THE COAST ARTILLERY JOURNAL - Air Defense Artillery

250 THE COAST ARTILLERY JOURNAL
the French at English Turn were abandoned, and Fort St. Philip was erected on
Plaquemines, with a small fort on the opposite side of the river.
In 1800 Spain ceded Louisiana to France, reserving to herself the Province
of Florida, and in 1803 Napoleon sold Louisiana to the United States for fifteen
million dollars. The coast forts obtained by the Louisiana Purchase were few
in number and were in poor condition. At Baton Rouge there was a poorly
constructed fort with a garrison of about fifty men. Behind New Orleans, on
Lake Ponchartrain, at the mouth of the Bayou St. John, seven or eight miles
from the city was a small work, called Fort St. John, which commanded the
approach to the city from the lake. New Orleans itself was defended by five
poorly constructed redoubts fast going to decay.
Fort St. Philip was thirty-two nautical miles from the Gulf on the eastern
side of the Mississippi, and was an irregular work of brick. It was built on
a bend in the river where ships, sailing up to New Orleans, would have to anchor
because the turn was so sharp that a wind which would bring a vessel to
the bend would be contrary on the next stretch. Like the other works, Fort
St. Philip was in a ruinous condition. Across the river, and about a mile above
the site of Fort St. Philip, were the ruins of a small closed redoubt, called Fort
Bourbon. It had been intended to cover the flank of Fort St. Philip.
Following the Louisiana purchase, the western boundary line of Florida
remained in dispute for a number of years, the Spanish retaining possession of
Mobile. In 1813 General Wilkinson left New Orleans with six hhndred men and
sailed for Mobile. Landing his men, he took up a position in rear of Fort
Charlotte and demanded its surrender. Captain Cayetano Perez, after some
correspondence, capitulated and took his inadequate garrison to Pensacola.
Wilkinson then sent nine guns to Mobile Point, where Captain Chamberlain
erected Fort Bowyer. The following year the fort was dismantled by the orders
of General Flournoy, who considered that it was not capable of defense.
General Jackson, however, after his arrival at Mobile in August, decided to
regarrison it..
During the progress of the War of 1812, the Spanish authorities of Florida
sympathized with the British, who made use of Spanish territory as rendezvous
for British vessels and troops. The American occupation of Mobile proved to
be a considerable obstacle to the operations of the British in Louisiana, so in
August, 1814, a British fleet was allowed by the commandant at Pensacola to
use that post for the purpose of fitting out an expedition against Fort Bowyer.
With the assent of Governor Manrequez, the British troops landed under Colonel
Nichols and were quartered in Forts Barrancas and S1.Michael, over which the
British flag was raised. General Jackson remonstrated with the Spaniards, but
received no satisfaction.
In September the expedition against Fort Bowyer sailed. Commodore
Perry, with two sloops and two brigs, carrying thirteen hundred men and
ninety-two guns, attacked the defenses on Mobile Point. The garrison of one
hundred and twenty men, with twenty guns, under Major Lawrence, so gallantly
defended their position that the attacking force was repulsed, and one of