Fortifications in St. Augustine
Established in 1565, the town of St. Augustine faced repeated threats, and a succession of wooden forts was built. One wooden fort from 1595 is illustrated as a three-bastioned triangular structure, surrounded by a circular outer defensive wall. During its first 100 years, the fledgling town was defended by a series of nine forts.
1595 Fort
This image from a map of St. Augustine shows a fort built after the English attack of 1586.
Courtesy of the University of Florida Digital Collections
In 1586, English privateer Sir Francis Drake arrived with a fleet of ships and sacked and burned the town. The community was rebuilt, but later raids occurred. In 1668, English pirates slipped into the harbor and sacked the town. These attacks and the establishment of hostile English colonies to the north demonstrated the need for a stronger fort.
The rare 1589 pictorial map below portrays the details of Francis Drake’s raid of 1586 on St. Augustine. The landing of Drake’s forces is shown in the upper left, and the Spanish fort is at the top center.
Courtesy of the State Archives of Florida
Castillo de San Marcos
Construction of the stone castillo (Spanish for castle) in St. Augustine began in 1672 and was completed in 1695. Indigenous workers, enslaved Black laborers, and Spaniards worked more than twenty years to build the massive fortress, which was constructed of blocks of coquina that absorbed the impact of cannonballs without shattering. The completed Castillo de San Marcos was 300 feet on each of its four sides, with the west side being slightly longer. The walls were 16-18 feet thick at its base and narrowed to about 8 feet thick near the top of the walls. The outer walls were originally finished in white lime and trimmed in red.
As part of English-led raids against Spanish settlements in Florida, St. Augustine was attacked in 1702. During the two-month siege, residents took refuge in the fort. Another major attack came in 1740, when English forces laid siege to the Castillo, but the fort again successfully withstood the attack. As a response to the 1740 attack, and to guard its southern approaches, a small stone fort was built at Matanzas Inlet, located fifteen miles south of St. Augustine.
Life at the Castillo
The daily life of a Spanish soldier in a fort consisted of military drilling, gunnery training, and guard duty. At the Castillo in the 1700s, most soldiers were married and lived in town with their families. When off duty, some soldiers worked as part-time merchants to earn extra income.
Larger forts relied in part on civilian men and women to support the soldiers, performing tasks such as construction, blacksmithing, laundry, and cooking. The fort provided protection to the town’s residents during the 1702 attack on St. Augustine, and they were able to rebuild after the town was burned.
Martín Martínez Gallegos
Martín Martínez Gallegos served as an artilleryman at the Castillo de San Marcos, where he was part of a crew that operated a cannon. He would have been called “Martín el artillero.” Gallegos was born in Spain and as such was known as a “peninsular.” He was married twice. His first wife was Spanish, but born in Florida, and she would have been called a “floridana.” Martín’s second wife, Isabela Serrano, was of German Catholic origin and had moved to Florida from the English colonies in the 1750s.
Life-cast figure representing Martín Martínez Gallegos
Fort Mosé
Established in 1738, Fort Mosé was the first officially sanctioned free Black settlement in what is now the mainland United States. Located two miles north of St. Augustine, the community and its fort helped to buffer St. Augustine from attack by the northern English colonies. In 1740, during the English invasion, the fort’s inhabitants were forced into St. Augustine. A combined force of Spanish soldiers and Fort Mosé militiamen later dramatically counter-attacked and defeated the surprised troops occupying Fort Mosé. Though the fort was retaken, it was destroyed during the battle.
For the next dozen years, refugees from Fort Mosé lived in St. Augustine, but in 1752, they returned and built a new fort. By 1759, harsh conditions and threats of attack caused many of the residents to move back to St. Augustine. When Spain ceded Florida to England in 1763, the remaining militia at Fort Mosé left for Cuba.
Map of Fort Mosé
Map published in 1783, based on 1760s maps
Courtesy of the State Archives of Florida
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