|
The Battle of Lake Pontchartrain was a single-ship action on September 10, 1779, part of the Anglo-Spanish War. It was fought between the British sloop-of-war HMS ''West Florida'' and the Continental Navy schooner in the waters of Lake Pontchartrain, then in the British province of West Florida. The ''West Florida'' was patrolling on Lake Pontchartrain when it encountered the ''Morris'', which had set out from New Orleans with a Spanish and American crew headed by Continental Navy Captain William Pickles. The larger crew of the ''Morris'' successfully boarded the ''West Florida'', inflicting a mortal wound on its captain, Lieutenant John Payne. The capture of the ''West Florida'' eliminated the major British naval presence on the lake, weakening already tenuous British control over the western reaches of West Florida. ==Background== Significant military activities of the American Revolutionary War did not occur on the Gulf Coast until 1779, when Spain entered the war. Before then, New Orleans, then the capital of Spanish Louisiana, served as a semi-secret source of money and matériel for the Patriot cause. The cause was quietly supported by the Spanish governors before 1779, and often mediated by Oliver Pollock, a prominent New Orleans businessman.〔Kinnaird, pp. 256–259〕 Pollock effectively acted as an agent of the Continental Congress, negotiating with the Spanish governor, and taking other actions, including spending some of his own fortune, on Patriot activities along the lower Mississippi River.〔James, pp. 65–71, 241〕〔Ellis, p. 50〕 In 1778 James Willing led a raiding expedition directed against targets in British West Florida. One prize that he captured on the Mississippi River was a British ship, the ''Rebecca'', which he brought into New Orleans.〔Kinnaird, p. 260〕 She was brought into the Continental Navy and rechristened the in honor of Philadelphia financier Robert Morris.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=DANFS entry for USS Morris )〕 The British province of West Florida extended from the Mississippi River in the west to the Apalachicola River in the east.〔Ellis, p. 42〕 The HMS ''West Florida'' had been cruising Lake Pontchartrain since 1776 under the command of George Burdon, stopping and searching all manner of shipping, including Spanish merchants destined for New Orleans, to the annoyance of the Spanish. Burdon was unsuccessful in tracking down Willing during his 1778 raid, and returned to Pensacola, West Florida's capital, for refit and repair late in 1778. In January 1779 Burdon was replaced at her helm by Lieutenant John Payne, who had been engaged in survey duty along the West Florida coast and knew the area well.〔Rea, pp. 197–199〕 The ''West Florida'' was a sloop-of-war armed, according to its captors, with several four- and six-pound cannons and carrying a crew complement of about 30.〔〔Rea, p. 197〕 (British accounts place the crew size at 15.〔) 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Battle of Lake Pontchartrain」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|