Sunday, August 19, 2012

News from St. Augustine

In a letter dated from St. Augustine, August 20, 1776, an inhabitant of the British province of East Florida reported that Colonel Lachlan McIntosh of the Georgia Militia made prisoners of the British and Loyalists troops stationed at Fort Wright on the St. Marys River, the northeast boundary of East Florida with Georgia.  

The prisoners included Charles Wright and Jermyn Wright, two brothers of the Royal Governor of Georgia Sir James Wright.  The Florida resident believed East Florida officials provoked the raid by trying to recruit the Creeks and Cherokees against the colonists and by sending "plunderers" of East Florida into Georgia.

For more on Sir James Wright, please visit the New Georgia Encyclopedia.  For a brief history of Fort Wright, please check the blog British East Florida.  

No comments: