The Battle of Bloody Marsh occurred two years after General Oglethorpe’s failed attack on St. Augustine, Florida. Today, the famous fortress, Castillo de San Marcos, bears the failed ammunition impressions upon its cement walls. The attack was part of Great Britain’s war with Spain, known as “the War of Jenkin’s Ear.” While in Florida, Oglethorpe became ill with a fever, and even as his soldiers carried him back to Fort Frederica on a stretcher, he knew that the Spanish would counterattack.
In 1742, the Spanish landed on the southern isle of St. Simon’s Island, and his regiments proceeded north along Frederica Road towards the fort. The battle occurred in a marsh filled with smoke, where skilled highlanders, hidden in the woods, performed guerrilla attacks. The ambush was filled with mass confusion as the Spanish, accustomed to European-style fighting on an open field, retreated to Cuba. Thus, General Oglethorpe won the land war with Spain!
About fifty Spanish soldiers died, and the British soldiers declared that their blood had spread across the marshy swamp.
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