Battle of Fort Peter

St. Marys River

Date	January 13–14, 1815
Location	Fort Peter, St. Marys, Camden County, Georgia
Result	British victory

Belligerents

British Empire

United States

Commanders and leaders

Land:
unknown
Sea:
George Cockburn

Abraham A. Massias
Daniel Newnan

Strength

Land::
~1500
marines,
infantry,
unknown artillery
Sea:
1 Third Rate,
1 Fourth Rate,
4 Fifth Rates,
2 bomb vessels,
2 schooners

Land:
~160
infantry,
militia,
8 artillery pieces,
Fort Peter
Sea:
2 gunboats

Casualties and losses

3 dead,
5 wounded

1 dead,
4 wounded,
9 missing,
2 gunboats captured,
Fort Peter destroyed

The Battle of Fort Point Peter was a successful attack in early 1815 by a British force on a smaller American force on the Georgia side of the St. Marys River near St. Marys, Georgia. The river was then part of the international border between the United States and British-allied Spanish Florida; it now forms part of the boundary between Georgia and Florida. Occupying coastal Camden County allowed the British to blockade American transportation on the Intracoastal Waterway. The attack on Forts St. Tammany and Peter occurred in January 1815, after the signing of the Treaty of Ghent, which would end the War of 1812, but before the treaty's ratification. The attack occurred at the same time as the siege of Fort St. Philip in Louisiana and was part of the British occupation of St. Marys and Cumberland Island.

Point Peter is the first landing site on the Georgia side of the St. Marys River. It is a peninsula between the North River and Point Peter Creek, which flow into the St. Marys River. James Seagrove and Jacob Weed received land grants nearby in 1787, and a military post was established on Point Peter around that time. In July 1794 Paul Hyacinth Perrault was commissioned to build a fort in St. Marys, probably Ft. St. Tammany. The following year, costs exceeded $1,400. The War Department approved payments relating to the fort in 1797 and 1800. The garrison eventually included a fort, battery, and a mooring for naval vessels, and may also have been known as Fort Gunn in 1794.

United States military posted at Point Peter were responsible for enforcing tariffs and protecting the nation's southern border with Spanish Florida. The fort became involved in the Quasi-War in 1798. Between 1793 and 1805, United States military manned the fort, and $16,000 dollars were spent on the Point Peter garrison. However, by 1806 the fort was at least partially dismantled, and defenses relied instead solely on gunboats and a fixed battery, which might have contributed to the July 1805 St. Marys River incident involving British naval personnel and successive French and Spanish privateers. In 1809, the block house and battery that formed the new American fort were approved.

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Wikipedia