True, Bowyer’s men only won a small victory on the southern coast of what would soon become Alabama, and American troops would alternately occupy and abandon the area as strategically required. Yet good news was fleeting in the War of 1812; another war was opening in earnest among the Creeks, and Bowyer’s men had won a clear victory. More broadly, the desire for Mobile’s bay pointed to the restless expansionism driving white settlers down the Federal Road and into open conflict with warring Creeks. The news from Mobile, then, offered a bit of clarity and hope in a world that seemed to have precious little of either, and it would be the last news many heard for over a year that did not include tales of murder, massacre, and destruction.
While Creek social and cultural disagreements began to burn in violent earnest in what would soon become central Alabama, the rest of the young United States smarted under a early British triumphs in the North. The of 1812 continued, and it had not gone well for the upstart Americans. The previous August, British troops–led by Maj. Gen. Isaac Brock–and their native allies, including Tecumseh, humbled a pitiful American “invasion” of Canada, forcing the poorly trained troops to surrender at Detroit. Worse, on October 13, 1812, Brock’s men humiliated American forces again at the Battle of Queenston Heights. American dash had led to war, but for many it seemed their arms simply might not be up to the task. On April 28, 1813, word arrived from the Gulf of Mexico that electrified flagging spirits. “The eyes of the nation will be diverted a moment from the horrors of war,” news sheets across the country proclaimed, “which desolate our northern borders, to enjoy the glad prospect which presents itself to the south.” Mobile, a long-coveted Spanish prize, was at last sovereign American soil. Spanish forces had evacuated Mobile Bay early in April, and American troops, led by Col. John Bowyer, moved quickly to possess both the city and its formidable bay. “It was foreseen that the only danger which could arise from the communication of information to who might be hovering off the coast,” committee of prominent Mobile citizens reported on May 26, 1813, in the Daily National Intelligencer, “or to the Spaniards at Pensacola: secrecy and celerity were therefore the necessary characteristics of the movements.” Bowyer moved his men to Mobile Point and built a redoubt, growing into a proper fort by June, from which to defend the American interests in and around Mobile.
True, Bowyer’s men only won a small victory on the southern coast of what would soon become Alabama, and American troops would alternately occupy and abandon the area as strategically required. Yet good news was fleeting in the War of 1812; another war was opening in earnest among the Creeks, and Bowyer’s men had won a clear victory. More broadly, the desire for Mobile’s bay pointed to the restless expansionism driving white settlers down the Federal Road and into open conflict with warring Creeks. The news from Mobile, then, offered a bit of clarity and hope in a world that seemed to have precious little of either, and it would be the last news many heard for over a year that did not include tales of murder, massacre, and destruction. Comments are closed.
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Becoming Alabama:
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