The Battle of Bloody Mose: June 26, 1740

Authored by: Dr. Richard Shortlidge, Fort Mose Historian

Using the War of Jenkin's Ear as a pretext, Georgia's Governor and General James
Oglethorpe convinced the South Carolina General Assembly to sanction and support
an invasion of Spanish Florida in 1739. By late spring and early summer 1740, General
Oglethorpe had surrounded Saint Augustine and captured most of the Spanish outer
most defensive network including the northern forts of Diego and Mose and the
western forts of Pupo and Picolata on the Saint Johns.

Saint Auguistine was under siege. The British Navy maintained a sea blockade. General
Oglethorpe commanded operations from camps on the northern end of Anastasia
Island opposite the City of Saint Augustine from which he bombarded Saint Augustine
daily with cannon fire. A contention of 170 British Regulars, Highland Independent
Company of Darien, Creek and Uchise occupied Fort Mose under the command of
Colonel John Palmer from which they conducted occasional raids against fortified
Saint Augustine.

Toward the end of June 1740, it was virtually a stalemate. General Oglethorpe's
strategy was to starve and harass the Spanish into surrender.

Florida's Governor Montiano's strategy was to hold out as long as he could until
reinforcements arrived from Havana. To buy himself time and take advantage of the
weaknesses that his spies reported about the British encamped at Mose, he decided
to launch a surprise counter offensive in the pre-dawn hours of June 26, 1740.

Montiano’s spies had reported that there was bickering among the officers and men at
Fort Mose. The British didn't trust the Scottish Highlanders and vice versa. Likewise
the Creek and Uchise didn't trust either the Highlanders or the British. Besides the
daily quarreling and feuding, many of the soldiers and Native Americans occupied
themselves rounding up wild horses to sell to the British army. Needless to say, the
situation at Mose was ripe for the Spanish to exploit to their advantage.

Under the command of Spanish Captain Antonio Salagado, a force of 300 Spanish
Regulars, the Fort Mose Militia commanded by Captain Francisco Menendez and
Seminoles departed the Castillo de San Marcos two hours before dawn on June 26th.
Despite its size, the force was able to advance undetected to within musket range of
the British camped inside the fortification and town at Mose.

The British were caught totally off guard. In the resulting battle, of the 170 British
troops 75 were killed and 35 captured. Among the Spanish, out of 300 troops, 10 were
killed and 20 wounded.

The near annihilation of the British force at Mose destroyed morale among the rest of
General Oglethorpe's troops. The British Navy decided to abandon its blockade. With
the arrival of the Spanish navy and reinforcements, General Oglethorpe was forced to
lift the siege and retreat back to Georgia and South Carolina at the end of June and in
early July.

The decisive battle and Spanish victory at Mose was the last major military effort by the
British to arrest control of Florida from Spain by force. Spain was eventually forced to
relinquish Florida to the British by the treaty ending the French Indian War in 1763. in
exchange for the return of Havana and Cuba. Members of the St. Augustine
Community and the Fort Mose Community fled to Cuba for safety.