This is Part 4 of the First Seminole War. Read Parts 1 & 2 & 3
During General Andrew Jackson's invasion of Spanish Floridas in response to a massacre along the Apalachicola River on the Georgia border, two British subjects were found and charged with aiding the Seminole Indians against the United States. Robert Chrystie Ambristie, and Alexander (George) Arbuthnot were tried and executed in Bay County, Florida near "Court Martial Lake", about 100 miles east of St. Marks where the two men were captured. Ambristie the son of a Loyalist born in South Carolina, volunteered in the British Royal Navy between 1809 and 1813, and served in Spanish Floridas from 1814 to 1815. Ambristie returned to Spanish Floridas along with the Scottish adventurer, Gregor MacGregor who led the capture of Amelia Island. Arbuthnot was an older Scottish merchant who had been in the Floridas since 1803. On June 6, 1818 the Niles' Weekly Register described the event as "An awful military act". The words may have different meaning today, because the Niles Weekly Register, was not necessarily condemning the act. Rather, the author of the article described Ambristie and Arbuthnot as "wretched" individuals who have paid for their crimes. The article went on to say that these two persons "assisted perhaps, by others yet unknown, uselessly caused the deaths of several thousand human beings- by having been the real authors, or at least the principle agents and supporters of the late and present war with the Creeks and Seminole."
But did Jackson provide a proper trial for these two men who were principal agents and supporters of the present war with the Seminole? Why was the trial and execution so quick? The answer, I believe had to do with the character of Arbuthnot, or at least what he represented. According to the Niles article, "every body is familiar with the character and conduct of Arbuthnot". Arbuthnot was the right-hand man in a scheme to incite Seminole Indians to hostilities and enlist runaway slaves to rise up and murder their masters in the southern states, a "holy" scheme that was openly permitted by Spain and orchestrated by British agents. The author did not mince words, he made his desire clear that the United States should take possession of both Floridas (East and West) until Spain was willing and able to fulfill her duties of the 1795 treaty (Pinkney's treaty) as to "restraining the savages, and of preventing the country from being an asylum for the most unprincipled set of men that ever disgraced the human form - agents of secret murder, and indiscriminate death.".
Instead, General Jackson had the two men quickly tried by a Court Martial under General Gaines. Both men were condemned to die. Arbuthnot was hung and Ambristie was shot. According to an article in the Boston Weekly Messenger, "Ambristie died like a soldier - he was cool and firm to the last moment" while "Arbuthnot was mcuh agitated, and evinced great fear". The Boston messenger article, also gives a better explanation of just who Arbuthnot was, The author of this article described him as a "bosom friend of the famous Woodbine", and concluded with these words about Woodbine: "who we frequently wish had fallen into the hands of Jackson - for a greater villain curses not the face of the earth". Which leaves only one conclusion. Arbuthnot was executed not only for his crimes, but also for the crimes of Captain George Woodbine. But who is Captain George Woodbine, and what made him so infamous?
During the war of 1812, the British command sent Captain George Woodbine to the mouth of the Apalachicola River in Spanish Florida to arm the Creek warriors who had fled into Florida after their defeat at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. As appalling as that might be, Woodbine was most demonized for his efforts to arm runaway slaves and was rumored to induce a slave riot. These runaway slaves were recruited along with 1000 British men into what was known as Corps of Colonial Marines. After the war ended, the black population stayed in the Floridas, at what became known as the "Negro Fort". In 1816, General Andrew Jackson was authorized to attack the "Negro Fort" to reduce it's threat. The battle ended when US Navy Gunboat NO. 154 fired it's first round of cannonball. The cannonball entered the fort's powder magazine, and caused an explosion so great that it destroyed the entire post, killing or wounding all of the 330 occupants including some 30 or so Seminole and Choctaw warriors. It was the deadliest single cannon shot in U.S. history. Not only were so many innocent people killed, but the death of the Seminole and Choctaw Indians angered Chief Neamathia, the leader of the Seminole at Fowlton who issued a warning to General Gaines that if any of his forces crossed the Flint River they would be attacked. General Gaines sent 250 men to arrest the chief in November 1817, but Chief Neamathia attacked them in what became the first official engagement of the First Seminole War. It was Captain George Woodbine who armed the blacks at "Negro Fort" that killed many innocent people and started the First Seminole war. I don't know what happened to Captain George Woodbine, but Arbuthnot was his "bosom friend", and received his punishment. Thus it was that Robert Chrystie Ambristie and Alexander (George) Arbuthnot were tried and executed in Bay County, Florida for arming the Seminole Indians and runaway slaves, and perhaps for starting the First Seminole war. It was a crime of war, punishable by death. Congressional reports found fault with Jackson's handling of the trial and execution, but chose not to censure the popular general. Perhaps if they had, the civil war might have started 50 years earlier than it did.
I covered most of President James Monroe's words on the First Seminole war in my previous posts. What remains is Monroe's statement about Jackson's conduct. Monroe had defended Jackson's comments, and now was merely stating that a copy of the proceedings of the courts would be laid before Congress:
"Copies of the instructions to the commanding general, of his correspondence with the Secretary of War, explaining his motives and justifying his conduct, with a copy of the proceedings of the courts- martial in the trial of Arbuthnot and Ambristie, and of the correspondence between the Secretary of State and the minister plenipotentiary of Spain near this Government, and of the minister plenipotentiary of the United States at Madrid with the Government of Spain, will be laid before Congress."http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29460
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbuthnot_and_Ambrister_incident
Niles' Weekly Register, Volume 14 pg 246
The Boston Weekly Messenger: A Journal of Politics, Agriculture, Literature and Miscellaneous Intelligence, Volume 7pg. 556
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corps_of_Colonial_Marines
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Negro_Fort
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/54/Ambristertrial.jpg
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