Arbuthnot and Ambrister incident

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1848 illustration of the trial of Ambrister

The Arbuthnot and Ambrister incident occurred in April 1818 during the First Seminole War when American General Andrew Jackson invaded Spanish Florida and his troops detained two British subjects, Alexander Arbuthnot and Robert Ambrister. They were charged with aiding the Seminole, Red Sticks and maroons against the United States.

Arbuthnot and Ambrister were tried and executed in what is modern-day Wakulla County, Florida , at Fort Saint Marks. Jackson's actions triggered short-lived protests from the British and Spanish governments and an investigation by the United States Congress. Congressional reports found fault with Jackson's handling of the trial and execution of Arbuthnot and Ambrister, but Congress chose not to censure the popular general.[citation needed]

Robert Chrystie Ambrister had been born in 1797 in Nassau, The Bahamas. During the Napoleonic Wars, he served as a midshipman in the Royal Navy between 1809 and 1813, when Ambrister returned to the Bahamas. In 1814, he was commissioned into the Royal Marines as the rank of auxiliary second lieutenant, serving in Spanish Florida in the Corps of Colonial Marines under Brevet Major Edward Nicolls during the War of 1812.[1][2] Discharged from the military in Nassau in 1815,[3][4] Ambrister returned to Spanish Florida in 1817 with fellow Royal Marine veteran George Woodbine and Scottish soldier of fortune Gregor MacGregor.[5]

Alexander George Arbuthnot was a Scottish merchant and translator who had been present in Florida since 1803 and occasionally served as a diplomatic go-between for various polities in the region.[6] Jackson's execution of Arbuthnot, Ambrister and the Muscogee and Seminole leaders Josiah Francis and Himathlo Micco was perceived, both in Britain and elsewhere, as an act of barbarity violating the conventions of warfare.[7] A decade later in 1828, Jackson was elected President of the United States.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Niles' weekly register, Baltimore, Oct.3,1818,No.6-Vol.XV, pp 84-86
  2. ^ British and foreign state papers Volume 6, pg 434 Ambrister's Commission 'Whereas, I have thought fit to send a Detachment of the Royal Marine Corps to the Creek Nations, for the purpose of training to arms, such Indians and others as may be friendly to, and willing to fight under, the Standard of His Majesty: I ..appoint you as an Auxiliary Second Lieutenant, of such Corps of Colonial Marines...Given under my hand and seal, at Bermuda, this 25th day of July, 1814'[1]
  3. ^ British and foreign state papers Volume 6, p. 483, Memorial to R C Ambrister mentions that he and Nicolls sailed 'to Apalachicola, from whence he proceeded to the Creek Nation, where he served until those Forces were disbanded, upon the termination of hostilities with the Americans, when he returned to the said island of New Providence' and disembarked there from the Carron on 6 May 1815
  4. ^ "Royal Marines on the Gulf Coast". Retrieved 19 January 2014. Extracted information from the muster of HMS Carron
  5. ^ The Florida Historical Quarterly, Vol. 23, No.1 (July 1944), pp. 39-44 [2]
  6. ^ Arbuthnot and Ambrister incident Summary/bookrags.com
  7. ^ Niles' weekly register, Baltimore, 3 October 1818, No. 6, Vol. XV, pp. 270-281

Further reading

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  • Aubigné, Guillaume Merle d'; Chinard, Gilbert. 1935. La vie américaine de Guillaume Merle d'Aubigné; extraits de son journal de voyage et de sa correspondence inédite, 1809-1817, Paris, E. Droz; Baltimore, Johns Hopkins Press. OCLC 1862429 - pp. 133–147.
  • Gales, Joseph. 1834–1856. The debates and proceedings in the Congress of the United States; with an appendix containing important state papers and public documents, and all the laws of a public nature; Washington, Gales and Seaton. OCLC 10329123 - "Seminole War", pp. 367–374.
  • Fisher, Louis. "Military Tribunals: Historical Patterns and Lessons". Congressional Research Service Report for Congress, 2004.
  • Foreign Office. British and foreign state papers Volume 6, 1818-1819. Piccadilly, London: James Ridgway, 1835.
  • Heidler, David and Jeanne Heidler. Old Hickory's War: Andrew Jackson and the Quest for Empire. Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania: Stackpole Books, 1996. ISBN 0-8117-0113-1.
  • Hoefer, Jean Chrétien Ferdinand. 1862. Nouvelle biographie générale depuis les temps les plus reculés jusqu'à nos jours, Paris : Didot. OCLC 73261929 - pp. 153–154
  • Narrative of a voyage to the Spanish Main in the ship "Two Friends;" the occupation of Amelia island by McGregor, etc.--sketches of the province of East Florida; and anecdotes illustrative of the habits and manners of the Seminole Indians: with an appendix containing a detail of the Seminole war, and the execution of Arbuthnot and Ambrister, London, Printed for J. Miller, 1819. OCLC 16068670 - pp. 196–312.
  • Owsley Jr., Frank L (1985). "Ambrister and Arbuthnot: Adventurers or Martyrs for British Honor". Journal of the Early Republic. 5 (3). University of Pennsylvania Press: 289–308. doi:10.2307/3122585. JSTOR 3122585.
  • Remini, Robert V. Andrew Jackson and his Indian Wars. New York: Viking, 2001. ISBN 0-670-91025-2.
  • Rush, Richard. 1845. Memoranda of a residence at the court of London comprising incidents official and personal from 1819-1825, including negotiations on the Oregon question, and other unsettled questions between the United States and Great Britain, Philadelphia : Lea & Blanchard. OCLC 12492949 - Chapters iv & v.
  • Wright, J. Leitch Jr. "A Note on the First Seminole War as Seen by the Indians, Negroes, and Their British Advisers". The Journal of Southern History 34, no. 4 (November 1968), 565–575.