Battle of Bloody Marsh

The Battle of Bloody Marsh took place on July 18, 1742 (new style) between Spanish and British forces in the Province of Georgia, resulting in a victory for the British. Part of a much larger conflict, known as the War of Jenkins' Ear, the battle was for control of St. Simons Island, the British fortifications of Fort Frederica and Fort St. Simons, and the strategic sea routes and inland waters they controlled. After the victory, the Province of Georgia established undisputed claim to the island, which is now part of the U.S. state of Georgia. The Battle of Gully Hole Creek, a skirmish also won by the British, took place on the island the same day.

Background
James Oglethorpe led the colonization of Georgia for Great Britain, and had chosen Savannah as the principal port for the new colony. In the 1730s, Spain and Great Britain had been disputing control over the border between Georgia and La Florida, where the Spanish had several settlements and forts.

Given a heightened threat of Spanish invasion, Oglethorpe sought to increase his southern defenses. Accompanied by rangers and two Native American guides, Oglethorpe picked St. Simons Island as the site for a new town and fort. In 1734, Oglethorpe convinced the Parliament and the colonial trustees to pay for a new military garrison.

The trustees also selected a large new group of colonists for St. Simons Island. The ships bearing the settlers and supplies arrived at Tybee Island early in 1736. From there, some went to the mainland while others traveled via periaguas (also known as pirogues) to St. Simons Island to found the new town of Frederica. The town and its fort were built on the elbow of the Frederica River to control approaches from both directions.

In 1737, Oglethorpe returned to England to acquire more funding and permission to raise a regiment of soldiers; he was successful in convincing Parliament of both. He was appointed commander-in-chief of all British forces (limited as they were) in the colonies of South Carolina and Georgia. Oglethorpe subsequently recruited a company of Scottish settlers, from Inverness, to migrate with their families to live at the settlement of Darien, which was briefly named "New Inverness", (the present day seat of McIntosh County) at the mouth of the Altamaha River. The military unit that they formed was known locally as the Highland Independent Company. Official British records list it as Oglethorpe's Regiment of Foot. Ranked as 42nd Regiment of Foot (old) in 1747, disbanded 29 May 1749 in Georgia.

Two forts lay about five miles apart on St. Simons Island. Between the two ran a road the width of one wagon, named Military Road. This served to supply the garrison at Fort Frederica and settlers in the nearby village from Fort St. Simons. The battle took place after a Spanish invasion of the island.

The battles on St. Simons Island were part of a larger conflict known as the War of Jenkins' Ear (1739 to 1748). That war derived its name from an incident which took place in 1731, eight years prior to the outbreak of hostilities. A boarding party from the Spanish patrol boat La Isabela had come aboard the British brig Rebecca, off the Florida coast, and found that its captain, Robert Jenkins was smuggling. The Spanish officer Julio León Fandiño's cut off one of Jenkins' ears for his piracy. The war faction in Parliament used the nearly forgotten incident to rally public opinion to their side. In truth, the Jenkins affair played an inconsequential part in the run up to hostilities. The war resulted from trade and territorial tensions that had been building between the two nations for a number of years. On October 30, 1739, Great Britain declared war on Spain.

Invasion, battle, and aftermath
Spanish governor Don Manuel de Montiano commanded the invasion force, which by some estimates totaled between 4500 and 5000 men. Of that number, roughly 1900 to 2000 were ground assault troops. Oglethorpe's forces, consisting of regulars, militia, and native Indians numbered less than 1000. The garrison at Fort St. Simons resisted the invasion with cannonade, but was not able to prevent the landing. On July 5, 1742 Montiano landed nearly 1900 men from 36 ships near Gascoigne Bluff, close to the Frederica River. Faced with a superior force, Oglethorpe decided to withdraw from Fort St. Simons before the Spanish could mount an assault. He ordered the small garrison to spike the guns and slight the fort (doing what damage they could), to deny the Spanish full use of the military asset. The Spanish took over the remains of the fort the following day, establishing it as their base on the island.

Battle of Gully Hole Creek
After landing troops and supplies, and consolidating their position at Fort St. Simons, the Spanish began to cautiously reconnoiter beyond their perimeter. They found the road between Fort St. Simons and Fort Frederica, but first assumed the narrow track was just a farm road. On July 18, the Spanish undertook a reconnaissance in force along the road with approximately 115 men under the command of Captain Sebastian Sanchez. One and a half miles from Fort Frederica, Sanchez' column made contact with Oglethorpe's soldiers, under command of Noble Jones. The ensuing skirmish became known as the Battle of Gully Hole Creek. The Spanish were routed, with nearly a third of their soldiers either killed or captured. Oglethorpe's forces advanced along Military Road in the direction of Fort St. Simons, in pursuit of the retreating Spanish. Spanish prisoners revealed that a larger Spanish force was advancing in the opposite direction, along the road from Fort St. Simons to Frederica. Oglethorpe left to gather reinforcements.

Battle of Bloody Marsh
The British advance party, in pursuit of the defeated Spanish reconnaissance force, engaged in a subsequent skirmish, then fell back in face of advancing Spanish reinforcements. When the British reached a bend in the road, Lieutenants Southerland and Macoy ordered the column to stop. There, the regiments and allied Indians took cover in the dense forest. They watched as the Spanish broke rank, stacked arms and, taking out their kettles, prepared to cook dinner. The British forces attacked the Spanish off-guard, killing between 7-50. The ferocity of the fighting at Bloody Marsh grew quite a bit in the telling over the years, with the battle taking its name from tradition that the marsh ran red with the blood of dead Spanish soldiers. While later accounts listed Spanish casualties as high as two hundred, the actual number was between seven and fifty. The Battle of Bloody Marsh blunted the Spanish advance, and ultimately proved decisive. Oglethorpe was credited with the victory.

Oglethorpe continued to press the Spanish, trying to dislodge them from the island. A few days later, approaching a Spanish settlement on the south side, he learned of a French man who had deserted the British and gone to the Spanish. Worried that the deserter might report the true number of the small British force, Oglethorpe spread out his drummers, to make them sound as if they were accompanying a larger force. He wrote to the deserter, addressing him as if a spy for the British, saying that the man just needed to continue his stories until Britain could send more men. The prisoner who was carrying the letter took it to the Spanish officers, as Oglethorpe had hoped. The timely arrival of British ships reinforced a misconception, among the Spanish, that British reinforcements were arriving.

The Spanish left St. Simons on 25 July, ending their last invasion of colonial Georgia.

Aftermath
In the months after the invasion, Oglethorpe considered launching counter-attacks against Florida, but circumstances were not favourable. The focus of the war had shifted from the Americas to Europe and arms, supplies and troops were not readily available. The region descended into an uneasy peace, occasionally punctuated by minor skirmishes. Oglethorpe was later appointed brigadier general. He left Georgia about 1744 and married an heiress in Britain, where he lived the rest of his life. The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle ended the war in 1748 and recognised the status of Georgia as a British colony. Its position was further secured in 1763 when Florida became a British possession as part of the Treaty of Paris ending the Seven Years' War.

The War of Jenkins' Ear is commemorated annually on the last Saturday in May at Wormsloe Plantation in Savannah, Georgia.