Parliament to raise a hue and cry about the abominable conditions in the debtors' prisons. James Edward Oglethorpe descended from an old family that traced its roots to the Norman Conquest. The son of an army officer, he attended Eton and then Oxford. As a teenager, he served in the War of the Spanish Succession, and later with Prince Eugene of Savoy against the Turks. His family was so deeply involved in politics that his elder brother was forced into voluntary exile as a sympathizer of the Stuart pretender to the throne. Oglethorpe took his brother's place as the head of the family estate at Westbrook, and was elected to the Parliament in 1722, a seat he kept for the next thirty-two years. In 1727, Oglethorpe, incensed when a young architect friend died of smallpox while imprisoned for a minor debt, was appointed chairman of a Parliamentary committee to inquire into the "state of the gaols." His exposÈ of the horrors of the debtors' prisons made him known and respected throughout the land.

Debtor relief was not the only reform movement of the day: the efforts of Dr. Thomas Bray caught the public's fancy. This widely respected philanthropist organized libraries in England and America, and promoted Christian education among the black slaves with his "Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts" and the "Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge." The "Associates of the Late Dr. Bray" was an important organization that became interested in the cause Oglethorpe was soon to espouse.

In this atmosphere of public concern the genesis of Georgia took place. While Oglethorpe did not originate the concept of a new colony, he was largely responsible for organizing initial support and seeing the effort through to the colony's creation. Together with his influential friend, Lord Percival, and nineteen other prominent gentlemen ( many of them members of Parliament and all Bray associates ( Oglethorpe petitioned the King in 1730 for land in Carolina. The charter was granted in 1732. While the plight of the debtor had been the impetus that prompted the movement for a new colony, by the time the charter was granted, its scope was so broadened as to cover all those of unfortunate circumstances; in fact, probably no more than a dozen who had even been to prison for debt went to Georgia. As for Oglethorpe himself, for three years prior to the granting of the charter, he was immersed totally in debtor relief. Then, from 1732 onward, his interest turned to insuring imperial defense. So by the time of its creation, the design for the colony of Georgia was an uneasy amalgamation of the philanthropic, military and economic forces at hand.

While the Georgia charter called for a board of twenty-one Trustees to manage this new social experiment, there were in fact two authorities over the new colony: the government as well as the board. The government's view was quite pragmatic: it wanted to acquire a new colony at minimum expense. For this reason, the Trust was limited to twenty-one years, after which the colony would revert to the Crown. Of course the government appreciated the prospect of a new colony because the Carolina border would be protected at little expense by this new buffer zone, and Georgia trade would enhance the strength and power of the empire. To maintain control, the government required all officials appointed by the Trust to receive their instructions from the King, who would also approve all laws for the new colony.

The Trustees, on the other hand, were motivated by the spirit of this great social and philanthropic endeavor. The seventy men who eventually served on the board received no pay and could own no land in the colony. With their disparate priorities, the Trustees were often at odds with the government, which might have been unduly influenced by the Crown. The Trustees selected one of their own number, James Oglethorpe, to lead the expedition to Georgia. With his background and demonstrated abilities, to say nothing of his relative youth - he was only 35 - and because of his independent wealth and his lack of attachments, Oglethorpe was well suited for the role of founder of a colony.

The board established the most rigid screening process for prospective colonists of any American colony. They sought settlers:

. . . of reputable families, and of liberal or, at least, easy education; some undone by guardians, some by lawsuits, some by accidents in commerce, some by stocks and bubbles, and some by suretyship . . . . These are the people that may relieve themselves and strengthen Georgia by resorting thether, and Great Britain by their departure.

Not all applicants were accepted, and a debtor needed permission from his creditors to join the expedition.

Each settler was given free passage, tools, agricultural implements and seeds, along with fifty acres of land. The Trust sent over its own servants to do public work under the supervision of overseers. Those of high estate who paid for their own passage were also allowed indentured servants and additional land. While waiting to ship out, the entire contingent was drilled in military fundamentals by sergeants of the Royal Guard.

The first Georgians arrived off Charleston in January 1733. Oglethorpe put ashore at Port Royal and scouted the area to the south. Two weeks later, the colonists settled in four large tents on a bluff overlooking the Savannah River, twelve miles inland from the sea. Oglethorpe laid out the town and named the principal streets and squares for prominent Carolinians to show thanks for the livestock and funds donated by the Carolina settlers who were overjoyed with the protection offered by the buffer colony.

To prevent friction with the neighboring Creek tribes, Oglethorpe wisely sought permission for his settlement from Tomachichi, the aging chief of the Yamacraw Indians, a small band who lived on the bluff. With the help of Tomachichi and Mary Musgrove, a half-breed interpreter, he signed a treaty that gained access to all land between the Savannah and Altamaha Rivers as far up as the tide ebbed and flowed. Excluded were the islands of Ossabaw, St. Catherines and Sapelo, along with the small tracts above the bluff reserved for the Creek to camp.

Foreigners were welcomed early on to the fledgling colony. Salzburgers who had been persecuted by the Catholics settled at Ebenezer and other small communities along the Savannah River. Moravians came in 1735; they refused to bear arms and were ostracized by the community and eventually migrated north. By 1741 there were some 1,200 German-speaking settlers in Georgia, making the colony more German than English in its composition.

In 1734, Oglethorpe, with an astute eye for public relations, returned to England accompanied by Tomachichi, his wife, nephew and five Creek chiefs. This novel entourage excited all of London, and Oglethorpe was received as a national hero.

Oglethorpe's return coincided with the government's growing concern about the Carolina frontier. Parliament granted £26,000 for the colony's defense, which, along with the publicity of Tomachichi's visit, aided his efforts to recruit 130 Scots Highlanders and their families who sailed to the new colonies in 1735. The Scots settled on the Altamaha River at a site previously selected by Oglethorpe near old Fort King George. The new settlement was called Darien, named after an ill-fated Scottish colony in the Isthmus of Panama that was destroyed by the Spanish. A few months later, Oglethorpe arrived in Savannah with an additional 230 colonists who were destined to settle St. Simons Island.

Oglethorpe led the first contingent of his newest charges in small boats through the inland passage from Savannah to St. Simons, arriving February 18, 1736. Ever aware of human nature, he kept the supply of beer in the first boat to prevent straggling. By mid-March, 44 men and 72 women and children were in the new settlement, which had been named "Frederica," after the Prince of Wales.

When Oglethorpe brought his travel-weary band ashore on St. Simons Island, he immediately saw to it that the streets of Frederica were marked off, shelters erected and the construction of a fort underway. He then turned his attention to defending his territory from the Spanish who were enraged at this latest English intrusion.

With this new upstart of a colony in Georgia, the growing strength of Carolina and the collapse of the mission system, Spain no longer held delusions about Florida being the hub of future growth. But Florida was, nevertheless, extremely important to protect Spanish shipping in the Bahama Channel and to guard the Gulf of Mexico from English expansion. She was as much a buffer to protect Cuba as Georgia was to Carolina.

In the summer of 1736, the Spanish sent Antonio de Arredondo, a solder, diplomat and engineer, to deal with the English threat. He met with Oglethorpe, and they both finally agreed to withdraw from the questioned area below Savannah. But Oglethorpe knew that he could strengthen the area before the Spanish could react. From this time onward, Oglethorpe placed much more emphasis on the preparation for war than on shepherding the philanthropic adventure that had drawn him to Georgia.

The Fort at Frederica

Oglethorpe and Tomachichi scouted the area between St. Simons and St. Augustine. Oglethorpe immediately detailed Lt. Mackay and his Highlanders to start construction on Fort St. Andrews at the northern end of Cumberland Island. He ordered Fort William to be constructed on Cumberland's southern end, Fort St. George at the mouth of the St. Johns River - just above St. Augustine - and a fort on the southern tip of St. Simons. He now had a string of outposts that would keep a sharp eye upon any Spanish activity in the inland passage.

Frederica quickly assumed a military air, and Oglethorpe made his permanent headquarters here rather than in Savannah. He had chosen the town site well ( a bluff overlooking a U-shaped bend in the river, a difficult obstacle for an attacking Spanish fleet. The site was on an old abandoned Indian field, of some thirty-five acres, that eliminated the necessity of clearing virgin timber. The town was laid out systematically: lots were divided into two wards by a wide avenue eventually known as "Broad Street." Smaller side streets further segmented each ward.

A picture of those first few months at Frederica is furnished by Francis Moore, the recorder of Frederica:

Each freeholder had sixty foot in front, by ninety foot in depth, upon the high street, for their house and garden; but those which fronted the river had but thirty foot by sixty foot in depth. Each family had a bower of palmetto leaves finished upon the back street in their own lands; the side toward the front street was set out for their houses.

In addition to the town lot, each settler had a garden lot on the outskirts of town, with the balance of his fifty-acre grant farther out. To the east of town was a large meadow used for grazing cattle. Scattered about the island were the grants of up to five hundred acres, given to settlers who had paid their own way and the way of their indentured servants.

In those early days, the mainstay of the town was the fort. Samuel Augspourger, a Swiss engineer, was in charge of the fort's construction. Most of the work was done by the indentured servants of the Trust, although some settlers also labored and were paid a daily wage. The first walls were made of earth covered with sod and surrounded by a six-foot moat. An earthen spur jutted out into the river, and cannon were placed at water level to command the river approaches. A double palisade of cedar poles was erected in the moat.

The Fort at Frederica

Initially, the fort's defense rested upon the settlers, each of whom was given a watch coat, musket and bayonet. Military training was a part of each day; firearms were kept at the ready, and discipline was strict. In May of 1736, the Independent Company of Foot was transferred from South Carolina, and Oglethorpe put them to work constructing Fort Delegal, named after its commander Lt. Philip Delegal, Sr., at the southern tip of St. Simons Island. Captain James Gascoigne, commander of the sloop-of-war Hawk, also arrived in May 1736, to augment Oglethorpe's forces. For his service, the Trust granted Gascoigne five hundred acres overlooking the Frederica River.

In November of 1736, Oglethorpe felt it necessary to return to England to reassure the Trustees that increasing expenditures in Georgia were necessary for its defense. While there, he convinced Parliament to provide regular British troops and was commissioned "General and Commander in Chief of the Forces in South Carolina and Georgia." He raised the 42nd Regiment of Foot and was made its colonel. With an authorized strength of almost 700 men in six companies, virtually half of the regiment was drawn from the 25th Regiment of Foot stationed at Gibraltar. No doubt the misfits, troublemakers and least healthy were assigned to Oglethorpe. The remaining three companies were drafted in northern and central England. Twenty young gentlemen, volunteers who hoped to win commissions, accompanied the regiment as cadets.

When Oglethorpe returned to St. Simons Island in the fall of 1738, he stationed two companies of his regiment at Frederica, and the rest was scattered along the outposts of the inland passage. The addition of the soldiers and their families had quite an impact on Frederica - clapboard huts were built to house the new residents, and a new storehouse was constructed with the third floor designated as the chapel. Redcoats livened the streets, and the King's shilling soon weighted the purses of the town merchants.

In June of 1739 during a lull in the war hype between England and Spain, Oglethorpe wanted to be assured that the lower Creeks would be allied with the English, or, at least, neutral. With a small party, he traveled from Frederica to Coweta, an Indian town in the interior, and met with the mico Chigally. The Creeks, as a result of the visit, did remain neutral during the upcoming war. On the return trip, Oglethorpe heard that England had declared war on Spain (the War of Jenkins' Ear). Soon after, he was ordered by King George to take the war to the Spanish in Florida.

The English and the Spanish Invasion

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