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George Washington predicted the British would use their soldiers in St. Augustine to attack the southern colonies. He even recommended seizing the city...
George Washington predicted the British would use their soldiers in St. Augustine to attack the southern colonies. He even recommended seizing the city...
Revolutionary forces attempted to carry out Washington’s orders three times, but they never got near St. Augustine. Governor Patrick Tonyn employed the East Florida Rangers and detachments of red-coated infantry to halt them fifty miles to the north.
The British won battles near present-day Jacksonville at the Cowford in 1776, Thomas Creek in 1777, and Alligator Creek in 1778.
Having protected East Florida, the troops in St. Augustine then did just what Washington feared... They went on the offensive.
"The King, my Master, pays these men to fight, and they must fight."
"The King, my Master, pays these men to fight, and they must fight."
— British General Augustine Provost, at Savannah, 1779
Late in 1778, British General Augustine Prevost took Hessians, redcoats, and Rangers into Georgia and helped with the British capture of Savannah. Next, he attacked Augusta, then defeated a combined French and American army and navy that tried to re-take Savannah in October 1779. Ultimately though, St. Augustine was on the losing side of the Revolution. As part of the 1783 peace negotiations, Britain ceded the city and the entire colony of East Florida to Spain. Disheartened, most British subjects left. East Florida would remain a Spanish colony until it became American territory in 1821.
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