The Spanish Invasion of Georgia: Oglethorpe

For this purpose he marched down, on the twelfth July, five hundred men, and, leaving them within a mile of the Spanish quarters, went forward at night with a small party to reconnoitre, intending to surprise them, but was prevented by the treachery of a Frenchman among Captain Carr's marines, who, firing his musket, sounded the alarm, and, favored by the darkness, deserted to the enemy. Finding himself thus discovered, the general distributed the drums about the wood, to represent a large force, and ordered them to beat the grenadiers' march, which they did for half an hour, and then, all being still, noiselessly returned to Frederica.

Aware of his weakness, and fearing that the disclosures which the Frenchman might make would embolden them to surround and destroy him, which their superior force by land and sea easily enabled them to do, he devised an ingenious stratagem to defeat his information and retrieve the effects of his desertion. The next day he prevailed with a prisoner, and gave him a sum of money, to carry a letter privately and deliver it to that Frenchman who had deserted. This letter was written in French, as if from a friend of his, telling him he had received the money; that he should strive to make the Spaniards believe the English were weak; that he should undertake to pilot up their boats and galleys, and then bring them under the woods where he knew the hidden batteries were; and that if he could bring that about, he should have double the reward he had already received; but if he failed in thus decoying them under the guns of the water-battery, to use all his influence to keep them at least three days more at Fort St. Simon's, as within that time, according to advices just received, he should be reinforced by two thousand infantry and six men-of-war, which had already sailed from Charleston; and, by way of postscript, he was cautioned against mentioning that Admiral Vernon was about to make a descent upon St. Augustine. The Spanish prisoner got into the camp, and was immediately carried before the general, Don Manuel de Montiano. He was asked how he escaped, and whether he had any letters, but, denying his having any, was strictly searched, and the letter found in his possession. Under a promise of pardon, he confessed that he had received money to deliver it to the Frenchman, for the letter was not directed. The Frenchman denied his knowing anything of its contents, or having received any money, or having had any correspondence with Oglethorpe, and vehemently protested that he was not a spy.

The contents of the captured letter seriously perplexed the Spanish commander, for whom the Frenchman had acted as a spy among the English. Most of the council looked on him as a double spy, believed the information of the letter, and advised an immediate retreat. While the council grew warm in their debate, word was brought to the commander that three vessels had been seen off the bar. Supposing this to be part of the threatened fleet, the council no longer doubted the truth of the letter, and resolved to fly before they should be hemmed in by sea and land. They set fire to the fort, and hastily embarked, abandoning a quantity of their military stores in their hurry to escape. Oglethorpe followed them with the vessels at his command, and hastened the rapidity of their flight.

Thus the vigilance of Oglethorpe, the skilfulness of his plans, the determined spirit of resistance, the carnage of Bloody Marsh, the havoc done to the enemy's ships, and his ingenious stratagem to defeat the designs of the French deserter, saved Georgia and Carolina from falling into the hands of the Spaniards. The force employed by the Spaniards in this invasion comprised.. over five thousand men, commanded by Montiana, governor of St. Augustine, and brought to Georgia in fifty-six vessels. The command of Oglethorpe consisted of only six hundred and fifty-two men, including Indians and militia. The triumph of Oglethorpe was complete. For fifteen days, with only two ships and six hundred men, he had baffled the Spanish general with fifty-six vessels and five thousand men, and at last compelled him to retreat, with the loss of several sail, scores of his best troops, and much of his provisions, munitions, and artillery. The repulse of such a formidable invasion by such a handful of troops is unparalleled in colonial history.

The news of this victory was received with universal joy in the North, and Oglethorpe was warmly congratulated on his victory by the governors of the other English provinces. In the succeeding year an attack was made on St. Augustine by an army under Oglethorpe. This expedition proved unsuccessful. There no further movements of invasion, though Georgia experienced annoyance from the Florida Indians, who were stirred up by Spanish hostility.