Sawpit Bluff, Florida

Sawpit Bluff was a small settlement in East Florida during the American Revolutionary War, on the site of a plantation at the mouth of Sawpit Creek where it discharges into Nassau Sound opposite the south end of Amelia Island. It was the location of a proposed rendezvous between mounted militia from Sunbury, Georgia and Continental troops under the command of Lt. Col. Samuel Elbert during the second invasion of Florida in May 1777.^[1]

Around 1809, Capt. James Smith (father of Mary Martha Reid, wife of Robert R. Reid, a territorial governor of Florida)^[2] built a plantation at Sawpit Bluff,^[3] called by the Spanish Barranco de Aserradero (roughly, "Sawmill Bluff").^[4]

The site is located at the mouth of the Nassau River in present-day Duval County, Florida.^[5]

History

Second Invasion of East Florida by Georgian Patriots

Almost immediately upon the signing of the United States Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, hostilities began between British loyalists in Florida and Patriots loyal to the new nation to the north. The British spent the remainder of 1776 deflecting Patriot raids from the Georgia side of the St. Marys. In the Spring of 1777, British forces pushed across the St. Marys River, capturing Fort McIntosh on the Satilla River, and raiding Georgia farms for some 2000 head of cattle.^[6]

The American response was swift: an invasion of St. Augustine was planned,^[7] and Patriot forces began moving south. Lt. Col. Samuel Elbert and 400 Continental troops were to rendezvous with Col. John Baker and his force of about 100 Georgia cavalry militia^[8] on May 12^[9] for the march south to St. Augustine.^[10]

The expedition left Sunbury on May 1.^[11] Baker's cavalry rode overland via the King's Road^[12] while Elbert's Continentals sailed down the inland waterway with the expectation of meeting at Sawpit Bluff, near the mouth of the Nassau River. Baker crossed the St. Marys River and advanced toward Sawpit Bluff, reaching it on May 12^[13] and finding that Elbert had not yet arrived.^[14] He and his men encamped there for the next three days, and made several raids on habitations between the Nassau and Trout Rivers. The flotilla, under the command of Commodore Oliver Bowen, had been delayed by contrary winds, and did not reach Amelia Island until May 18.^[15]

Having learned from a local resident that authorities had been alerted to the expedition,^[16] Baker moved west to find a more strategic location to wait, and encamped on the banks of Thomas Creek, a tributary of the Nassau River.^[17] Meanwhile, Brown's Indians and rangers had been reinforced by British regulars under the command of Major Mark Prevost,^[18] bringing their total force to about 200 men. They crossed the St. Johns and encamped at Rolfe's Sawmill^[19] on Trout Creek;^[20] their scouts located the American camp on the night of May 16–17.^[21]

Brown's rangers and Indians set up an ambush ahead of Baker's route, while Prevost's regulars advanced behind Baker. When Baker's column reached the ambush around 9:00 am, Brown's men delivered a surprise volley. Baker and his men turned to flee, directly into Prevost's oncoming regulars. The Patriots were quickly overwhelmed by the large numbers of rangers and Indians appearing in the underbrush.^[22] About half of the Georgians fled at first sight of the enemy; Baker, his horse taken by one of his companions, escaped into the swamps.^[16]

The superior British force defeated the Americans at the Battle of Thomas Creek in the southernmost battle of the American Revolutionary War, and the only one fought in present-day Duval County. Colonel Baker and forty-two of his men escaped, making their way through the marsh, and across the St. Marys River to Georgia. Elbert reached East Florida with his men two days after the battle, landing on the northern end of Amelia Island.

The Revolution of East Florida

Armed parties of the so-called "Patriots of Florida" made forays from Sawpit Bluff to Talbot Island during the Revolution of East Florida, or Patriots' War, in 1812. On August 28 of that year two Spanish gunboats commanded by Capt. Tomás Llorente sailed up Two Sisters Creek to Sawpit Bluff and shelled the house of William Fitzpatrick.^[23]

References

1. Mark Mayo Boatner (1975). Landmarks of the American Revolution: a guide to locating and knowing what happened at the sites of independence. Hawthorn Books. p. 72.
2. Lisa Tendrich Frank (2008). Women in the American Civil War. ABC-CLIO. p. 477. ISBN 978-1-85109-600-8. Retrieved 5 May 2013.
3. Writers' Program (Fla.) (1940). ...Seeing Fernandina: A Guide to the City and Its Industries ... Co-sponsored by the City Commission, Fernandins. Fernandian news publishing Company. p. 21. Retrieved 3 May 2013.
4. Florida Historical Records Survey (1941). Spanish Land Grants in Florida: Briefed Translations from the Archives of the Board of Commissioners for Ascertaining Claims and Titles to Land in the Territory of Florida... State Library Board. p. 316. Retrieved 3 May 2013.
5. United States. Congress (1969). Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the ... Congress. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 37133. Retrieved 4 May 2013.
6. John A. McManemin (1984). Captains of the state navies during the Revolutionary War. Ho-Ho-Kus Pub. Co., originally University of Wisconsin. p. 41. Retrieved 3 May 2013.
7. Charles Francis Jenkins (1926). Button Gwinnett: Signer of the Declaration of Independence. Doubleday, Page. p. 143. Retrieved 3 May 2013.
8. Martha Condray Searcy (1985). The Georgia-Florida contest in the American Revolution, 1776-1778. University of Alabama Press. p. 94. ISBN 978-0-8173-0225-2. Retrieved 28 April 2013.
9. Hugh McCall (1816). The history of Georgia: containing brief sketches of the most remarkable events, up to the present day. Seymour & Williams. p. 119. Retrieved 3 May 2013.
10. "Thomas Creek". U.S. National Park Service. Archived from the original on August 12, 2007. Retrieved 28 April 2013.
11. William R. Nester (1 March 2004). The frontier war for American independence. Stackpole Books. p. 164. ISBN 978-0-8117-0077-1. Retrieved 28 April 2013.
12. George E. Buker (1992). Jacksonville: Riverport-Seaport. University of South Carolina Press. p. 19. ISBN 978-0-87249-790-0. Retrieved 3 May 2013.
13. Edward J. Cashin (30 January 1999). The King's Ranger: Thomas Brown and the American Revolution on the Southern Frontier. Fordham Univ Press. p. 64. ISBN 978-0-8232-1908-7. Retrieved 28 April 2013.
14. David Lee Russell (2006). Oglethorpe And Colonial Georgia: A History, 17331783. McFarland. p. 83. ISBN 978-0-7864-2233-3. Retrieved 3 May 2013.
15. Charles Colcock Jones (1883). The History of Georgia. Houghton, Mifflin and Company. p. 267. Retrieved 29 April 2013.
16. Jones 1883, p. 266
17. Three Peoples, One King: Loyalists, Indians, and Slaves in the Revolutionary South, 1775-1782. Univ of South Carolina Press. 30 August 2008. p. 102. ISBN 978-1-57003-737-5. Retrieved 29 April 2013.
18. Charles E. Bennett; Donald R. Lennon (1 September 1991). A quest for glory: Major General Robert Howe and the American Revolution. University of North Carolina Press. p. 62. ISBN 978-0-8078-1982-1. Retrieved 3 May 2013.
19. James Branch Cabell; Alfred Jackson Hanna (1943). The St. Johns: A Parade of Diversities. Farrar & Rinehart, Incorporated. p. 123. Retrieved 3 May 2013.
20. Mulcaster, Frederick George. "Letter from George Frederick Mulcaster to Gen. Grant, giving the general state of affairs in Florida, Georgia, and South-Carolina [January 4, 1775]". “The Papers of James Grant of Ballindalloch Castle, Scotland. University of North Florida. Archived from the original on April 3, 2010. Retrieved 4 May 2013.
21. Searcy 1985, p. 95
22. Pennington, Edward (July 1930). "East Florida in the American Revolution, 1775-1778". The Florida Historical Society Quarterly. Florida Historical Society. 9 (1).
23. James G. Cusick (15 April 2007). The Other War of 1812: The Patriot War and the American Invasion of Spanish East Florida. University of Georgia Press. p. 281. ISBN 978-0-8203-2921-5. Retrieved 28 April 2013.