The Second Spanish Period

1784-1821

Part Five

William Augustus Bowles – Part Four

Artist interpretation of Fort San Marcos de Apalache

The Hunt for Bowles

The Spanish leadership in New Orleans, Governor Caso-Calvo, wanted Bowles killed or capture, and his machinations stopped. The governor put together a small fleet; three Spanish galleys, two gunboats, a troop transport, and several supply ships, with orders to capture enemy vessels that were trying to help Bowles and to capture Bowles himself. On the ships was Captain Pedro Olivier and his command of 106 soldiers. The governor also sent the galley Leal to Fort San Marcos to help reinforce it. The captain of the fleet was Captain Manual Garcia. Garcia was ordered to first take the fleet to Cat Island, a barrier island off the coast of present-day Mississippi. Another warship, the Luisiana, anchored at Pensacola, was to rendezvous with the fleet at Pass Christian. They were also to await other supply ships arriving from Bayou St. John. Once the fleet was whole, they sailed to Mobile Point to gather information on enemy vessels. The fleet proceeded to Pensacola, and then on to Apalachicola Bay.[1]

In Pensacola, Folch sent the ship San Marcos de Apalache to San Marcos, with Subaltern Benigno Garcia Calderon and his troops, with orders to gather as much information on Bowles as possible from Portell. The San Marcos de Apalache reached San Marcos on December 21, 1799. On January 7, 1800 Calderon and the San Marcos de Apalache left the San Marcos River, headed for the Apalachicola River. On board was the interpreter named Carballo. Carballo and about ten Spanish friendly Indians were dropped off at the Apalachicola River with the task of discovering anything they could about Bowles’s whereabouts. Carballo met a Yuchi chief, who claimed to have seen Bowles with about six companions, three whites, a mestizo, and two black men. 

Carballo and his men set up camp, and on January 9 the Yuchi chief returned to Carballo and gave him more information regarding Bowles. He said Bowles was in fact on the Apalachicola River, and could only be reached by boat. He also warned them that Bowles had two small ships hidden near the river’s mouth, waiting for supply ships from Nassau. The Yuchi chief also warned that several Yuchi warriors were stationed on the Ochlocknee River, to warn Bowles if they saw a Spanish vessel. Surprisingly, on January 11, one of Bowles’s men, John Galphin, came into Carballo’s camp and admitted involvement with Bowles. Over the next few days, Carballo’s Indian guides left him, and on January 13, while hiding in a bush along the Apalachicola River, Carballo spotted a canoe carrying about ten people. One of the men in the canoe looked strange to Carballo. He wore western style clothing, but had on Indian ornaments and feathers in his hat. There he was. It was William Augustus Bowles himself. Becoming fearful, since his guides abandoned him and he was surrounded by Bowles’s allies, Carballo fled the area on foot all the way back to San Marcos, which took him several days to reach. He notified Portell at San Marcos of Bowles’s presence on the Apalachicola River. Portell then sent Carballo with four armed Spanish soldiers back to the Apalachicola coast to await the arrival of Garcia’s fleet.[2]

They awaited Garcia’s fleet at Dog Island. The fleet arrived, and Carballo got aboard the Leal, and sailed up the Apalachicola River. At the mouth of the river, the fleet encountered a man named Guerin, who claimed to be a frustrated ex-follower of Bowles. He told the Spanish that Bowles had men stationed on St. George Island awaiting British supply ships from Nassau. Once they reached St. George Island they found John Galphin, who then told the Spaniards that Bowles planned to attack the fort at San Marcos just as soon as he received more white reinforcements. The fleet then returned to the Apalachicola River and sailed up it. When they reached the six-mile point, the fleet discovered a port that Bowles had established on the banks of the river. The Spaniards spoke to some nearby Indians, who decided to divulge where Bowles was. Perhaps they did not desire to face off against the Spanish as much as Bowles did.

 The next morning Garcia, Olivier, and their soldiers, marched to where they were told Bowles was located, but they arrived too late. Bowles was already gone. Later that afternoon, the party found out where Bowles’s new camp was, three miles away in a Cyprus grove. They searched for the camp that night with two gunboats and a few canoes. Carballo and a handful of soldiers searched the shores where they found some seemingly abandoned canoes jam-packed with supplies belonging to Bowles. The men searched for Bowles’s camp all night long, and around eight o’clock the next morning they finally discovered the camp but it too was already deserted. Bowles was always seemed to be a few steps ahead of the Spanish. They then followed a foot trail that led to a small inlet. There they discovered a few of Bowles’s followers, as well as his wife Mary Perryman. Bowles was gone, and in his rush to escape he left several supplies, such as saddles, weapons, as well as his official papers. The party found another foot trail, but the prints disappeared into a swamp. The Spanish took Bowles’s men prisoner, but released his wife Mary. They then proceeded to return to Bowles’s makeshift port, which was called Achackwheethle, and burned it to the ground. Bowles had  moved roughly thirty miles north of San Macros and had taken refugee with the Seminoles at Lake Miccosukee. From there he organized a war party to attack Fort San Marcos.

Garcia held a meeting with the local chiefs, and told them to attend a future meeting to be held at the fort in San Marcos on February 15, 1800. He then sent Carballo back to San Marcos to inform Portell as to what had happened, and to let him know about the scheduled meeting. The meeting would be held, but the date was changed to February 22. Those present at the meeting were Creeks and Seminoles from the villages of Yuchi, Tamatle, Valhajote, Occomulgue, Tallahassee, Sumachajogue, Octeane, Totulose Hache, and Buassise.[3] At the meeting, Portell tried to convince the Indians that Bowles was fooling them, that he could not provide them with what he promised and that it was in their best interest to turn him in to Spanish authorities. There was a faction of Indians who did not like Bowles, but they were still unwilling to turn him in.

Bowles seemed to be in a weakened position now that many of his camps had been destroyed and several of his recruits captured. However, Bowles was able to continue to garner strong support from the Seminoles north of San Marcos. On March 31, Portell sent Carballo to the Miccosukee village to ask Chief Kinache to join the Spaniards against Bowles, but he refused, and was actually planning on soon attacking the Spanish at Fort San Marcos de Apalache.

Bowles was now in the Apalachee area, and ordered Indians to attack soldiers who ventured out to far from the fort at San Marcos, which made it hazardous for the Spanish to retrieve fresh drinking water and firewood, in fact, they had already captured a few Spanish soldiers. Bowles ordered his men to steal slaves, livestock, and other goods from the Spaniards. They also stole cattle from the Panton store, and since Bowles was willing to fight Panton and the Spanish, several disgruntled Indians came to his side. The siege of fort San Marcos de Apalache had begun, and Portell was forced to rely on the provisions they already had in their possession, as Bowles planned to starve the Spanish out of Fort San Marcos by not allowing supply ships to near the fort. 

The Siege of  Fort San Marcos

The state of affairs at San Marcos were getting worse by April, 1800. Bowles's Indian allies had once again sacked the Panton Wakulla store and had stolen several horses from its pasture. Not all of the Indians were hostile towards the Spanish though. An elderly Creek women by the name of La Camarona, who lived in a hut near the fort made Portell aware that a group of Spanish vessels had seized one of Bowles’s supply ships called the Hawk. That was good news to Portell’s ears because with the loss of a supply ship possibly meant some of Bowles’s Indian followers may abandon him. Portell dispatched an enslaved African-American, owned by the Panton store, to Miccosukee, a Seminole village northeast of San Marcos, to extract some information about Bowles. The next day, Portell learned from the slave that Bowles had convened a war council and was planning on assaulting the Fort San Marcos itself. Bowles was very angry about the capture of his supply ship the Hawk, and so he officially declared war on San Marcos four days later. Bowles had his declaration of war delivered to San Marcos ten days after the siege had already begun.

Bright and early on the morning of April 15, 1800, Portell sent an officer with ten armed guards to protect soldiers who were tasked with cutting down a tree line to the north of the fort, so that they may have more visibility in that direction. Approaching the tree line to complete the given task, the soldiers were suddenly fired on by warriors hiding behind the brush and trees. When the shots rang out, a few soldiers dropped, one of them receiving an injury he would not survive making him the first casualty in the siege of San Marcos.[4] When the fleeing soldiers reached the safety of the fort’s stone walls, the Spanish unleashed several cannon balls in the attacker’s direction, sending them fleeing back into the woods. Around three o’clock later that day, Indians carrying a white flag of parley approached the fort and handed over Bowles’s declaration of war. The declaration accused the Spanish of committing wrongdoings against “the Nation of Muskogee.” But in all actuality, the Spanish were after Bowles and not the Indians. Bowles declared war because of the capturing of his supply ship the Hawk, the burning of his “port town” of Achackwheethle, and the arrest of some of his men. Portell was angered greatly by the letter, as he believed the “Nation of Muskogee” had no reason to war on the Spanish. He also found it confounding that the “Nation of Muskogee” would be led by a white man.

Bowles did not possess any artillery, which is what they would need if they wanted to penetrate the fortification. However, Indians did not use artillery, and Bowles had very few white men with him who were trained in such a thing. But if he did manage to get a cannon, the few white men he did have with him would probably have been sufficient enough to use it and breech the fort. Therefore, since Bowles did not have artillery, the Indians stayed out of range of the fort’s cannon.

The next day, April 16, Indians could be seen moving around in the distance as they fired off their muskets all night long. As the sun rose on April 17, the situation had quieted down. That is until around two o’clock in the afternoon when another white flag of parley was presented to the Spanish with a letter delivered to them. Bowles again demanded the surrender of the fort. In disbelief of Bowles’s sheer audacity, Portell angrily replied that he and his men would defend San Marcos until the very last drop of Spanish blood fell.[5] The siege was working well for Bowles, and by April 20, the garrison used up all their fuse cords for the cannons. They began to use sturdily twisted horse hair for fuses. On April 21, infrequent gunfire continued through the night, as the Indians dug trenches in line with the fort.

The circumstances were looking very dreary for Portell and the garrison at the besieged Fort San Marcos. But, on the morning of April 25, a little shimmer of hope found its way to them in the form of the Spanish supply schooner San Marcos de Apalache. The Spanish leaders at Pensacola had no idea what was happening at San Marcos because Portell had been unable to get a letter out during the siege. Worried that Bowles’s men may try to attack and seize the ship San Marcos de Apalache, Portell had his men load the cannon and fired warning shots, hoping that the pilot would get the clue and stay away from the fort. But the pilot did not get the clue, and proceeded upriver towards the fort. Once the ship got closer to the confluence of the San Marcos and Wakulla rivers, Bowles’s Creek and Seminole allies emerged from the brush and fired on the ship, killing one man and wounding several more. Nevertheless, the San Marcos de Apalache made it to the fort’s wharf and anchored. For a few more weeks, Bowles’s allies and the garrison at the fort exchanged sporadic gunfire with one another.

During twilight of the evening of May 5, Portell again noticed a couple ships in Apalachee Bay near the entrance of the San Marcos River. All throughout the night, Portell had his cannon fire warning shots for the ships, hoping they would understand that they were in danger. They did not, and by ten o’clock the next morning, May 6, the two boats, who were from the Louisiana Squadron, entered the river. One of the ships was a gun boat, the Aquiles, commanded by Juan Bautista Mentizinger, who sent a canoe loaded with sailors upriver ahead of him. While canoeing up the San Marcos River towards the fort, the sailors noticed Indians emerge from the woods standing on the banks of the river waving their hands at them, as if asking them to come to the shore. The sailors decided it was probably in their best interest to ignore them, and as they paddled by the Indians opened fire on them. Probably paddling faster than they ever had before, the sailors turned around and returned to the Aquiles. The sailors told Mentizinger of what had just occurred, and he unwisely came to the decision to keep going towards the fort. As soon as the two ships approached a big bend in the river, Indians appeared out of the woods and fired on them.

The second ship was a merchant schooner called the Santa Barbara, and it fired its cannon at the Indians. The Aquiles fired back as well, using its several swivel guns and its cannons. Back on land, Portell tried to help disperse the Indians with cannon fire from the rear of the fort. A group of very determined warriors raced to the Santa Barbara in dugout canoes, attached ropes to the schooner, and managed to drag it off into a bayou. The Indians went on board and killed everyone on it. They had successfully seized a Spanish supply ship, which was a knife into the heart of San Marcos. Other than the usual goods and foodstuffs that the garrison desperately needed, Portell also lost official correspondences that were meant for him from his superiors in Pensacola. The Aquiles, after suffering two sailors killed, one captured, and five wounded, finally reached the fort. Portell then sent the uninjured sailors and a Subaltern with ten soldiers back onto the Aquiles to recuperate the Santa Barbara. But by the time they were ready to search for it, the ship had disappeared and the Indians were enjoying the liquor that was on board. Drunk, the Indians fired their muskets long into the night as the fort remained silent.

Nearly a month into the siege, Portell’s men were getting weary as they needed a supply ship badly. The Commandant decided for a small offensive against Bowles. The Indians had dug a trench directly across the Wakulla River from the fort, and Portell wanted it destroyed. Around eight o’clock in the morning, he sent a detachment under the command of Subaltern Cayetano Payjon to do just that. The men reached the trench under protective cover from the Aquiles, and had the earthwork demolished by nine o’clock. At one-thirty in the afternoon of May 16, the fort’s lookouts noticed a ship flying the Spanish flag, as well as the white flag of parley. It was the Sheerwater, a merchant ship belonging to Panton, Leslie and Company, in which the Wakulla store had been expecting. It was believed by Portell and the Panton employees that aboard the Sheerwater were gifts for the Indians as well as four, four-pound cannons.[6] Portell desperately did not want Bowles to get his hands on artillery pieces, as it would most certainly lead to the fort’s destruction and the slaughter of the garrison.

Worried that the Sheerwater may be taken, just like the Santa Barbara had been, Portell ordered Payjon to go aboard the Aquiles and sail downriver and fire three warning shots. All Portell could do is hope that the captain of the Sheerwater, William Butterfield, understood the warning shots. Alas, he did not and the Sheerwater continued towards the San Marcos River entrance. At the river’s mouth, Butterfield noticed some white men waving their arms frantically at him, and he decided to investigate.

Butterfield, his pilot and a few sailors, went ashore to see what the men wanted. Once they reached the shore, several Indians emerged and took the men prisoners. When they reached their captor’s camp, Butterfield recognized the decapitated head of the owner of the Santa Barbara on a pole, which was also adorned with several scalps. Bowles then decided to block the river’s entrance, using several logs tied together as well as the Santa Barbara. Hostile Indians surrounded the fort, and with the river now blockaded, Portell and the garrison’s situation was getting much worse.

Portell concluded that he should convene a war council and decide their options. On May 16 a meeting took place where Portell discussed with his men the danger they were in. What made Portell and the garrison very nervous was the fact that the Sheerwater had aboard it four cannons when the Indians captured it. Portell knew that the fort’s walls could not withstand artillery fire for very long, and he feared an outcome that resulted in the destruction of the fort and the butchering of him and his men by Bowles's allies. Portell suggested maybe trying to send the Aquiles or the San Marcos de Apalache to get help, but the others thought this to be too risky, especially since the river was now blockaded by debris and the captured Santa Barbara. The only thing left to do besides waiting to be killed, was an honorable surrender. Portell hated the idea of surrendering to that scoundrel Bowles, so he made sure it would be on his terms. Portell sent Bowles a message under a white flag, suggesting they meet in a neutral area to discuss surrender. The meeting would take place at the tree line north of the fort on May 18, 1800.

The Surrender of Fort San Marcos de Apalache

Portell and Bowels sat down together on May 18 to discuss terms of the fort’s surrender. Portell’s goals were to leave the fort, and take as much weaponry from it as possible. Bowles did not like that idea and only let the Spanish take their personal arms, and only ten cartridges each. Portell wanted to take the fort’s cannons with him, but Bowles would not agree to that either. However, he did allow the Spanish to take their ship’s cannons back with them. Commandant Portell was forced to leave behind the fort’s cannons, gifts for the Indians, and munitions, but took the fort’s archives, treasury papers, and the Panton, Leslie and Company ledgers.

 Portell demanded the release of Bowles’s hostages, which included captured soldiers from San Marcos, and the surviving captives of the two seized ships. In return, Portell offered to release some Indian prisoners he had. To assure the Spaniards safety, Portell requested four Indian hostages to accompany them on their ships until they reached Apalachee Bay, where the Indians would then be dropped off on shore at the mouth of the San Marcos River. Bowles refused to provide hostages for Portell, but assured him that they would be allowed to leave safely. In return for their safe departure, Bowles asked Portell to not fire on anybody from “his” Muskogee nation on their voyage to Pensacola.

On the day of May 19, the surrender agreement was signed, and Portell planned on evacuating within twenty-four hours.[7] Soon after, La Camarona, the elderly friendly Indian women, approached the fort and told Portell that several Indians did not understand the truce and planned on attacking their vessels once they embarked. Portell then sent an angry letter to Bowles telling him if the Indians attack the truce is off. Bowles again reassured Portell of their safe departure. On May 21, 1800 the garrison at San Marcos boarded the Aquiles, the San Marcos de Apalache, and the fort’s launch, and departed Apalachee, meeting the galley squadron at Dog Island on May 23. Bowles knew that the Spanish would eventually return to San Marcos to retake the fort, so he put in the surrender agreement that Portell in his men could not participate in retaking it. Manual Garcia was the commander of the squadron, and Portell and his men boarded Garcia’s flagship to discuss the surrender of San Marcos and what they were going to do about it. Portell and his officers were left out of this council, since it went against the surrender agreement. The council voted to go back to Pensacola for repairs and supplies, which they reached by June 1, 1800.

To be continued in William Augustus Bowles Part Five (of Six)

Sources used:

Din, G. C. (2012). War on the Gulf Coast: The Spanish Fight Against William Augustus Bowles. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.

Kinnaird, L., & Kinnaird, L. B. (1983, July). War Comes to San Marcos. Florida Historical Quarterly, Vol.LXII, No.1, pp. 25-40.

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[1] Din, p.95

[2] Ibid. p.105

[3] Ibid. p.108

[4] Ibid. p.116

[5] Ibid. p.116

[6] Ibid. p.119

[7] Ibid. p.123