Action Around Apalachicola Bay-- Part 10: Action After the Battle of New Orleans

Not knowing that the Treaty of Ghent  had been signed in December, Admiral Cochrane moved his forces back to Mobile and Prospect Bluff.  Just after his marines captured Fort Bowyer in a second attack at Mobile Bay, Cochrane got word of the Treaty of Ghent and began to withdraw from Mobile.

However, he left Nicholls and Woodbine  in command of the black Colonial Marines and Choctow Indians at the fort at Prospect Bluff.

The War of 1812 on the Gulf of Mexico began and ended at Apalachicola River.

But the departure of the Royal Navy did not end  the conflict with the blacks and Seminoles.  Attempts to recover Forbes & Company's losses during the three successive wars occupied Forbes and the Innerarity brothers for the rest of their lives, and led to the second largest Spanish  land grant in Florida's history.

Called the Innerarity's Claim of Searcy's  1829 map of Florida, the grant extended from Apalachicola to the Choctawhatchee River.  The story of how that land claim was settled  and the gradual decline of the John Forbes and Company's trading firm in the Territory of Florida is another story in itself.

--Brock-Perry

Action Around Apalachicola Bay, Florida-- Part 6: The War Comes to the Gulf Coast

In July 1814, a second British fleet anchored at Havana, Cuba,  and the Royal Marine commander, Lt. Col. Edward Nicholls, attempted to persuade the Spanish governor general, Ruiz Apodaca, , to allow British troops to defend Florida against the Americans.  Spain was neutral in the conflict, and although Apodaca  did not protest British troops on the Apalachicola River, he demanded the British stay out of Pensacola.

Nicholls departed for Apalachicola in August , only to find Woodbine had left Prospect Bluff for Pensacola in an effort to get fresh provisions for his Indian and black recruits.  Nicholls followed immediately to Pensacola., and was given permission to occupy Fort St. Michael (former Fort George and Fort San Miguel depending on who had control of it).

However, he alienated Spanish citizens by taking military control of the town and recruiting slaves into the marines.

News of the British advances along the Apalachicola River reached Andrew Jackson, and he moved his headquarters to Mobile on August 21, 1814.  That city was defended by the newly-built Fort Bowyer located on a sand spit east of the entrance to Mobile Bay (present side of Fort Morgan).

--Old Secesh

Action Around Apalachicola Bay-- Part 3: Why Was Forbes Mad?

At Prospect Bluff, George Woodbine conscripted John Forbes' agents, William Hanby and Edmund Doyle, along with 25 black slaves, to help build and manage their fort.  With Doyle and Hanby preoccupied, the British and their allies looted the Forbes store.

The former slaves were recruited into the Colonial Marines, and 300 of Forbes' cattle were confiscated to feed Creek and Seminole Indians., who were starving because Andrew Jackson's  forces had burned their villages and crops during the Creek War of 1813.

Woodbine's actions at Prospect Bluff convinced Forbes' partners, James and John Innerarity, the firm would fare better with the Americans than the British.  For the rest of the war, they aided Americans by sharing crucial information they gleaned from their vast trading network that extended from Amelia Island to Pensacola and New Orleans.

--Brock-Perry