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The Siege of St. Augustine was an action in Queen Anne's War during November and December 1702. It was conducted by English provincial forces from the Province of Carolina and their native allies, under the command of Carolina's governor James Moore, against the Spanish colonial fortress of Castillo de San Marcos at St. Augustine, in Spanish Florida. After destroying coastal Spanish communities north of St. Augustine, Moore's forces arrived at St. Augustine on 10 November, and immediately began siege operations. The Spanish governor, José de Zúñiga y la Cerda, had advance warning of their arrival, and withdrew civilians and food supplies into the fortress, and also sent messengers to nearby Spanish and French communities for relief. The English guns did little damage to the fortress walls, prompting Governor Moore to send an appeal to Jamaica for larger guns. The Spanish calls for relief were successful; a fleet sent from Havana, Cuba landed troops nearby on 29 December. Moore lifted the siege the next day, and was forced to burn many of his boats before retreating to Charles Town in disgrace. ==Background== English and Spanish colonization efforts in southeastern North America began coming into conflict as early as the middle of the 17th century. The founding in 1670 by the English of Charles Town (present-day Charleston, South Carolina) in the recently established (1663) Province of Carolina heightened tensions.〔Arnade (1962), p. 31〕 Traders, raiders, and slavers from the new province penetrated into Spanish Florida, leading to raiding and reprisal expeditions on both sides.〔Crane (1919), p. 381〕 In 1700, Carolina's governor, Joseph Blake, threatened the Spanish that English claims to Pensacola, established by the Spanish in 1698, would be enforced.〔Crane (1919), p. 384〕 Blake's death later that year interrupted these plans, and he was replaced in 1702 by James Moore.〔 Even before news of the war declarations opening the War of the Spanish Succession arrived in the colonies, Moore proposed an expedition against Spanish Florida's capital, St. Augustine.〔Crane (1919), p. 385〕 News of the war's formal opening arrived in 1702, and Moore convinced the provincial assembly in September 1702 to fund an expedition against St. Augustine. Moore raised a force of colonists and Indians, the latter a combination of Yamasee, Tallapoosa, and Alabama warriors, principally led by a Yamasee chief named Arratommakaw.〔Higginbotham, p. 114〕〔Arnade (1959), p. 7〕 The exact size of these forces varies by source; accounts provide numbers ranging from 800 to 1,200 in strength; most sources say that about 500 colonists and 300–400 Indians took part.〔 Some of this force, primarily the Indians, went overland to Port Royal under the command of Deputy Governor Robert Daniell, while Moore embarked the rest of the force on 14 boats.〔Oatis, p. 47〕 These forces joined at Port Royal, and Daniell's force was landed on what is now known as Amelia Island (it was called Isla Santa Maria by the Spanish, and was part of Florida's Guale Province), while Moore sailed on to Matanzas Bay.〔〔Arnade (1959), pp. 5,14〕 The Castillo de San Marcos at St. Augustine was built in the later years of the 17th century, in part because previous English raids demonstrated the inadequacy of wooden fortifications, and to address the threat posed by the founding of Charles Town.〔 The fortress, a fairly conventional star fort, was constructed from soft coquina limestone.〔Wright, p. 54〕 Governor Joseph de Zúñiga y Zérda assumed command of the post in 1700.〔Arnade (1962), p. 32〕 Natives friendly to the Spanish heard of the recruitment, and word of the expedition reached Zúñiga on October 27.〔Hoffman, p. 176〕 He ordered the town's inhabitants into the fort, commandeered all food stores in anticipation of an extended siege, and dispatched messengers to Pensacola, Havana, and the French at Mobile with calls for assistance.〔 Refugees swelled the civilian population to about 1,500, of which only a small number were deemed capable of military action.〔Bushnell, p. 192〕 Zúñiga estimated the food provisions brought in to be sufficient for a siege of three months' duration.〔Arnade (1959), p. 31〕 Some of Zúñiga's men wanted to do battle with the English; the governor identified, in addition to 174 regulars and 14 artillerymen, 44 Europeans from the population that were fit for action, 123 Indians (most armed with poor-quality or useless weapons), and 57 black men (freemen, mulattoes, and slaves) of which only 20 had any experience with weapons. Zúñiga did not consider either the Indians or the Negroes to be trustworthy, and estimated that only about 70 men of this entire force were actually prepared for a battle. He consequently prepared for a siege.〔Arnade (1959), p. 35〕 His principal concern was the training of the artillerymen, of whom he wrote that they "had no service record, lacked discipline, and have only a slight knowledge of the ... guns which are mounted."〔Arnade (1959), p. 27〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Siege of St. Augustine (1702)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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