Conflicts between European nations have often had an impact on their North American colonies and the Indian nations that surrounded them. One of these was the War of Jenkins’ Ear between Great Britain and Spain.
First, a word about the name of this war. In 1731, the British merchant brig Rebecca was stopped and boarded by the Spanish patrol boat La Isabela under the command of Julio León Fandiño. The Spanish commander accused the British ship of smuggling. He then cut off the ear of the British captain, Robert Jenkins. In 1738, Captain Jenkins was ordered to testify before Parliament. As a part of his testimony, according to some accounts, he produced his severed ear. This was portrayed as an affront to British honor. While there are no records showing that he actually brought out his severed ear, in 1858 the historian Thomas Carlyle referred to the war that emerged from this testimony as the War of Jenkins’ Ear. The actual war lasted from 1738 until 1742 when it was subsumed by the War of Austrian Succession.
The initial conflict between Spain and Britain centered on the asiento: that is, the permission given by the Spanish to the British to sell African slaves to the Spanish colonies. The original asiento had been awarded in 1713. In this trade agreement the British had been given a 30-year contract to furnish an unlimited number of slaves to the Spanish colonies as well as 500 tons of goods per year. For the British traders and smugglers this provided the potential for making inroads into the traditionally closed Spanish American markets.
In the 1729 Treaty of Seville Britain accorded Spanish warships the right to stop British traders in order to verify that the asiento right was being respected. The Spanish became increasingly suspicious that the British traders were abusing this right. Thus, the Spanish began to board ships and confiscate suspicious cargos.
Most of the war took place in the Caribbean and Central America. However, in 1740 the war came to Florida with the Siege of St. Augustine. James Oglethorpe, the Governor of Georgia, mobilized the colonial militia to aid the British. The War of Jenkins’ Ear was the first time a regiment of colonial troops were raised and made a part of the Regular British Army.
Among Oglethorpe’s Indian allies were the Creeks. The Creeks came to the aid of Oglethorpe’s Georgians primarily due to the influence of Coosaponakeesa (also known as Mary Musgrove), the wife of trader John Musgrove. Mary Musgrove had worked with Oglethorpe as his translator.
James Oglethorpe is shown above.
While the British navy blockaded St. Augustine, the colonial militia marched from Georgia into Florida in an attempt to take St. Augustine. For a month, the Georgians besieged the city, using the abandoned free black community of Fort Mose as their base. However, the British naval blockade proved ineffective and supplies continued to reach the Spanish and their free black militia. In the end, the Georgians retreated, leaving their artillery behind.
Two years later, the war moved north from Spanish Florida to British Georgia when 2,000 Spanish troops under the command of Manuel de Montiana landed on St. Simons Island. Governor Oglethorpe (who also had the title of “General”), facing a superior military force, decided to withdraw from Fort St. Simons, the island’s British fort, before the Spanish could attack. The Spanish took over the remains of the fort and used it as their base.
At the Battle of Gully Hole Creek, a Spanish reconnaissance force of 115 men under the command of Captain Sabastian Sanchez encountered Georgian soldiers under the command of Noble Jones. The Spanish were quickly defeated, losing about a third of the force, who were either killed or captured. The Spanish prisoners revealed that there was a larger Spanish force preparing to advance.
The British forces, which included Indian allies and the Highland Independent Company (formed by colonists from Inverness, Scotland), took cover in the dense forest at a bend in the road on which the Spanish were travelling. The Spanish troops arrived at the bend, then broke ranks, stacked their arms, took out their kettles, and started to cook dinner. At this point, the British troops attacked, taking the Spanish off guard. The tales later told of this battle recounted the image of the marsh running red with the blood of dead Spanish soldiers. The battle thus went down in history as the Battle of Bloody Marsh. In the retelling of the story, the Spanish casualty count grew to about 200, but in reality the actual number killed was between 7 and 50.
Shown above is the Bloody Marsh monument.
The Battle of Bloody Marsh stopped the Spanish advance into Georgia. Just 20 days after the invasion had started, the Spanish withdrew from Georgia. The Battle of Bloody Marsh was the last battle of the War of Jenkins’ Ear fought in North America.
Each year, on the last Saturday in May, the War of Jenkins’ Ear is commemorated at Wormsloe Plantation in Savannah, Georgia. This is the plantation founded by Noble Jones, the commander at the Battle of Gully Hole Creek.