(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Photo Diary: Fort Frederica and The War of Jenkins' Ear [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2022-12-01 One of the oddest wars in US history had its climax off the coast of Georgia, and is now commemorated by a National Monument. For those who don't know, I live in a converted campervan and travel around the country, posting photo diaries of places that I visit. :) In 1740, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI, King of Austria, died without a male heir. His daughter Maria Theresa was named as Queen. But Frederick the Great of Prussia opposed the succession. The reason he cited was the ancient Salic Law which disqualified a woman from sitting upon a Roman throne; the real reason was that Prussia was eager to capture parts of Austria. In December 1740, Prussia invaded the Austrian province of Silesia. Europe was once again at war. And once again the European dispute extended to the French and British colonies in North America, where it became known as “King George’s War”. The British, supported by the Iroquois Six Nations, captured the French fortress at Louisbourg in Nova Scotia, while the French, allied with the Micmac and Abenaki Natives, raided and destroyed the town of Saratoga in New York. But the strangest part of the North American conflict was an interlude that became known as “The War of Jenkins’ Ear”. The Spanish, of course, had arrived in the New World before either France or Britain. By 1565, the Spanish had conquered virtually all of South America and Mexico, and gained a further foothold in North America by claiming Florida. England and Spain had already fought a series of conflicts between 1718 and 1729. In North America, there had been raids between the Spanish colony of Florida and the British colonies in South Carolina, and privateers from both sides intercepted each other’s commercial shipping. This had two effects: the British and Spanish governments signed an agreement which allowed a limited English commercial trade with Florida, and King George appointed former Army officer James Oglethorpe to establish and govern a new British colony between South Carolina and Florida, known as “Georgia”. Populated mostly by inmates from London’s debtor prisons, the new colony was intended to serve as a buffer to protect the rich South Carolina trading ports from the Spanish in Florida. By 1738, though, the relationship between the two was strained. British merchants from South Carolina were growing rich by illegally smuggling more trade goods into Florida than were allowed under their agreement, and the Spanish replied by sending warships to North America to intercept the English smugglers and confiscate their cargo or ships. Another agreement was signed to try to resolve the matter, but it wasn’t long before both sides were violating the terms, and there were voices in both countries that were calling for war. Things came to a head in March 1738 and centered around a British merchant captain named Robert Jenkins. Back in 1731, Jenkins had been in command of the cargo ship Rebecca on its way to Florida when it was intercepted and boarded by the armed Spanish privateer La Isabela under Captain Juan de Leon Fandino. Accusing Jenkins of smuggling, Fandino drew his sword and slashed off the English captain’s left ear. At the time, the incident was viewed as just another episode in the rough-and-tumble colonies and, although London made an official complaint to the Spanish King, it was quickly forgotten. But in March 1738, with war fever rising, Captain Jenkins was called to London to testify before Parliament and tell them of his mistreatment at the hands of the Spanish. According to legend, Jenkins indignantly produced his severed ear, which he had kept all these years pickled in a jar of rum, and asked Parliament to avenge Britannia’s sullied honor. (Contemporary Parliamentary records, however, mention no such display, and the “War of Jenkins’ Ear” did not actually receive its name until over a hundred years later, from Scottish historian Thomas Carlyle.) London declared war on Spain in October 1739. Both Britain and Spain launched naval attacks on each other’s colonies, most of them ending in failure. In North America, Georgia Governor Oglethorpe launched an unsuccessful attempt to invade Spanish Florida and capture the fortress at St Augustine. In the summer of 1742, Spanish forces from Florida retaliated against Oglethorpe’s raid by sending a fleet with several thousand troops, commanded by Governor Don Manuel de Montiano, to land at St Simons Island, off the Georgia coast not far from Savannah. The Spanish fleet was delayed by weather, however, which allowed Oglethorpe to send troops of his own to reinforce the existing defenses at Fort Frederica, and when the Spanish began to move across the island towards the fort on July 7 they ran into an ambush. Although the British troops were only one-fifth the size of the Spanish force, they were securely hidden in the thicketed fringes of a marshland, and the Spaniards were cut to pieces. It became known as the Battle of Bloody Marsh. The surviving Spanish limped back to Florida. In 1744, France formally declared war on Britain, as their own colonial conflicts spread to Europe. Spain allied itself with France, and the “War of Jenkins’ Ear” now became part of the larger “King George’s War”. This conflict finally ended in 1748 with the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, which returned all captured territory to its former owner. It became known as “The Peace Without Victory”. With the end of the conflict with Spain, Fort Frederica no longer had any value and it was gradually abandoned in the early 1750s, and by 1758 the island was uninhabited. Archaeological excavations in the 1940s uncovered the fort and the small town that grew up next to it. The site was acquired by the National Park Service in 1945 and became the Fort Frederica National Monument. Today, the ruins of Fort Frederica are open for tours, and there is a historical marker at the nearby site of Bloody Marsh. Some photos from a visit. Visitors Center Inside the museum Artifacts recovered at the site The fort was very small, so most of the troopers lived in makeshift palm huts like this The town was surrounded by a defensive bank and ditch, measuring about a mile around Most of the building locations are marked with wooden posts Some buildings still have their foundations, made from a seashell cement called “tabby” The old cemetery Remains of the officer’s barracks Fort Frederica Cannon positions The powder magazine is the only remaining part of the fort [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/12/1/2057234/-Photo-Diary-Fort-Frederica-and-The-War-of-Jenkins-Ear Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/