Nicolls' Outpost was the smaller and more northern of two forts built by British Lt. Col.

Edward Nicolls Sir Edward Nicolls ( – 5 February 1865) was an Anglo-Irish officer of the Royal Marines. Known as "Fighting Nicolls", he had a distinguished military career. According to his obituary in ''The Times'', he was "in no fewer than 107&nb ...

during the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It bega ...

. (The Americans referred to it as Fort Apalachicola. Built at the end of 1814, together with the larger "

British post , kw, Postya Riel, ga, An Post Ríoga , logo = Royal Mail.svg , logo_size = 250px , type = Public limited company , traded_as = , foundation = , founder = Henry VIII , location = London, England, UK , key_people = * Keith Williams ...

" or storage depot down the Apalachicola, it was "the northernmost post built by the British during their Gulf Coast Campaign". It was just below the

Spanish Florida Spanish Florida ( es, La Florida) was the first major European land claim and attempted settlement in North America during the European Age of Discovery. ''La Florida'' formed part of the Captaincy General of Cuba, the Viceroyalty of New Spain, ...

–Georgia border, where the

Flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and start fir ...

and

Chattahoochee River The Chattahoochee River forms the southern half of the Alabama and Georgia border, as well as a portion of the Florida - Georgia border. It is a tributary of the Apalachicola River, a relatively short river formed by the confluence of the Chatta ...

s meet to form the Apalachicola, in River Landing Park in modern

Chattahoochee, Florida Chattahoochee is a city in Gadsden County, Florida, United States. Its history dates to the Spanish era. The population was 3,652 as of the 2010 census, up from 3,287 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Tallahassee, Florida Metropolitan Statist ...

. Even though what was built was smaller than the much larger

down the Apalachicola, it was intended to be the base, presumably enlarged, for an English invasion of the United States, and British post was to have been its supply depot. The 1815 end of the

aborted this project. It was built atop the largest of three surviving

mound A mound is a heaped pile of earth, gravel, sand, rocks, or debris. Most commonly, mounds are earthen formations such as hills and mountains, particularly if they appear artificial. A mound may be any rounded area of topographically higher el ...

s of the prehistoric Fort Walton culture. Above the winter flood stage of the Apalachicola, it could reach both forks of the river with cannon fire. It was built in 1814 and abandoned early in 1815, at the end of the war. It was armed with a -inch

howitzer A howitzer () is a long- ranged weapon, falling between a cannon (also known as an artillery gun in the United States), which fires shells at flat trajectories, and a mortar, which fires at high angles of ascent and descent. Howitzers, like ot ...

. It also had a

coehorn A Coehorn (also spelled ''cohorn'') is a lightweight mortar originally designed by Dutch military engineer Menno van Coehoorn. Concept and design Van Coehoorn came to prominence during the 1688–97 Nine Years War, whose tactics have been sum ...

, a mortar that could fire 24-pound shells. According to a report of U.S. Colonel and

Indian agent In United States history, an Indian agent was an individual authorized to interact with American Indian tribes on behalf of the government. Background The federal regulation of Indian affairs in the United States first included development of t ...

Benjamin Hawkins Benjamin Hawkins (August 15, 1754June 6, 1816) was an American planter, statesman and a U.S. Indian agent He was a delegate to the Continental Congress and a United States Senator from North Carolina, having grown up among the planter elite. ...

, there were "200 troops white and black and an assemblage of 500

reek Reek may refer to: Places * Reek, Netherlands, a village in the Dutch province of North Brabant * Croagh Patrick, a mountain in the west of Ireland nicknamed "The Reek" People * Nikolai Reek (1890-1942), Estonian military commander * Salme Reek ...

Warriors", "well supplied with cloth and munitions of War". The intention was to mount an expedition "up the river" (the Flint), bringing the cannon along. Georgia militia, other U.S. forces, and the faction of the Creek allied with the U.S. (the Lower Creeks) were preparing upriver (in Georgia) for a battle. News of the treaty ending the war (

Treaty of Ghent The Treaty of Ghent () was the peace treaty that ended the War of 1812 between the United States and the United Kingdom. It took effect in February 1815. Both sides signed it on December 24, 1814, in the city of Ghent, United Netherlands (now in ...

), which reached both sides in February 1815, prevented the battle from taking place. The British abandoned both of its forts on the Apalachicola, leaving them in the hands of the black

Corps of Colonial Marines The Corps of Colonial Marines were two different British Marine units raised from former black slaves for service in the Americas, at the behest of Alexander Cochrane. The units were created at two separate periods: 1808-1810 during the Napol ...

that Nicolls had trained, and of Red Stick Creek

Neamathla Neamathla (1750s–1841) was a leader of the Red Stick Creek. His name, in the Hitchiti (or Mikasuki) language, means "fat next to warrior", "fat" being a reference to great courage. The Hitchiti language had no written form, but modern schola ...

and his warriors.

Council of 1815

Before abandoning the Fort, an important council (meeting) took place there on March 10, 1815. The meeting was between Red Stick Creek leaders Neamathla,

Francis the Prophet Josiah Francis, also called Francis the Prophet, native name Hillis Hadjo ("crazy-brave medicine") (c. 1770–1818), was "a charismatic religious leader" of the Red Stick Creek Indians. According to the historian Frank Owsley, he became "the most a ...

(Josiah Francis),

Peter McQueen Peter McQueen (c. 1780 – 1820) was a Creek chief, prophet, trader and warrior from ''Talisi'' ( Tallassee, among the Upper Towns in present-day Alabama.) He was one of the young men known as Red Sticks, who became a prophet for expulsion of ...

, and more than 30 other Native Americans, and Lt. Col. Nicolls and four other British officers, passing through on their way to British ships to return them to other British colonies (

Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to ...

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...

) or to England. "The council included representatives from towns or groups of Lower Creeks,

Red Sticks Red Sticks (also Redsticks, Batons Rouges, or Red Clubs), the name deriving from the red-painted war clubs of some Native American Creeks—refers to an early 19th-century traditionalist faction of these people in the American Southeast. Made u ...

Miccosukee The Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida is a federally recognized Native American tribe in the U.S. state of Florida. They were part of the Seminole nation until the mid-20th century, when they organized as an independent tribe, receiving fed ...

, Alachua,

Yuchi The Yuchi people, also spelled Euchee and Uchee, are a Native American tribe based in Oklahoma. In the 16th century, Yuchi people lived in the eastern Tennessee River valley in Tennessee. In the late 17th century, they moved south to Alabama, G ...

and

Choctaw The Choctaw (in the Choctaw language, Chahta) are a Native American people originally based in the Southeastern Woodlands, in what is now Alabama and Mississippi. Their Choctaw language is a Western Muskogean language. Today, Choctaw people are ...

. Languages spoken included

Hitchiti The Hitchiti ( ) were a historic indigenous tribe in the Southeast United States. They formerly resided chiefly in a town of the same name on the east bank of the Chattahoochee River, four miles below Chiaha, in western present-day Georgia. The n ...

, and

. In short, a wide range of cultures was combining into the group that we know today as Seminoles." In retrospect, this was the founding of the

Seminoles The Seminole are a Native American people who developed in Florida in the 18th century. Today, they live in Oklahoma and Florida, and comprise three federally recognized tribes: the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, the Seminole Tribe of Florida, and ...

, a loose alliance of various groups of Native American refugees in Spanish Florida, although they did not set up a central authority, which was "extremely difficult for the United States military to understand. ... The political and social complications at play in the developing Seminole Nation were utterly incomprehensible to American settlers and officials." The person who did understand them, Indian agent Hawkins, died in 1816. The Treaty of Ghent stated that Native Americans were to be restored "all possessions, rights and privileges which they may have enjoyed, or been entitled to in 1811". The meeting was to point out to the British that having assisting them, the Creeks faced even greater hostility from the Americans. They claimed to be subjects of Britain, and asked British assistance in recovering their lands.

Treaty of Nicolls' Outpost

The most important outcome of the meeting was the little-known

Treaty of Nicolls' Outpost The Treaty of Nicolls' Outpost is a little-known (because never ratified) treaty between Great Britain and the Red Stick Creek and other refugee Native Americans. Under it, Britain was to recognize the Native Americans as subjects of the Crown, an ...

. In it, the Creeks promised allegiance to Great Britain, which in turn accepted them as subjects of the British empire. The hope was that Britain would provide them with protection against the United States, so they could recover the land taken since 1811, more specifically that taken in the

Treaty of Fort Jackson The Treaty of Fort Jackson (also known as the Treaty with the Creeks, 1814) was signed on August 9, 1814 at Fort Jackson near Wetumpka, Alabama following the defeat of the Red Stick (Upper Creek) resistance by United States allied forces at t ...

, which they, the Red Stick Creeks, had not signed and which, they claimed, did not apply to them. Nicolls, a champion of Native American rights, created this treaty on his own initiative, without authorization. The outcome was the famous trip of Francis the Prophet to London, together with Nicolls, to seek "recognition and assistance" from Great Britain. The British government, in no way interested in further conflict with the United States, summarily rejected the Treaty, sent Francis home, and chastised Nicolls.

Historical marker

A historical marker has been erected at the site:

References

{{authority control War of 1812 Gadsden County, Florida British forts in the United States Wars between the United States and Native Americans Spanish Florida Pre-statehood history of Florida Seminole tribe Tourist attractions in Gadsden County, Florida Former populated places in Florida Buildings and structures in Gadsden County, Florida Negro Fort

Council of 1815

Treaty of Nicolls' Outpost

Historical marker

See also

Further reading

References