[Footnote 1:  In his official capacity Jackson issued two addresses which have an important place in the history of the Negro soldier.  From his headquarters at Mobile, September 21, 1814, he issued an appeal “To the Free Colored Inhabitants of Louisiana,” offering them an honorable part in the war, and this was later followed by a “Proclamation to the Free People of Color” congratulating them on their achievement.  Both addresses are accessible in many books.]

On the Appalachicola River the British had rebuilt an old fort, calling it the British Post on the Appalachicola.  Early in the summer of 1815 the commander, Nicholls, had occasion to go to London, and he took with him his troops, the chief Francis, and several Creeks, leaving in the fort seven hundred and sixty-three barrels of cannon powder, twenty-five hundred muskets, and numerous pistols and other weapons of war.  The Negroes from Georgia who had come to the vicinity, who numbered not less than a thousand, and who had some well kept farms up and down the banks of the river, now took charge of the fort and made it their headquarters.  They were joined by some Creeks, and the so-called Negro Fort soon caused itself to be greatly feared by any white people who happened to live near.  Demands on the Spanish governor for its suppression were followed by threats of the use of the soldiery of the United States; and General Gaines, under orders in the section, wrote to Jackson asking authority to build near the boundary another post that might be used as the base for any movement that had as its aim to overawe the Negroes.  Jackson readily complied with the request, saying, “I have no doubt that this fort has been established by some villains for the purpose of murder, rapine, and plunder, and that it ought to be blown up regardless of the ground it stands on.  If you have come to the same conclusion, destroy it, and restore the stolen Negroes and property to their rightful owners.”  Gaines accordingly built Fort Scott not far from where the Flint and the Chattahoochee join to form the Appalachicola.  It was necessary for Gaines to pass the Negro Fort in bringing supplies to his own men; and on July 17, 1816, the boats of the Americans were within range of the fort and opened fire.  There was some preliminary shooting, and then, since the walls were too stubborn to be battered down by a light fire, “a ball made red-hot in the cook’s galley was put in the gun and sent screaming over the wall and into the magazine.  The roar, the shock, the scene that followed, may be imagined, but not described.  Seven hundred barrels of gunpowder tore the earth, the fort, and all the wretched creatures in it to fragments.  Two hundred and seventy men, women, and children died on the spot.  Of sixty-four taken out alive, the greater number died soon after."[1]

[Footnote 1:  McMaster, IV, 431.]