Fort San Francisco de Pupo

Fort San Francisco de Pupo (Spanish: Fuerte San Francisco de Pupo) was an 18th-century Spanish fort on the west bank of the St. Johns River in Florida, about eighteen miles from St. Augustine (San Agustín), the capital of Spanish Florida (La Florida). Lying on the old trail to the Spanish province of Apalachee in western Florida, Fort Pupo and its sister outpost, Fort Picolata on the opposite shore of the river, controlled all traffic on the ferry crossing.[1] The remains of Fort Pupo are situated about three miles south of Green Cove Springs in Clay County, near the end of Bayard Point opposite Picolata.[2] The surrounding area is a hammock of southern live oak, southern magnolia, pignut hickory and other typical trees native to the region.[3]

Fort San Francisco de Pupo
Northwest of St. Augustine, Florida, on west bank of the St. Johns River in United States
Plan and Profile of Fort San Francisco de Pupo
Fort San Francisco de Pupo Location of Fort San Francisco de Pupo Show map of Florida Fort San Francisco de Pupo Fort San Francisco de Pupo (the United States) Show map of the United States
Coordinates	29°56′19″N 81°36′14″W
Height	32 ft.
Site information
Condition	Only traces remain
Website	Waymarking.com
Site history
Built	1734
Built by	Spanish Army (Ejército de Tierra)
In use	1740 (1740)
Materials	Pine log palisade and blockhouse
Events	Seized by James Oglethorpe's troops
Garrison information
Past commanders	British Captains MacKay and Desbrissy
Garrison	Regular army troops

The site of Fort Pupo was excavated in stratigraphic tests by cultural anthropologist John Goggin and students of the University of Florida in 1950 and 1951;[3][4][5] his team's excavations indicated that the original structure of Fort Pupo was little more than a sentry box. A letter written by Royal Engineer Antonio de Arredondo on January 22, 1737 describes it as "a sentry box built of boards, eight feet in diameter… surrounded by a palisade."[6] This diminutive fortification was replaced in 1738 by the construction of a new wooden blockhouse, barracks, and storehouses on the orders of the governor of La Florida, Manuel de Montiano. The work was done under the direction of Engineer Pedro Ruiz de Olano, who pulled a crew of carpenters, sawyers, and axemen from construction of the Castillo de San Marcos, the fortress of St. Augustine, to rebuild the Pupo blockhouse.[7] The architectural plan and profile of the structure are shown in his "Plano y perfil del nuevo fortín de San Francisco de Pupo" (Plan and Profile of Fort San Francisco de Pupo).[8]

History

Tensions had been growing between the Spanish and the British after James Moore, the governor of Carolina, invaded La Florida in 1704 and 1706.[9] Fort Pupo, along with Fort Picolata on the opposite side of the St. Johns, was built in 1734 by order of Governor Francisco del Moral y Sánchez in anticipation of more attacks by the English and their Indian allies;[10]

A party of Yuchi Indians, allies of the British and the Upper Creeks, attacked Fort Pupo in 1738, damaging the stockade and killing two soldiers. After this event the Spanish enlarged the fort to a 30-by-16 blockhouse, surrounded by a timber and earth rampart. A small garrison of ten soldiers and a sergeant, along with seven cannon, was stationed there.[11][12] At the same time, James Oglethorpe, the governor of the British colony of Georgia, began building up a joint force of militia, regular troops, and Indians at Fort Frederica in preparation for a planned invasion of Florida.[13]

With the outbreak of the War of Jenkins' Ear, Oglethorpe determined, in response to an attack the Spanish had made on the British outpost at Amelia Island (in which they decapitated two British soldiers), to raid the Spanish outposts that were part of the defense network of St. Augustine.[11] Now in command of a fleet of 15 boats and 180 men, his raiding party consisted of a combined force of Highland Rangers and soldiers of the 42nd Regiment of Foot, regular soldiers from Fort Frederica, and Creek, Chickasaw, and Yuchi Indians. Oglethorpe made his first move and invaded Spanish territory in late December 1739, his objective being to harass the Spaniards, burn their plantations, and intimidate their Indian allies.[14][15] On January 6 (O.S.), 1740, the raiders set out from the fort he had previously built at the mouth of the St. Johns, Fort Saint George, where they were joined by an armed English privateer's sloop.[16]

Oglethorpe led his force and the sloop up the St. Johns River to attack Forts Picolata and Pupo. They landed five miles downstream on the east bank and made a nighttime advance on Fort Picolata, arriving at 2:00 a.m. on the 7th. A detachment of Darien Highlanders, infantrymen from Fort Frederica, and Indians led the attack, and by daybreak the fort was taken and burnt. The Spanish garrison at Fort Pupo spotted Oglethorpe's Indian auxiliaries from the other side of the river, and, thinking they were Yamasee allies, sent a ferry across, which hastily reversed course and returned when it perceived its mistake.

Oglethorpe then landed his regulars a mile north of Pupo and marched on it with four field guns.[17] An advance party of Indians and Rangers attacked the fort, while the regulars under Ens. Sanford Mace opened their artillery fire. The combined assault forced the defenders to surrender after the second volley, just before sunset;[18] the Highlanders and Indian scouts then seized the fort and the took the men of the garrison prisoner.[14][19] Oglethorpe stationed the 50 Highlanders under the command of Capt. Hugh MacKay, Jr., and leaving them the sloop, he returned to Fort Frederica.[17] Oglethorpe had successfully struck against the forts Pupo, Picolata, and San Diego during these preliminary raids, made in anticipation of his plan to capture and destroy St. Augustine by a land and sea attack.[20] These raids, however, would prove to be the only successes in his futile campaign to take the city in 1740.

References

1. Ricardo Torres-Reyes (March 10, 1972). The British Siege of St. Augustine in 1740: Castillo de San Marcos National Monument (Historic Resource Study). National Technical Information Service. p. 7. Retrieved 16 June 2018.
2. Larry E. Ivers (23 February 2016). This Torrent of Indians: War on the Southern Frontier, 1715-1728. University of South Carolina Press. p. 229. ISBN 978-1-61117-607-0.
3. John M. Goggin (October 1951). "Fort Pupo: A Spanish Frontier Outpost". The Florida Historical Quarterly. Florida Historical Society. 30 (2): 140–141. Retrieved 15 June 2018.
4. Edward Sapir; Leslie Spier (1951). Yale University Publications in Anthropology. Department of Anthropology, Yale University. p. 37.
5. "Florida Museum of Natural History - Florida Historical Archeology Sites - Florida Historical Archeology Sites". www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu. Archived from the original on June 17, 2018. Retrieved 17 June 2018.
6. Goggin 1951, p. 146
7. Manuel de Montiano (1909). Letters of Montiano: Siege of St. Agustine. Savannah, Georgia: Georgia Historical Society. p. 24.
8. Historic Structure Report for Fort Matanzas National Monument, St. John's County, Florida. Denver Service Center, Southeast/Southwest Team, Historic Preservation Branch, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. 1980. p. 20.
9. Goggin 1951, p. 144
10. David J. Weber (1992). The Spanish Frontier in North America. Yale University Press. p. 180. ISBN 978-0-300-05917-5.
11. Unknown (1916). "A Ranger's Report of Travels With General Oglethorpe, 1739–1742". In Newton Dennison Mereness (ed.). Travels in the American Colonies. Macmillan. pp. 224–226.
12. Jane Landers (11 June 2015). "Fort Francisco de Pupo (Florida)". In Alan Gallay (ed.). Colonial Wars of North America, 1512-1763 (Routledge Revivals): An Encyclopedia. Taylor & Francis. p. 966. ISBN 978-1-317-48718-0.
13. Torres-Reyes 1972, p. 4
14. John Grenier (31 January 2005). The First Way of War: American War Making on the Frontier, 1607–1814. Cambridge University Press. p. 58. ISBN 978-1-139-44470-5.
15. Torres-Reyes 1972, p. 6
16. James Oglethorpe (1913). Allen Daniel Candler (ed.). The Colonial Records of the State of Georgia: Original Papers, Correspondence, Trustees, General Oglethorpe and Others. 1737–1740. 22, part II. Franklin Printing and Publishing Company. p. 314.
17. David Marley (2008). Wars of the Americas: A Chronology of Armed Conflict in the Western Hemisphere, 1492 to the Present. ABC-CLIO. p. 385. ISBN 978-1-59884-100-8.
18. Edward J. Cashin (1 January 1992). Lachlan McGillivray, Indian Trader: The Shaping of the Southern Colonial Frontier. University of Georgia Press. p. 30. ISBN 978-0-8203-1368-9.
19. Anthony W. Parker (1 July 2010). Scottish Highlanders in Colonial Georgia: The Recruitment, Emigration, and Settlement at Darien, 1735-1748. University of Georgia Press. pp. 76–77. ISBN 978-0-8203-2718-1.
20. Torres-Reyes 1972, p. i

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