Editing Seminole Wars (section)

===The Creek War, the War of 1812 and the Negro Fort===
{{main|Prospect Bluff Historic Sites}}

[[File:Andrew Jackson by Ralph E. W. Earl 1837.jpg|thumb|[[Andrew Jackson]] led an invasion of Florida during the First Seminole War.]]

During the [[Creek War]] (1813–1814), Colonel [[Andrew Jackson]] became a national hero with his victory over the Creek [[Red Sticks]] at the [[Battle of Horseshoe Bend (1814)|Battle of Horseshoe Bend]]. After this victory, Jackson forced the [[Treaty of Fort Jackson]] on the Creek, resulting in the loss of much Creek territory in what is today southern Georgia and central and southern Alabama. As a result, many Creek left Alabama and Georgia, and moved to Spanish West Florida. The Creek refugees joined the Seminole of Florida.<ref>Missall. pp. 21–22.</ref>

In 1814, Britain was still at [[War of 1812|war with the United States]], and in May, a British force entered the mouth of the [[Apalachicola River]], and moved upriver to begin building a fort at [[Fort Gadsden|Prospect Bluff]].<ref>Sugden, p.281</ref> This British Post at Prospect Bluff harbored Native American refugees from the Creek War following their demise at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend.  A company of [[Royal Marines]], commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel [[Edward Nicolls]], was to subsequently arrive, but was invited to relocate to Pensacola in late August 1814.<ref>Sugden, p.287</ref> It was estimated, by [[Captain (Royal Navy)|Captain]] Nicholas Lockyer of {{HMS|Sophie|1809|6}}, that in August 1814 there were 1,000 Indians at Pensacola, of whom 700 were warriors.<ref>Sugden, p. 291</ref> Two months after the British and their Indian allies were beaten back from an attack on [[Fort Bowyer]] near [[Mobile, Alabama|Mobile]], a U.S. force led by General Jackson drove the British and Spanish [[Battle of Pensacola (1814)|out of Pensacola]], and back to the Apalachicola River. They managed to continue work on the fort at Prospect Bluff.

When the War of 1812 ended, all British forces left the Gulf of Mexico except for Nicolls and his forces in Spanish West Florida. He directed the provisioning of the fort at Prospect Bluff with cannon, muskets, and ammunition. He told his Native American allies that the [[Treaty of Ghent]] guaranteed the return of all Indian lands lost to the United States during the War of 1812, including the Creek lands in Georgia and Alabama.<ref>Sugden, p. 306</ref> Before Nicolls left in the spring of 1815, he turned the fort over to the [[maroons]] and Native American allies whom he had originally recruited for possible incursions into U.S. territory during the war. (see [[Corps of Colonial Marines]]).  As word spread in the [[American Southeast]] about the fort, white Americans called it the "[[Negro Fort]]." Americans worried that it would inspire their slaves to escape to Florida or revolt.<ref>Missall. pp. 24–27.</ref>

[[File:EP Gaines.jpg|thumb|[[Edmund P. Gaines|Edmund Pendleton Gaines]] commanded Federal troops at the [[Battle of Negro Fort]].]]

Acknowledging that it was in Spanish territory, in April 1816, Jackson informed Governor [[José Masot]] of West Florida that if the Spanish did not eliminate the fort, he would. The governor replied that he did not have the forces to take the fort.{{citation needed|date=December 2017}}

Jackson assigned Brigadier General [[Edmund P. Gaines|Edmund Pendleton Gaines]] to take control of the fort. Gaines directed Colonel [[Duncan Lamont Clinch]] to build [[Fort Scott (Flint River, Georgia)|Fort Scott]] on the [[Flint River (Georgia)|Flint River]] just north of the Florida border. Gaines said he intended to supply Fort Scott from New Orleans via the Apalachicola River. As this would mean passing through Spanish territory and past the Negro Fort, it would allow the U.S. Army to keep an eye on the Seminole and the Negro Fort. If the fort fired on the supply boats, the Americans would have an excuse to destroy it.<ref>Missall. pp. 27–28.</ref>

In July 1816, a supply fleet for Fort Scott reached the Apalachicola River. Clinch took a force of more than 100 American soldiers and about 150 Lower Creek warriors, including the chief [[William McIntosh|Tustunnugee Hutkee]] (White Warrior), to protect their passage. The supply fleet met Clinch at the [[Negro Fort]], and its two gunboats took positions across the river from the fort. The inhabitants of the fort fired their cannon at the invading U.S. soldiers and the Creek but had no training in aiming the weapon. The American military fired back, and the gunboats' ninth shot, a "[[Heated shot|hot shot]]" (a cannonball heated to a red glow), landed in the fort's powder [[Magazine (artillery)|magazine]]. The explosion leveled the fort and {{citation needed span|date=April 2017|text=was heard more than {{convert|100|mi|km}} away in Pensacola.}} It has been called "the single deadliest cannon shot in American history."<ref>{{cite web |title=Prospect Bluff Historic Sites |url=http://www.exploresouthernhistory.com/fortgadsden.html |first=Dale |last=Cox |publisher=exploresouthernhistory.com |access-date=25 December 2017 |year=2017 |archive-date=26 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180626003925/http://exploresouthernhistory.com/fortgadsden.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Of the 320 people known to be in the fort, including women and children, more than 250 died instantly, and many more died from their injuries soon after. Once the US Army destroyed the fort, it withdrew from Spanish Florida.

American squatters and outlaws raided the Seminole, killing villagers and stealing their cattle. Seminole resentment grew and they retaliated by stealing back the cattle.{{citation needed|date=March 2018}} On 24 February 1817, a raiding party killed Mrs. Garrett, a woman living in [[Camden County, Georgia]], and her two young children.<ref>Missall. pp. 28–32.</ref><ref>Vocelle. p. 75.</ref>

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