A Loyal Province in a Rebel Age
In Britain’s East Florida, Loyalists repelled three Continental Army invasions, frustrating General George Washington’s designs on a strategic outpost.
By Roger Smith
It’s one of the most basic American history lessons: These United States grew from 13 colonies that rebelled against the tyrannical rule of the British king.
Not as well-known is that in 1775, at the outbreak of the American Revolution, the borders of the continental United States actually held 15 British colonies. The 1763 Treaty of Paris, which ended the French and Indian War, added East Florida and West Florida to Great Britain’s roster, along with Nova Scotia and Quebec, bringing the empire’s holdings to nearly 30 territories in North America.
But as war raged in New England and the mid-Atlantic regions, East and West Florida remained loyal to the Crown, serving as a haven to Loyalists fleeing the rebel armies and never furling the Union Jack until mandated by the 1783 Treaty of Paris.
In early 1776, East Florida’s residents affirmed their commitment to the King, writing that they were “deeply deploring and disavowing the present unhappy and unnatural Rebellion, which prevails through most of Your Majesty’s other Colonies on this Continent.” They promised to avoid any “connection and Correspondence with, or Support of [the rebels] . . . we shall be always ready, and willing to the utmost of our weak abilities to manifest our Loyalty to Your Majesty’s Person, and a due Submission to Your Majesty’s Government, and the Legislature of Great Britain.” Shortly after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, an angry crowd gathered in St. Augustine, the colony’s capital, and hung effigies of Samuel Adams and John Hancock on trees in the plaza and then set them on fire.
General George Washington recognized that as long as St. Augustine remained under British control, their military personnel would threaten Georgia and Carolina backcountry militias and distract the American Southern Army from more critical conflicts.
True to their word, though, East Florida militia and British regulars successfully defended attacks on three separate occasions: an offensive launched from Savannah in 1776, the Battle of Thomas Creek in 1777, and the Battle of Alligator Creek Bridge in 1778.
British military officials in St. Augustine, too, were aware of the thorn East Florida represented to the efforts of the Continental army. In a letter to Lord Germain in 1779, English Governor Patrick Tonyn applauded his colony’s war effort as he asserted that “the depredations by the Loyal Inhabitants of this Province by Sea, and Land, have contributed to sicken the Rebels of their Revolt, and forced them to keep those Troops in the Southern Provinces for internal defense, which could otherwise have strengthened Washington’s Army.”
Governor Tonyn spent great amounts of money and manpower to build the colony’s defenses. But a combination of yellow fever, malaria, poor planning, and rumors of 2,000 Cherokee warriors threatening the Georgia backcountry in August 1776 ultimately repulsed the first invasion of over 2,500 Continental regulars and militia, commanded by Major General Charles Lee from a base in Savannah.. Lieutenant Walter Scott of the Loyalist Refugees pinpointed the real contribution of the Indians to the British defense: “The Talk of their [Cherokee] going to war has certainly answered a very good intention by keeping a great many Rebels upon the Frontier which greatly helped the Troops (Br.) by keeping so many men from them.”
The Americans tried again nine months later, in May 1777, but the East Florida Rangers, led by Thomas Brown, thwarted the attack. Brown, a wealthy landowner from Yorkshire, England, had arrived in St. Augustine from Georgia in 1775, after a rebel force known as the Sons of Liberty beat, burned, scalped, and tarred and feathered him for refusing to join the patriot cause against the King.
The conditions leading up to the clash with the East Florida Rangers started in late 1776 when British and loyalist forces defended against patriot raids and then moved north from East Florida into Georgia, capturing Fort McIntosh.
The patriots responded with a plan to capture St. Augustine. Colonel John Baker and 100 mounted militia would travel by land. A second force, commanded by Colonel Samuel Elbert, would travel by ship. They planned to meet north of St. Augustine on May 12 to coordinate their attack. Baker’s force established camp at the meeting point, waiting for Elbert’s men to arrive. Three days later, a group of East Florida Rangers and Creek warriors ambushed them.
Baker ordered a retreat back to Georgia, and that evening they camped at Thomas Creek.
On May 17, a combined force of 250 men that included the Florida Rangers and Creek warriors along with 100 British regulars ambushed Baker’s unit.
The Battle of Thomas Creek was a British victory, with three Americans killed, nine wounded, and approximately 40 captured.
The colonial patriots attempted to invade Florida again in June 1778, this time with a force of 1,300 Continental troops and militia from Georgia and South Carolina under the command of Major General Robert Howe. They reached the Florida border at St. Marys River on June 26.
When British Lieutenant Colonel Mark Prévost learned of the advance, he gathered 450 British troops at a bridge at Alligator Creek, a branch of the Nassau River.
On June 30, Howe sent 100 cavalry members to locate and attack the East Florida Rangers. They chased the loyalists to the Nassau River, where Colonel Thomas Brown ordered some of his men to circle behind patriot troops while Major Mark Prevost and his regulars stood ready for a frontal assault. The rebels avoided the trap but were ultimately defeated when Brown and his rangers joined the British troops at Alligator Bridge.
Even after the three disastrous offensives, French General Comte de Rochambeau had to dissuade Washington from launching another attempt later in 1778 — and yet again in early 1780. After the British began their assault on Georgia in 1778 and the siege of Charleston in 1780, Rochambeau felt other defensive concerns were more pertinent and urgent to the salvation of the South.
After the war, Britain returned East Florida to Spain in the 1783 Treaty of Paris, largely to ensure it could keep its fortress at Gibraltar. The British were given 18 months to settle their affairs and leave Florida. Most of them returned to England or departed for the Bahamas. At the end of 1785, East Florida Governor Patrick Tonyn boarded a ship bound for England, officially ending British rule in Florida.
Historian Roger Smith earned his Master’s Degree in American History and Ph.D. in Early American History and Atlantic World Studies at the University of Florida. He also holds a graduate-level Certificate of Scholarship in Museum Studies. He is an adjunct professor of American history at Flagler College and the University of Florida. He speaks nationally on his Revolutionary War research and provided consultation for the AMC television series “Turn: Washington’s Spies.” He also appeared in the PBS documentary “Secrets of the Dead: The Secrets of Spanish Florida.”
Historian Roger Smith earned his Master’s Degree in American History and Ph.D. in Early American History and Atlantic World Studies at the University of Florida. He also holds a graduate level Certificate of Scholarship in Museum Studies. He is an adjunct professor of American history at Flagler College and the University of Florida. He speaks nationally on his Revolutionary War research and provided consultation for the AMC television series “Turn: Washington’s Spies.” He also appeared in the PBS documentary “Secrets of the Dead: The Secrets of Spanish Florida.”