Battle of Gully Hole Creek

On July 18, 1742, by the new style calendar, Spanish and British troops clashed at Gully Hole Creek in the Province of Georgia, and the British emerged victorious. This engagement formed one piece of the wider struggle called the War of Jenkins' Ear, with the two sides contending for command of St. Simons Island along with the British strongholds of Fort Frederica and Fort St. Simons, as well as the vital sea lanes and inland waterways these positions guarded. Following this triumph, Georgia secured an uncontested hold over the island, territory that today lies within the U.S. state bearing the same name. That very day also saw the more famous clash at Bloody Marsh unfold on the island, another skirmish claimed by the British.

Background

Don Manuel de Montiano led the Spanish assault, a force that some accounts place at between 4500 and 5000 men, with somewhere around 1900 to 2000 designated for the actual ground offensive. On the opposing side stood James Oglethorpe, whose combined ranks of regulars, militiamen, and native allies fell short of 1000 troops. Although the defenders at Fort St. Simons opened fire on the incoming ships, their cannon fire proved insufficient to stop the Spanish from coming ashore. Montiano put nearly 1900 soldiers on land near Gascoigne Bluff on July 5, 1742, disembarking them from a fleet of 36 vessels not far from the Frederica River.

Recognizing that his men were badly outnumbered, Oglethorpe chose to pull his troops out of Fort St. Simons rather than wait for a Spanish attack he could not repel. Before leaving, he directed the small garrison to disable the cannons and inflict whatever destruction they could manage on the fort itself, ensuring the Spanish would gain nothing of real military value. By the next day, Spanish forces had moved into what remained of the structure, turning it into their operational headquarters on the island.

With troops and provisions now ashore and their hold on Fort St. Simons secured, the Spanish began venturing outward from their position, moving carefully as they explored the surrounding terrain. Eventually they came upon the pathway connecting Fort St. Simons to Fort Frederica, though at first they mistook this narrow route for nothing more than an ordinary farm trail. That assumption led to action on July 18, when Captain Sebastian Sanchez took roughly 115 men out along the path to scout it more thoroughly.

Battle

When the Spanish column came within a mile and a half of its objective, Fort Frederica, it ran into a mixed body of defenders: Georgia Rangers, the Highland Independent Company, and a larger contingent of Chickasaw, Yamacraw and Creek warriors, all led personally by General Oglethorpe. The clash was sharp but short, wrapping up in under an hour, and by its end Oglethorpe's men had killed or captured 36 Spaniards, roughly a third of that detachment's strength. Captain Nicolas Hernandez, the Spanish second-in-command, was among the dead, while Captain Sebastian Sanchez fell into enemy hands. Oglethorpe's own casualties were called "light."

The surviving Spanish troops broke and fled southward in disorder. Their retreat was shielded by 200 grenadiers under Captain Antonio Barba, who had marched up from Fort St Simons just in time to cover them.

Aftermath

That same day brought another victory for the British colonists at Bloody Marsh, where Spanish forces were pushed out of Georgia entirely. Each year, on the last Saturday of May, Wormsloe Plantation in Savannah, Georgia hosts a commemoration of the War of Jenkins' Ear.