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Military News
1806 - Spanish Military Issues
The Centinel (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania)
April 30 1806 Page 5
New Orleans, March 15
It is reported and believed, that a vessel bound to Fort Stoddart, with provisions for our troops, has been brought
to at the town of Mobile, and is not permitted to proceed on her voyage. If conduct like this be persisted in,
it is hoped that some efficient means will be adopted, to obtain a free navigation of the waters of Mobile. Such
navigation is essential to the welfare of our settlements on the Tombigby, and it s presumed that a suspension
of it will not be submitted to by the American government.
Just as our paper was going to press we received information, that one of the carriers of the mail of the United
States has returned to this city, and that he reports that he was not permitted to pass the town of Mobile with
the mail. He further states, that Governor Folke informed him, that for the future the mail of the United States
would not be permitted to pass either by land or water, through the dominions of the King of Spain.
The Centinel (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania)
May 21 1806 Page 2
Extract of a letter from the hon. Harry Toulmin, dated Fort Stephens, Mississippi Territory, March 1st, 1806
“We are looking for war daily – but are much in the dark. The Spaniards have lately sent seventy additional men
from Pensacola to Mobile, and are daily getting fire wood and other necessaries into the fort; and have cut down
all the under growth within a mile of the town. They likewise flatter the Indians. The Commandant lately had 100
barrels of corn measured out among a party of them and gave them a talk. They were our Choctaws. But we hope
they will be faithful.
“There is a Frenchman in Spanish pay, of the name of Favre, who used to live here, and now lives near the mouth
of Pearle river, that is peculiarly industrious in exciting the Choctaws against our settlement. He embraces every
opportunity in urging their head men to fall in upon and destroy us – and makes their doing so the rest, by which
their regard to the Spanish government is to be determined.
“But the Choctaws are fearful of the event, and want to see a good Spanish force in the country before they stir.
Indeed there are none, I believe, inclined to favor the Spaniards but the Lower Choctaws, who are not numerous.
“An old settler was observing to me just now that the limits of Louisiana are so notorious, that there was not
even a sensible negro at Mobile but could tell one that the Perdido was the Eastern boundary. All the French papers
express the same thing.
The Centinel (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania)
May 28 1806
Extract of a letter from Capt. Bowman of our army, dated Natchitoches, March 18, 1806
“An officer came in on the evening of the 14th inst., with dispatches from the Governor-general at St. Antoine.
He was halted at our picket, and not permitted to enter the fort or town; and early next morning he received his
answer, and set out immediately. The same day at three o’clock, Capt. Johnston marched with lieut. Smith, ensign
Hatchet, and 65 men, towards the Sabine; this movement was determined on, in consequence of information on which
cannot be doubted, that the Spaniards had been reinforced at Nacogdoches, to upwards of 400 cavalry, and were marching
to resueme the positions they were so lately removed from by our troops.
We have not heard of their meeting yet, but calculate that they will this day, and it appears that an engagement
is unavoidable. They are greatly superior in numberes, therefore it would be premature to risk an opinion as
to the result. Some Americans have been there two days trying to bring about a meeting to volunteer their services
for the immediate defence, and they will be furnished with arms from the public magazine.”
The Centinel (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania)
June 25, 1806 Page 5
Extract of a letter from high authority, dated at Washington, May 26, 1806
“Our prospects of a friendly settlement with England are very favourable; and the fear of any immediate contest
on the Spanish frontier is much lessoned, by the retirement of the Spanish troops from the neighbourhood of the
Sabine. How we shall finally settle with them is not very certain, after the irritating matter which has been
thrown out here.”
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