Fort San Francisco de Pupo
{{short description|18th-century Spanish fort in Florida, United States}}
{{Infobox military installation
| name = Fort San Francisco de Pupo
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| location = Northwest of St. Augustine, Florida, on west bank of the St. Johns River
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| country = United States
| image = Plan of Fort Pupo.jpg
| alt =
| caption = Plan and Profile of Fort San Francisco de Pupo
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| coordinates = {{coord|29|56|19|N|81|36|14|W|display=inline,title}}
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| pushpin_map = USA Florida#USA
| pushpin_mapsize = 0
| pushpin_map_alt =
| pushpin_map_caption = Location of Fort San Francisco de Pupo
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| built = 1734
| used = {{End date|1740}}
| builder = Spanish Army (Ejército de Tierra)
| materials = Pine log palisade and blockhouse
| height = 32 ft.
| length =
| fate =
| condition = Only traces remain
| battles =
| events = Seized by James Oglethorpe's troops
| current_commander =
| past_commanders = British Captains MacKay and Desbrissy
| garrison = Regular army troops
| occupants =
| website = [http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM2QTV_Fort_Fransisco_De_Pupo Waymarking.com]
| footnotes =
}}
Fort San Francisco de Pupo (Spanish: Fuerte San Francisco de Pupo) was an 18th-century Spanish fort on the west bank of the St. Johns River in Florida, about eighteen miles from St. Augustine (San Agustín), the capital of Spanish Florida (La Florida). Lying on the old trail to the Spanish province of Apalachee in western Florida, Fort Pupo and its sister outpost, Fort Picolata on the opposite shore of the river, controlled all traffic on the ferry crossing.{{cite book |author1=Ricardo Torres-Reyes |title=The British Siege of St. Augustine in 1740: Castillo de San Marcos National Monument (Historic Resource Study) |date=March 10, 1972 |publisher=National Technical Information Service
|url=https://archive.org/stream/historicresource00reye#page/7/mode/2up/search/pupo |access-date=16 June 2018|page=7}} The remains of Fort Pupo are situated about three miles south of Green Cove Springs in Clay County, near the end of Bayard Point opposite Picolata.{{cite book|author=Larry E. Ivers|title=This Torrent of Indians: War on the Southern Frontier, 1715-1728|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BdhUCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT229|date=23 February 2016|publisher=University of South Carolina Press|isbn=978-1-61117-607-0|page=229}} The surrounding area is a hammock of southern live oak, southern magnolia, pignut hickory and other typical trees native to the region.{{cite journal |author1=John M. Goggin |title=Fort Pupo: A Spanish Frontier Outpost |journal=The Florida Historical Quarterly |date=October 1951 |volume=30 |issue=2 |url=https://palmm.digital.flvc.org/islandora/object/ucf%3A22343|access-date=15 June 2018 |publisher=Florida Historical Society|pages=140–141}}
The site of Fort Pupo was excavated in stratigraphic tests by cultural anthropologist John Goggin and students of the University of Florida in 1950 and 1951;{{cite book|author1=Edward Sapir|author2=Leslie Spier|title=Yale University Publications in Anthropology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IpwfAQAAMAAJ&q=%22In%201950%20and%201951%22|year=1951|publisher=Department of Anthropology, Yale University|page=37}}{{cite web |title=Florida Museum of Natural History - Florida Historical Archeology Sites - Florida Historical Archeology Sites |url=https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/histarch/sitesInfo_fl.htm |website=www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu |access-date=17 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180617195515/https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/histarch/sitesInfo_fl.htm |archive-date=June 17, 2018}} his team's excavations indicated that the original structure of Fort Pupo was little more than a sentry box. A letter written by Royal Engineer Antonio de Arredondo on January 22, 1737 describes it as "a sentry box built of boards, eight feet in diameter… surrounded by a palisade."Goggin 1951, p. 146 This diminutive fortification was replaced in 1738 by the construction of a new wooden blockhouse, barracks, and storehouses on the orders of the governor of La Florida, Manuel de Montiano. The work was done under the direction of Engineer Pedro Ruiz de Olano, who pulled a crew of carpenters, sawyers, and axemen from construction of the Castillo de San Marcos, the fortress of St. Augustine, to rebuild the Pupo blockhouse.{{cite book|author=Manuel de Montiano|title=Letters of Montiano: Siege of St. Agustine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=brs6AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA24|year=1909|publisher=Georgia Historical Society|location=Savannah, Georgia|page=24}} The architectural plan and profile of the structure are shown in his "Plano y perfil del nuevo fortín de San Francisco de Pupo" (Plan and Profile of Fort San Francisco de Pupo).{{cite book|title=Historic Structure Report for Fort Matanzas National Monument, St. John's County, Florida|url=https://archive.org/stream/historicstucture00fort#page/20/mode/2up|year=1980|publisher=Denver Service Center, Southeast/Southwest Team, Historic Preservation Branch, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior|page=20}}
History
Tensions had been growing between the Spanish and the British after James Moore, the governor of Carolina, invaded La Florida in 1704 and 1706.Goggin 1951, p. 144 Fort Pupo, along with Fort Picolata on the opposite side of the St. Johns, was built in 1734 by order of Governor Francisco del Moral y Sánchez in anticipation of more attacks by the English and their Indian allies;{{cite book|author=David J. Weber|title=The Spanish Frontier in North America|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KOPdX2qaVrkC&pg=PA180|year=1992|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-05917-5|page=180}}
A party of Yuchi Indians, allies of the British and the Upper Creeks, attacked Fort Pupo in 1738, damaging the stockade and killing two soldiers. After this event the Spanish enlarged the fort to a 30-by-16 blockhouse, surrounded by a timber and earth rampart. A small garrison of ten soldiers and a sergeant, along with seven cannon, was stationed there.{{cite book|author=Unknown|editor=Newton Dennison Mereness|title=Travels in the American Colonies|url=https://archive.org/details/travelsinameric01goog|year=1916|publisher=Macmillan|pages=[https://archive.org/details/travelsinameric01goog/page/n234 224]–226|chapter=A Ranger's Report of Travels With General Oglethorpe, 1739–1742}}{{cite book|editor=Alan Gallay|author=Jane Landers|title=Colonial Wars of North America, 1512-1763 (Routledge Revivals): An Encyclopedia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=22rbCQAAQBAJ&pg=PT966|date=11 June 2015|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-317-48718-0|page=966|chapter=Fort Francisco de Pupo (Florida)}} At the same time, James Oglethorpe, the governor of the British colony of Georgia, began building up a joint force of militia, regular troops, and Indians at Fort Frederica in preparation for a planned invasion of Florida.Torres-Reyes 1972, p. 4
With the outbreak of the War of Jenkins' Ear, Oglethorpe determined, in response to an attack the Spanish had made on the British outpost at Amelia Island (in which they decapitated two British soldiers), to raid the Spanish outposts that were part of the defense network of St. Augustine. Now in command of a fleet of 15 boats and 180 men, his raiding party consisted of a combined force of Highland Rangers and soldiers of the 42nd Regiment of Foot, regular soldiers from Fort Frederica, and Creek, Chickasaw, and Yuchi Indians. Oglethorpe made his first move and invaded Spanish territory in late December 1739, his objective being to harass the Spaniards, burn their plantations, and intimidate their Indian allies.{{cite book|author=John Grenier|title=The First Way of War: American War Making on the Frontier, 1607–1814|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JGCin1JJp8cC&pg=PA58|date=31 January 2005|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-139-44470-5|page=58}}Torres-Reyes 1972, p. 6 On January 6 (O.S.), 1740, the raiders set out from the fort he had previously built at the mouth of the St. Johns, Fort Saint George, where they were joined by an armed English privateer's sloop.{{cite book|author=James Oglethorpe|editor=Allen Daniel Candler|title=The Colonial Records of the State of Georgia: Original Papers, Correspondence, Trustees, General Oglethorpe and Others. 1737–1740|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PIIZAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA314|volume=22, part II|year=1913|publisher=Franklin Printing and Publishing Company|page=314}}
Oglethorpe led his force and the sloop up the St. Johns River to attack Forts Picolata and Pupo. They landed five miles downstream on the east bank and made a nighttime advance on Fort Picolata, arriving at 2:00 a.m. on the 7th. A detachment of Darien Highlanders, infantrymen from Fort Frederica, and Indians led the attack, and by daybreak the fort was taken and burnt. The Spanish garrison at Fort Pupo spotted Oglethorpe's Indian auxiliaries from the other side of the river, and, thinking they were Yamasee allies, sent a ferry across, which hastily reversed course and returned when it perceived its mistake.
Oglethorpe then landed his regulars a mile north of Pupo and marched on it with four field guns.{{cite book|author=David Marley|title=Wars of the Americas: A Chronology of Armed Conflict in the Western Hemisphere, 1492 to the Present|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DkgGVTOr2EsC&pg=PA385|year=2008|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-59884-100-8|page=385}} An advance party of Indians and Rangers attacked the fort, while the regulars under Ens. Sanford Mace opened their artillery fire. The combined assault forced the defenders to surrender after the second volley, just before sunset;{{cite book|author=Edward J. Cashin|title=Lachlan McGillivray, Indian Trader: The Shaping of the Southern Colonial Frontier|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2ZmquZKe6PwC&pg=PA30|date=1 January 1992|publisher=University of Georgia Press|isbn=978-0-8203-1368-9|page=30}} the Highlanders and Indian scouts then seized the fort and the took the men of the garrison prisoner.{{cite book|author=Anthony W. Parker|title=Scottish Highlanders in Colonial Georgia: The Recruitment, Emigration, and Settlement at Darien, 1735-1748|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-xNydb93XUMC&pg=PA76|date=1 July 2010|publisher=University of Georgia Press|isbn=978-0-8203-2718-1|pages=76–77}} Oglethorpe stationed the 50 Highlanders under the command of Capt. Hugh MacKay, Jr., and leaving them the sloop, he returned to Fort Frederica.{{cite book|author=David Marley|title=Wars of the Americas: A Chronology of Armed Conflict in the Western Hemisphere, 1492 to the Present|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DkgGVTOr2EsC&pg=PA385|year=2008|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-59884-100-8|page=385}} Oglethorpe had successfully struck against the forts Pupo, Picolata, and San Diego during these preliminary raids, made in anticipation of his plan to capture and destroy St. Augustine by a land and sea attack.Torres-Reyes 1972, p. i These raids, however, would prove to be the only successes in his futile campaign to take the city in 1740.