Expeditionary· Patriot War
Evacuation of Camp New Hope and Fernandina
The end of the Patriot War.
With the operation disavowed in Washington and the troops worn down by disease, hunger, and unrelenting guerrilla resistance, the Americans pulled out of East Florida. Lieutenant Alexander Sevier and his Marine detachment of about fifty men conducted the withdrawal, falling back from Camp New Hope on the St. Johns River through Point Peter on the St. Marys and finally to Fernandina on Amelia Island, from which they crossed back into United States territory. The withdrawal, completed by early May 1813, marked the formal close of the failed filibuster. It was a retreat rather than a battle, and no casualties attended it. Sevier, whose conduct in Florida had marked him as a capable officer, was retained with the Southern Army; he would be wounded the next year at Bladensburg during the British march on Washington.
Record no. 211