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Fort Gadsden is located in Franklin County, Florida, on the Apalachicola River. The site contains the ruins of two forts, and has been known by several other names at various times, including Prospect Bluff Fort, Nicholls Fort, Blount's Fort,〔 British Post,〔''Life of Andrew Jackson''. James Parton, Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1880. p. 393. ()〕 Negro Fort, African Fort, and Fort Apalachicola. Listed in the National Register of Historic Places, the Fort Gadsden Historic Site is located in Apalachicola National Forest and is managed by the U.S. Forest Service. It was named a National Historic Landmark in 1972.〔(British Fort ) at (National Historic Landmarks Program )〕 ==Original fort== During the War of 1812, the British hoped to recruit the Seminole Indians as allies in their war against the United States. In August 1814, a force of over 100 officers and men led by a lieutenant colonel of the Royal Marines, Edward Nicolls, was sent into the Apalachicola River region in Spanish Florida, where they began to aid and train local Indians.〔''British and Foreign State Papers'', Volume 6, pg 434 Ambrister's Commission from Vice Admiral Cochrane: 'Whereas, I have thought fit to send a Detachment of the Royal Marine Corps to the Creek Nations, for the purpose of training to arms, such Indians and others as may be friendly to, and willing to fight under, the Standard of His Majesty: I ..appoint you as an Auxiliary Second Lieutenant, of such Corps of Colonial Marines...Given under my hand and seal, at Bermuda, this 25th day of July, 1814'()〕 Although Nicolls claimed he rallied large numbers of Indians, his efforts bore little fruit in terms of fighting, and the completion of the war ended his mission a few months after his arrival.〔''The Royal Gazette,'' Bermuda, 22 April 1815 page 3: 'It is stated, upon very high authority, that there are about 10,000 Creek Indians ready to join our cause.' Perhaps such exaggerated figures were used by Cochrane to justify more resources being deployed on the Gulf Coast. ()〕 In late November 1814, United States Major Uriah Blue, commanding a 1000-man force of Mississippi militia, Chickasaw〔Crockett, David, ''A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett of the State of Tennessee;'' University of Nebraska Press; ISBN 0-8032-6325-2〕 and Choctaw warriors, left Fort Montgomery (east of Mobile and west of Pensacola),〔 http://www.northamericanforts.com/East/al.html#montgomery〕 to seek out and to destroy the Red Stick Creeks. Present among the force was Creek War veteran Davy Crockett.〔Jones, p130〕 Being unfamiliar with the territory, and being short of provisions, Major Blue's force did not find the fort, and returned to Fort Montgomery on 9 January 1815.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=The Forgotten Campaign in the Wake of Jackson, By Chris Kimball )〕 Before Nicolls left East Florida, he built a fort at Prospect Bluff, 15 miles above the mouth of the Apalachicola River and sixty miles below U.S. territory, which he equipped with cannon, guns, and ammunition.〔Sudgen, p299, mentions that 3 six-pounder cannon were disembarked for the fort in November 1814〕〔Sugden, p300, states that 2 further six-pounder cannon were disembarked for the fort in January 1815〕 The fort, originally known as the British Post, served as a base for British troops and for recruitment of ex-slaves into the new Corps of Colonial Marines, and as a rallying point to encourage the local Seminole to attack the United States. When the British evacuated Florida in the spring of 1815, they left the well-constructed and fully armed fort on (the east bank of) the Apalachicola River in the hands of their allies, about 400 fugitive slaves,〔''American State Papers: Foreign Relations:'' Volume 4, pg 551 has the testimony of a Royal Marine deserter from the Fort, sworn at Mobile on 9 May 1815, advising: 'the British left, with the Indians, between them three and four hundred negroes, taken from the United States, principally Louisiana'〕 including members of the disbanded Corps of Colonial Marines, and a sizable number of native Indians.〔''American State Papers: Foreign Relations:'' Volume 4, pg 552 Letter from General Gaines dated 22 May 1815 'P.S. I learn that Nicholls() ..is still at Appalachicola (), and that he has 900 Indians and 450 negroes under arms'〕〔ADM 1/508 Letter from Admiral Cochrane to General Lambert dated 3 February 1815 'a coloured corps has been organised of from 300-400 men...number of indians amounts to nearly 3000 men'. There are no other accounts to corroborate the large number of native Indian warriors.〕 News of the "Negro Fort" (as it came to be called) attracted as many as 800 black fugitives who settled in the surrounding area. In September 1815, US Indian Agent Benjamin Hawkins sent a group of 200 men to attack the fort at Prospect Bluff. The attack failed, thereby lulling the inhabitants of into a false sense of security.〔Owsley & Smith, p107〕 Under the command of a black man named Garson and a Choctaw chief (whose name is unknown), the inhabitants of Negro Fort launched raids across the Georgia border. The fort, located as it was near the U.S. border, was seen as a threat to Southern slavery. The U.S. considered it "a center of hostility and above all a threat to the security of their slaves."〔Mahon, ''History of the Second Seminole War'', pg. 23.〕 The Savannah ''Journal'' wrote of it: It was not to be expected, that an establishment so pernicious to the Southern States, holding out to a part of their population temptations to insubordination, would have been suffered to exist after the close of the war. In the course of last winter, several slaves from this neighborhood fled to that fort; others have lately gone from Tennessee and the Mississippi Territory. How long shall this evil, requiring immediate remedy, be permitted to exist?〔Savannah ''Journal'', June 26, 1816, quoted in Aptheker, ''American Negro Slave Revolts'', pg. 31.〕 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「Fort Gadsden」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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