The book, The 14th Colony,
explains what happened in Florida
during the Revolutionary War
I'm shifting the blog's time parameters for today's post. We're going all the way back to the Revolutionary War period. That's because 2026 marks the 250th observance of our country's founding.
Many people don't know that Florida remained a loyalist British colony during the war. The "original 13 colonies" on what is now continental U.S. soil were actually 15 colonies. Florida was considered two colonies at the time - West Florida and East Florida.
George Washington ordered patriot invasions of East Florida five times. Yes, five times. He had his sights on St. Augustine, primarily. Washington wanted British East Florida's arms and ammunition, and control of the Castillo de San Marcos fort.
The invasions failed for various reasons. They included misinformation, miscommunication, a daunting terrain and even political infighting. The vitriol between two top commanders of one of the planned invasions got so bad they ended up in a dual. One of them died.
I'm a fan of Florida domestic and social history, but not of war history. All this information was news to me. I first learned it from a 32-page book by Dr. Roger Smith, The 14th Colony, The American Revolution's Best Kept Secret (Colonial Research Associates, Inc., 2011).
I also discovered that Smith's doctoral dissertation on the subject is available online and is 10 times longer than the book. I haven't yet read that.
According to the book, St. Augustine was so important that "George Washington mentions St. Augustine in over 80 letters to the Continental Congress or his general staff as either a military target or military concern." (Page 6)
The patriots never secured St. Augustine. In fact, after the fall of Charleston in 1780, the British captured several prominent patriots and imprisoned them in St. Augustine. The prisoners included three signers of the Declaration of Independence. I learned that from the book, Patriots in Exile: Charleston Rebels in St. Augustine During the American Revolution, by James Waring McCrady and C.L. Bragg (University of South Carolina Press, 2024).
During the war, St. Augustine's population swelled with refugees. According to AI, the number jumped from a few thousand to more than 17,000 by the war's end. The St. Augustine Lighthouse's website breaks down the influx. Many were loyalists fleeing other colonies. A significant percentage were the enslaved people they brought with them. And about 600 were indentured Minorcans, Greeks and Italians who fled inhumane conditions on a New Smyrna Beach plantation.
To me, one of the most interesting things about the entire population is how multicultural it was. In addition to the newcomers, some of the regular inhabitants were Spanish residents who had stayed when Spain ceded Florida to Britain in the 1760s. And local indigenous peoples regularly frequented the city.
Britain ceded Florida back to Spain after the war. (Spain had captured West Florida in 1781 as an ally of France and as part of their own campaign against Britain.) The loyalists melted away. St. Augustine's fascinating history remains.
