COAST ARTILLERY, JOURNAL - Air Defense Artillery

566 THE COAST ARTILLERY JOURNAL
1st Company, Fort Grant, C. Z., in 1916, and 1st Company, Coast Defenses of
Balboa in 1917; was again designated as the BIst Company, Coast Artillery Corps,
in 1922; and Battery G, 7th Coast Artillery, in 1924.
The personnel of the organization wear the crest and motto in metal and
enamel as a distinctive regimental badge on their uniform.
Fort Marion, Florida
By J. R. JOHNSTON
Situated as they were at St. Augustine, the oldest town of permanent European
settlement on the North American continent, it was inevitable that Fort Marion
and its predecessors should have an interesting history. Certainly the explorers,
cavaliers, pirates and soldiers of fortune who invaded verdant Florida from time
to time, lured by the siren songs of wealth and hope of glory, did their utmost to
create events of an historical value. Some sought fabled fountains of youth; others
came to pave the way for colonies or sack settlements already extant; while still
others sought freedom from religious persecution in the wilderness of the
New World.
It was necessary, of course, that the colonies be protected, and usually the
building of fortresses kept pace with the construction of residences. The first
fortification erected in the vicinity of St. Augustine was Fort Caroline established
in 1564. This post was located at the mouth of the St. Johns River, and was
garrisoned by the meagre forces of Rene de Laudonniere, leader of a group of
French Huguenots who had been driven out of the mother country in the violent
religious upheaval of the 16th Century.
Laudonniere's colony did not prosper, and in August, 1565, he was about to
return to France when he was reinforced by Jean Ribaut and about 300 men. On
the same day that Ribaut landed, a Spanish expedition sailed into the bay of St.
Augustine, an expedition that boded ill for the French.
Immeasurably jealous of the nation that had stolen a march on him, the
King of Spain had sent out a fleet of ships under Pedro Menendez de Aviles
to exterminate the Huguenots, who added to the misfortune of not being Spaniards
the mistake of not being Catholics.
Menendez had never been noted for his merciful activities, and he was determined
to maintain his unsavory reputation at all costs; the cost, of course, to be
the lives of the unsuspecting Protestants. So won as he arrived at St. Augustine
he reconnoitered the French colony and then proceeded to build a fort which he
named San Juan de Pinos on the site of an Indian village.
Before a month had elapsed the cruel Spaniard surprised the sleeping garrison
of Fort Caroline and killed one hundred and thirty men with little or no resistance.
Ribaut's ships were wrecked soon afterward near ~lantanzas Inlet and he and his
men were induced to throw themselves on the mercies of ~lenendez, who promptly
had them cut down in cold blood.
Both forts were now occupied by the Dons to secure their hold on Florida.
Fort Caroline was rebuilt and rechristened Fort San ~lateo but was foredoomed to
disaster. In 1568 a band of vengeful Frenchmen under Dominique de Gourgues,
enraged at the cruel murder of their countrymen, assaulted and captured the fort
and hanged its garrison on the very spot where the Huguenots had been put
to the sword.
Fort San Juan de Pinos stood for many years without strife. Th~n, one day,
that bold English sailor and explorer, Sir Francis Drake, besieged it and cap-