Combat· Patriot War
Twelve Mile Swamp Ambush
The turning point of the Patriot War.
Captain John Williams and a detachment of about twenty Marines and Georgia militiamen were escorting two supply wagons toward the Davis Creek blockhouse when they were ambushed in the dense cypress and palmetto of Twelve Mile Swamp, northwest of St. Augustine. The attackers were Seminole warriors and a troop of free and escaped Blacks led by Prince Witten, mobilized by the Spanish governor against the invasion. In a sharp half-hour fight at close range, Williams was hit eight times leading the defense; his Marines lost two killed, including a sergeant who was scalped, and seven wounded. The survivors held out overnight in the swamp until a rescue party reached them at dawn. Williams was carried to Camp New Hope and died of his wounds on 29 September. The disaster broke the American advance and effectively ended the siege of St. Augustine.
Record no. 209