War Erupts

Florida's relatively weak militia could not hold the St. John's region. White refugees crowded into St. Augustine, where General Duncan Clinch -- the same officer who had led the attack on the Negro Fort in 1816 -- was coordinating the state's defenses. Clinch feared the worst:

"[I]f a sufficient military force...is not sent...the whole frontier may be laid waste by a combination of the Indians, Indian negroes, and the negroes on the plantations."