I've started my second season in the Park Service at Castillo de San Marcos in St Augustine, Florida. I visited the area about 10 years ago and thought it would be a cool place to live and explore, so I'm excited to be working here. And, the job is a little like my blogging. I get to tell people stories about the places I visit... only now I work there, and I get paid to tell those stories! So, I thought I might as well tell my reading public some of the stories too.
St Augustine was established by the Spanish in 1565, making it the oldest continually inhabited colonial city in the United States. It likes to call itself 'Ancient City,' but I find that a bit of an exageration... however, it does get to claim a lot of oldest this and that's. I happen to work at one of them. The Castillo is the oldest masonry fortification in the continental US. However, it wasn't the first fort here. The city had actually been around for 107 years before they began construction, and there were nine wooden forts before the Castillo!
The city got attacked multiple times by pirates in those first 100 plus years, to include Sir Francis Drake, in 1586, when he burned the entire city, and wooden fort, to the ground. But, that didn't convince them to build a stone fortification. They didn't start construction until 1672, after yet another pirate attack in 1668, in which 60 people were killed and another 70 were taken hostage. Plus the founding of Charles Town (Charleston, SC) by the British in 1670, just a short sail north, which finally convince the Queen of Spain to spend the money on a stone fort.
All told, the Spanish were in Florida for 235 years. The United States didn't take over the territory until 1821, which means the US will not have 235 years in Florida until the year 2056! So, there are tons of tales I could tell about the Spanish, and we often focus on that history at the Castillo. However, the Castillo seems to be at the center of a spider web of American history as well, with many surprising and far flung connections. For now, I'll focus on three themes: Native American History, Civil Rights and some sports history as well.
Native Americans
Timucuan
Obviously, when the Spanish arrived they did not find an uninhabited land. The Timucuan chiefdoms were spread across the entire north end of the peninsula, from coast to coast. However, they were not a united tribe, rather it was over 200 chiefdoms that shared a common language. They not only shared the first Thanksgiving feast with the Spanish (55 years before the one at Plymouth), they also gave the Spaniards their lodge, which the Spanish used as their first fort. However, the relationship soured within a year and the Timucuans ran them off, so the Spanish re-settled across the bay on Anastasia Island for a few years before finally settling at the present site of St Augustine.
The relationship with the Timucuans is turbulent but they remained involved with the Spanish throughout their time in Florida. They provided food for the Spanish after Sir Francis Drake burned the town, so they don't starve. And, 107 years after the Spanish arrived, they helped build the current Castillo. Finally, when the British took over Florida in 1763, some of them even resettled in Cuba with the Spanish. Unfortunately, the Timucuans were caught between the Spanish and British colonies and the fighting between these empires, as well as disease, really decimated the Timucuan, and any survivors would have eventually integrated into the Seminole ranks.
Seminole
The Seminole are the tribe most commonly associated with Florida. However, people often joke that no one is actually from Florida, and that is true of the Seminole as well. They were pushed out of Alabama and Georgia by British settlers and moved into Florida in the 1700's.
The Seminoles are actually a mixed tribal nation made up of stragglers from many different tribes. Predominantly Creek, which is British name/generalization of many SE tribes that were tied to the rivers or creeks they resided along (Cowetas, Kasihtas, Cossas, Apalachee, Yamasee), but also Hitchiti, Yuchis, Alabamas, Choctaws, Shawnee and Cherokee. The name Seminole comes from a Spanish word Cimaron meaning wild or untamed, which got morphed into the native word/name yat'siminoli (free people) or Seminole.
Even before the US took over Florida, we were conducting military operation in Florida, often going after escaped slave which had also resettled in Florida with the Seminoles. Andrew Jackson led these efforts and they became known as the First Seminole War. He then became the first territorial governor of Florida, and when he became President, he continued the fight by signing the Indian Removal Act in 1830. The act called for the removal of Native Americans from the east to reservations in Oklahoma, then known as the Indian Territory.
Some tribes complied and this led to the Trail of Tears, and even some Seminole groups went west, but others did not agree with the plan, and this led to the Second Seminole War which became the bloodiest and costliest campaign the US fought against any Native American group across the country. It lasted seven years, and cost around $40 million in the attempt to remove around 3000 Seminoles, and ended in a truce. During the war over 230 Seminoles were captured under a flag of truce and held captive at Fort Marion, the American name for the Castillo, and from this we get the Castillo's most popular escape story.
The reports vary, but according to the most popular account the escapees starved themselves in order to slip through and eight inch-wide window at the top of their cell. In order to get up to the window they had to scale the 15 foot wall, which they did by standing on a cellmates shoulders and then stabbing a knife into the wall to get the rest of the way up. They then tore out one of the bars, and used the other bar as an anchor to tie a rope they had made from their bedding. They slipped out and scaled down the 25 foot wall into the dry moat below.
Before I started working at the Castillo, I worked at Wind Cave National Park, and the narrowest passageway in the cave is eight inches, so even modern day cavers can squeeze through that narrow a space, and don't have to starve themselves to do it. It is usually your head and hips that are the deciding factor, and the Seminoles certainly could have escaped that way.
The less exciting version suggests they simply bribed a guard, or had a sympathetic guard, who let them walk out the front door. Either way, the more interesting fact is that most of the Seminoles in Florida today trace their heritage back to these 20 escapees, and the tribe never surrendered to the US Army, so the war essentially ended in a truce.
Plains Indians
The connections to the Castillo with Florida tribes might be expected, but it is also tied to many western tribes. As the United States continued our western expansion, we continued to run into Native Americans, and we continued to follow policies much like those established under Andrew Jackson, moving them to reservations on the Plains.
In the 1870's, members of the Cheyenne, Arapahoe, Kiowa, Comanche and Caddo tribes had been moved to reservations in Oklahoma, and when rations did not arrive at the reservations, they often left to hunt for food. In 1874 they left the reservations and came into conflict with settlers and buffalo hunters and this became known as the Red River Wars.
In order to prevent this from happening in the future, the Army decided to select 74 of the key chiefs and warriors from those five tribes, and send them east to the Castillo as prisoners. The captives were put on trains under the command of Captain Henry Pratt, and as they traveled across the country, he began to talk to his captives and better understand them. When they arrived in Florida, he decided to take a different approach. Rather than simply hold these Plains Indians prisoner, he wanted to train, educate and move toward assimilation, so they could become members of American society.
He ordered supplies so the men could make art and other items to sell to tourists and organized cultural demonstrations to entertain tourists. The ledger art that came out of the Castillo at this time is quite fascinating and has been studied extensively. At this time, St Augustine was also growing popular with the Gilded Age elite and they were both commissioning art, but also taking archery lessons from the prisoners and attending War Dances and Bison Chases at the Castillo. All of these events were captured in the ledger art.
When they first arrived, they were also put in military uniform and Captain Pratt had them conducting formations, marching and drill in the courtyard. Initially, he had just wanted to keep them busy, because he was a religious man and believed the idle mind was the devils playground. However, they quickly established solid military discipline, Esprit de Corps, and pride in their uniforms and appearance. Meanwhile, the soldiers who were assigned to guard them were showing up late or drunk to duty. Captain Pratt eventually grew tired of this and wrote the department of the Army and told them that he planned to fire his guard force, and have the prisoners guard themselves!
The Army thought this was a terrible idea and did not recommend it. They told him that if it failed, he would lose his commission and be out of the Army, but he went through with the plan and it proved very effective. The Kiowa would plan an escape attempt, but the other prisoners informed Captain Pratt and he was able to intervene and prevent the escape attempt and there were no further attempts.
Also, when they arrived, they were suppose to live in the forts casements or storage rooms. However, they waterproofing of the gun deck above had failed and water was seeping down through the ceilings and walls of the rooms, which were covered in green slime and vegetation and the floors were just dirt. Because this was not healthy living conditions, Captain Pratt procured lumber and the prisoners built their own barracks on the gun deck, where they lived the remainder of their three years at the fort.
Some of the casements became classrooms. Some of the women from town volunteered their time to be teachers and taught classes in English, Math, Social Studies and Science. At the end of their incarceration, they were given two choices, they could either return to their family and tribes on the reservations, or they could stay in the east and continue their education. Twenty of them chose to stay in the east, and they went to the Hampton School in Virginia (now they Hampton University). They had established a school for freed slaves on the campus, after the Civil War, and that is where they continued their education.
Pratt took his lessons learned from the Castillo and went on to found the Carlisle Indian Industrial School at Carlisle Barracks in Pennsylvania. It remained open for 40 years and Pratt was the superintendent for 25 years. (It was later closed and converted into a hospital, however it is a school house again today and as the Army War College, it trains future Generals.) Pratt saw the school as a temporary stop gap, before full integration of public schools, but instead the segregated boarding school model expanded across the country and continued into the 1980's.
Although many of Pratt's student appreciated what he did for them and Carlisle has many success stories, the boarding schools are quite controversial today. They are considered a form of cultural genocide as native children were taken from their families and homes and forced to give up all their traditional dress, culture and language to replace it with European American traditions. There is a fascinating Ledger Art piece from the Castillo depicting this conflict. It has a Native American at the center and on one side there is a teepee, dirt road and charging buffalo symbolizing his native traditions, and on the other a house, brick road, and charging steer symbolizing the European-American traditions. The man is offering peace pipes to each charging animal, as he tried to come to terms with these warring traditions, but he is facing the steer, and has his foot on the brick road, to show that he has chosen that path forward.
Apache
Meanwhile, the US continued to expand west and come into conflict with other native groups. Ten years after the Plains Indian incarceration, the final tribe to formally surrender to the US Army was the Apache. They too had been leaving their reservations and fighting with settlers in Arizona and New Mexico. Again, the Army decides to prevent this by shipping them east to the Castillo as prisoners.
However, instead of shipping the chiefs and warriors, they decide to ship the entire tribe! This not only included the woman in children, but even some Scouts who had joined the US Army and helped bring the Apache to the reservations. Some of these Scouts had been in Washington DC, receiving medals for their service, and their train home was diverted to the Castillo where they were imprisoned with the same people they helped the Army capture!
Also, because the Plains Indians had been so popular with tourists in St Augustine, when Florida heard the Apache were being sent here, towns began to fight over who would house them, because they wanted them as a tourist attraction. The most famous chief, Geronimo, is sent to Fort Pickens in Pensicola with 16 of his warriors, and the rest are sent to the Castillo, to include three of Geronimo's wives.
The commander at the Castillo thought he could house about 150, and the Army said, great, we're sending you 500! In order to house that many he had to come up with a plan, and the solution was Sibley tents. What are Sibley tents, you might ask. They look like teepees, but they are actually Confederate Army tents designed by an officer named Sibley. He had patented two minor design features - 1) a flap system at the top and bottom to improve air circulation and reduce smoke build up from fires inside, and 2) a tripod pole system that made it easier to set up using fewer soldiers in the field. They put 130 of these tents on the gun deck of the fort to house the Apache, so it would have looked like an Indian encampment had been uprooted from the plains and placed atop the fort.
Unfortunately, due to the crowding they had sanitation problems and diseases like dysentery, malaria and tuberculosis spread among the prisoners. The commander, also tried to follow Captain Pratts model by providing classes at the Castillo, and the children were sent to St Josephs, where they were taught by the nuns. By the end of their 13 months in Florida, 100 would head to Carlisle to continue their education under Pratt. The rest of the Apache were sent to Alabama, where they were held another seven years, before being uprooted again and sent to Fort Sill, Oklahoma for another 19 years, for a total of 27 years of incarceration, the longest of any Native American group.
Civil Rights
When people think about Civil Rights in America, they rarely think about St Augustine, but it actually plays a significant role. And, in order to talk about that history, I have to rewind all the way back to the Spanish period. The Spanish did not get along with their British neighbors to the north, so when slaves began to escape the British colonies the Spanish decided to free them. The king of Spain declared that any escape slaves that made it to Spanish Florida would be giving their freedom if they converted to Catholicism and joined the military. Some of the first escape slaves will help build the Castillo, and later they'll help defend it.
Also, a lot of people know about the underground railroad in the US, and they know about the routes heading north, but the first underground railroad actually headed south, and some of the escaped slaves, would also conduct raids into British colonies to free additional slaves as well as planting seeds of insurrection. These raids and the threat to slavery and plantation social structure also help fuel the British attack and siege on the Castillo in 1740.
Two years before that siege, the Spanish has established the first sanctioned free black community in America at Fort Mose (MO-zay), two miles north of the Castillo. When the British attacked the Spanish were afraid what they'd do to the escaped slaves that lived there, so they abandoned the fort and an community and had them take refuge in St Augustine. However, when the British moved their main force to Vilano Beach and Anastasia Island, across the bay, they left 140 men at Fort Mose. These men were essentially cut off, and the Spanish conducted a counter attack to retake Fort Mose.
The Spanish, along with their Black Militia, killed 75 and captured 35 of the British in the pre-dawn attack. The British refer to this event as Bloody Mose and they also note how fiercely the Black Militia fought to retake their fort and community. It was also a major turning event in the siege, which ends with a British retreat less than a month later. However, in 1763, at the end of the 7 Year War, the British do take over Florida as a result of the Paris Peace Treaty. The slaves that had escaped to freedom to Florida, will resettle to Cuba with the Spanish.
Fast forward 100 years, and you get to the abolitionist movement and the civil war. And, I have to go back to the Plains Indian incarceration, because one of the women who volunteered as a teacher was Harriet Beecher-Stowe. She wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin, was a major player in the abolitionist movement, but she also wintered in the St Augustine area and later taught the Plains Indians.
The Castillo did not play a significant role in the Civil War, but it did change hands twice. When Florida seceded from the Union, their militia marched to the fort and demanded its surrender or they would attack. There was a lone Union sergeant on duty, and he was in charge of keeping track of the supplies stored at the fort. He surrendered, but told they militia that he needed a hand receipt for all of the supplies to prove he'd done his job and hadn't lost/sold anything. The Florida troops were more than happy to sign a hand receipt and even took up a collection to pay for a first class ferry ticket north for Sergeant Douglas.
The confederates didn't think the war would come to St Augustine, so they started shipping the supplies, powder and munitions north for the war, and within a year General Lee (at that time the Commander of Florida's troops) decided he didn't need men at the fort either. However, the day after the last confederate troops left, the USS Wabash sailed in off the coast and demanded the surrender of the Castillo or they'd lay siege to the city. Now there were no troops or arms to defend the fort, so the white flag was raised and it became a union fort for the rest of the war. Again, slaves would begin to escape south to St Augustine, and again they'd be mustered into military service, but this time they'd go much farther north to fight for their freedom.
Fast forward another 100 years and you get to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's. And, you have to keep in mind that Pedro Menendez arrived in 1565, so 1965 was the 400th, and it's this anniversary that sparks the Civil Rights Movement in St Augustine. As the town began to plan the anniversary celebration and events, they left out 25% of the citizens, the African-American community that predominantly lived in Linconville on the south end of town.
They began to protest being left out and Robert Hayling becomes one of the local leaders. He was an African-American, who had recently got out of the Air Force and opened a dental office in town. He joined the NAACP, and began organizing a youth movement, sit-ins at the local Woolsworth lunch counter and other peaceful protests.
Now, the KKK responded by conducting their own marches through town, and at night they began driving through Lincolnville, firing off pop shots into the homes there to intimidate the African-American community. Robert Hayling responds by saying they will 'shoot first, and ask questions later' as they defend the community.
This comment comes back to bite him because he later drives past a Klan rally south of Licolnville, is dragged out of his car, and when the Klan realizes who he is he is nearly beaten to death and the Klan threatens to burn him alive. However, when the case ends up in court, the judge decides he did not come into the situation with 'clean hands' because he had threatened violence with his previous statement, so no charges are pressed.
The NAACP decide that the violence in town and civil disobedience goes against their efforts to change the laws through the courts, so they withdraw their support in St Augustine and Dr Hayling has to resign from the organization.
Martin Luther King looks at the situation and also believes the violence is detrimental to the cause as well, and he decides to withdraw support as well. He sends his friend Rev. Andrew Young to break the new to the community. However, when Rev. Young walks into the local parish to break the news, the pastor says, "Look! It's Rev. Young, and he's here to lead us in our march tonight!" Rather than correct them, Rev. Young decides to lead the march, and as they reach the town square, they're met by an angry mob. Rev. Young is in the lead and is quickly pulled out and beat to the ground. One of his fellow marchers jumps on his body to cover him from the blows, and eventually the crowd is pulled back and they're able to recover. Rev. Young decides that rather than retreat, they need to finish the march. The mob is so impressed with their perseverance that they let them pass, and it is this success that leads Martin Luther King to continue his efforts in St Augustine.
Now, just outside the front gate of the Castillo is the Hilton Hotel, but at that time it was the Monson Motor Lodge, and the manager was the head of the hotel association. King thought that if he could get him to integrate the rest of the hotels would follow suit, so he went there for lunch, but instead of being served lunch he was arrested. A week later, the local youth movement returned to the Monson, and jumped in the segregated pool to protest King's arrest. Again the manager responds, except this time he pours acid in the pool. Now, it just so happened that many of the journalists that were in town covering the anniversary and growing protests were staying at the Monson Motor Lodge, so they captured all of this on camera, and rather than news about the upcoming anniversary, it is these pictures that make the front pages across the country. And, it is these images that help break the filibuster in the Senate and lead to the passing of the Civil Rights Bill of 1964.
At that time, the Castillo was featured in FBI reports as a sight where protestors would meet before their marches, and a tree on the north lawn was sometimes referred to as the Liberty Tree where they'd meet. In addition, I have a hard time thinking about a National Park Site being segregated, but at that time the park had segregated facilities. So, if you would have visited the Castillo between 1965 and 2000, you would have seen 'Staff Only' restrooms, and might have wondered: Why do they have separate bathrooms for the staff? Well, they use to be the 'Colored Only' restrooms, but now we've remodeled the restrooms, and we no longer have separate facilities for staff. However, the new facilities are lovely, so do check them out if you visit.
Sports
America's game is Baseball, and the color barrier was broken by Jackie Robinson, and two days before that acid was being poured in the pool at the Monson, Jackie was in St Augustine calling for action in DC as well.
However, that isn't the only connection to Baseball, because there used to be a baseball diamond on the north lawn of the Castillo. At the end of the 1800's, when Henry Flagler was building his hotels in St Augustine, his hotel staff would play intermural ball at the Castillo, and his hotel guests would come out to cheer on their staff.
Henry Flagler thought this was great, except for one problem, he wasn't making any money. So, he decided to fix up the field, put in some stands, and start charging admission. Well, he fixed the place up so nice that some of the northern professional teams took notice, and they started to come down to do their spring training here. One of those teams was the Brooklyn Bridegrooms, and they even took some team photos up on the gun deck. Eventually, the players got married and the name got old, so they renamed the team. Now in order to get to their stadium in Brooklyn, you had to dodge the Trolleys, so they became the Brooklyn Trolley Dodgers, later shortened to the Brooklyn Dodgers, so the Dodgers use to do their spring training at the Castillo.
Now, the sport that most people come to Florida to play is golf, and Florida's first golf course was actually at the Castillo. Again, Henry Flagler, wanting to entertain all his hotel guests, saw all the green grass around the Castillo and thought, this could be a golf course. They made a three hole golf course on the glacis, and even flooded the moat as a water hazard. Although the Spanish had designed the moat with locks and could flood it if they wanted too, it was intended to be dry, so flooding it caused some settling and damage to the walls of the Castillo. Unfortunately, the park service didn't learn our lesson and later flooded the moat again, causing further damage to the walls.
Finally, football. The connection here is a little less direct, and I have to go back to Captain Pratt. When he established the Carlisle School, his students kept pestering him for a football team, but he said, no way. He thought the moment his Native American players got into a fight with another team, it would not only be the end of the football team, but possibly the end of the school. However, the students continued to pester him and finally he agreed on two conditions: 1) No matter how dirty the other teams played or how many fights they tried to start his team could never fight with an opponent. and 2) They had to win a game against a major collegiate team.
The students agreed to the terms and a guy named Glenn Scobey 'Pop' Warner comes out to be their coach. Pop Warner is now considered the father of modern day football, and many of the plays and formations he is famous for were developed at Carlisle to help his Indian team win. And they did win, against many major collegiate teams: Harvard, Yale, Columbia, and in 1912 they played the Army team at West Point.
Carlisle team captain was Jim Thorpe. He had just returned from Sweden where he had won gold medals in the pentathlon and decathlon in the Olympics and is crowned the greatest athlete in the world, but he was a good football player too. Now the Army team had a few stars on their team too, to include Eisenhower and Bradley, future five star generals as well as 7 more future generals. The army team decided the only way they were going to win is taking out Thorpe. So they planned to take him out by hitting him with two defenders, one going high, the other low and hopefully break an arm or shoulder in the process.
The first two times they used the play it worked and the second time, Thorpe was having a hard time recovering and was going to be pulled from the game, but the Army team said to give him as much time as he needed. They saw this as good sportsmanship, but the Carlisle team considered it a threat, and the next time Army used this play, Thorpe saw it coming, stopped on a dime, and the two Army players - Eisenhower and Hobbs - collided, and took themselves out of the game. In the end the game was a landslide win for Carlisle 27 to 6, and their are libraries of books written about that game, the players, teams and coaches involved.
Back at the Castillo, the fort was retired from military service in 1900. The Army wanted to sale the property as excess and be done with it, although it also declared in a National Monument in 1910. However, it requires the President to declare and National Monument, so it remained in limbo. Concerned citizens got involved and soon letters were arriving in Washington. One of them said, "To allow a spot so intimately connected with the history of this country to pass into the hands of private parties or to be controlled by State or Municipal authorities would outrage local public sentiment in a manner somewhat similar to what would follow the suggestion that the Washington Monument or Arlington Cemetary be disposed of."
After letters like that, it was declared a National Monument in 1924. So I would encourage you all to come visit, or explore more of the forts ties to American History at home. It is an impressive site, but I think the site pales in comparison to the history enshrined in its walls.
