h had not the
least right to have any post whatever. Situated on a high bluff, with
flanks securely guarded by the river on one side and a swamp on the
other, this fort, properly defended, was capable of resisting the
assaults of almost any force that could approach it; and Colonel Nichols
was determined that it should be properly defended, and should be a
constant menace and source of danger to the United States. He armed it
with one 32-pounder cannon, three 24-pounders, and eight other guns. In
the matter of small-arms he was even more liberal. He supplied the fort
with 2500 muskets, 500 carbines, 400 pistols, and 500 swords. In the
magazines he stored 300 quarter casks of rifle powder and 763 barrels of
ordinary gunpowder.

When Colonel Nichols went away, his Seminoles soon wandered off, leaving
the fort without a garrison. This gave an opportunity to a negro bandit
and desperado named Garcon to seize the place, which he did, gathering
about him a large band of runaway negroes, Choctaw Indians, and other
lawless persons, whom he organized into a strong company of robbers.
Garcon made the fort his stronghold, and began to plunder the country
round about as thoroughly as any robber baron or Italian bandit ever
did, sometimes venturing across the border into the United States.

All this was so annoying and so threatening to our frontier settlements
in Georgia, that General Jackson demanded of the Spanish authorities
that they should reduce the place; and they would have been glad enough
to do so, probably, if it had been possible, because the banditti
plundered Spanish as well as other settlements. But the Spanish governor
had no force at command, and could do nothing, and so the fort remained,
a standing menace to the American borders.

Matters were in this position in the spring of 1816, when General Gaines
was sent to fortify our frontier at the point where the Chattahoochee
and Flint rivers unite to form the Appalachicola. In June of that year
some stores for General Gaines's forces were sent by sea from New
Orleans. The vessels carrying them were to go up the Appalachicola, and
General Gaines was not sure that the little fleet would be permitted to
pass the robbers' stronghold, which had come to be called the Negro
Fort. Accordingly, he sent Colonel Clinch with a small force down the
river, to render any assistance that might be necessary. On the way
Colonel Clinch was joined by a band of Seminoles, who wanted to