The Other War of 1812

by Cusick, James G.

• ISBN13: 9780820329215
• ISBN10: 0820329215
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-04-15
• Publisher: Univ of Georgia Pr

Summary

Resurrecting a forgotten chapter in transatlantic history, James G. Cusick tells how, just before the United States went to war against Great Britain in 1812, an ill-advised invasion of a Spanish colony became a stage on which the young republic clumsily acted out its imperial ambitions and racial fears. With the halfhearted backing of President James Madison and Secretary of State James Monroe, a party of Georgians invaded East Florida, confident that partisans there would help them swiftly wrest the colony away from Spain. The raid was a strategic and political disaster. Few sympathizers materialized, official U.S. support dissolved, and an extended guerrilla war ensued.This was the "other war of 1812," or the Patriot War. Cusick, a lively storyteller as well as a meticulous scholar, conveys the savagery of the borderlands conflict that pitted American adventurers and anti-Spanish partisans against Spanish loyalists and their allies, who included Seminole Indians and escaped slaves. At the same time, Cusick looks at the American motivations behind the invasion, including apprehensions about Florida's growing population of unregulated blacks and geopolitical intrigues involving Spain, Britain, and France.

Author Biography

James G. Cusick is curator of the P. K. Yonge Library of Florida History at the University of Florida. He is a research associate of the St. Augustine Historical Society and the Historic St. Augustine Research Institute and serves on the board of directors for the Seminole Wars Historic Foundation, the Gulf South History and Humanities Conference, and the Florida Historical Society.

Table of Contents

List of Figures	p. vii
Preface to the Paperback Edition	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xiii
Time Line for the Patriot War	p. xv
Americans vs. Spaniards: A Different View of the War of 1812	p. 1
Mr. Madison's Worries	p. 13
A Plot Thickens	p. 29
Georgia and Spanish East Florida, a Clash of Cultures	p. 38
Intrigues and Discoveries	p. 56
The Diplomacy of Deception	p. 67
General Mathews Meets a Crisis	p. 78
The Fall of Fernandina	p. 103
Reactions	p. 126
At the Gates of St. Augustine	p. 144
Governor of Florida vs. Governor of Georgia	p. 169
Life in the Occupied Land	p. 193
War Even to the Knife	p. 209
The Price of Victory	p. 236
The Americans Withdraw	p. 258
The Last of the Patriots	p. 279
The Patriot War and American History	p. 293
Notes	p. 311
Bibliography	p. 349
Index	p. 363
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