Siege of St. Augustine (1702)

Siege of St. Augustine

Detail from a 1733 map showing the North American coastline between Charles Town and St. Augustine

Date	10 November – 30 December 1702
Location	St. Augustine, Spanish Florida
Result	Spanish victory

Belligerents

Kingdom of Spain

Kingdom of England

Commanders and leaders

José de Zúñiga y la Cerda
Estevan de Berroa
Captain López de Solloso

James Moore

Strength

204 regulars and marines
1,500 civilians

500–600 provincial militia
300–600 Indians

Casualties and losses

reports vary; light

The Siege of St. Augustine was an action in Queen Anne's War during November and December 1702. It was conducted by English provincial forces from the Province of Carolina and their native allies, under the command of Carolina's governor James Moore, against the Spanish colonial fortress of Castillo de San Marcos at St. Augustine, in Spanish Florida.

After destroying coastal Spanish communities north of St. Augustine, Moore's forces arrived at St. Augustine on 10 November, and immediately began siege operations. The Spanish governor, José de Zúñiga y la Cerda, had advance warning of their arrival, and withdrew civilians and food supplies into the fortress, and also sent messengers to nearby Spanish and French communities for relief. The English guns did little damage to the fortress walls, prompting Governor Moore to send an appeal to Jamaica for larger guns. The Spanish calls for relief were successful; a fleet sent from Havana, Cuba landed troops nearby on 29 December. Moore lifted the siege the next day, and was forced to burn many of his boats before retreating to Charles Town in disgrace.

English and Spanish colonization efforts in southeastern North America began coming into conflict as early as the middle of the 17th century. The founding in 1670 by the English of Charles Town (present-day Charleston, South Carolina) in the recently established (1663) Province of Carolina heightened tensions. Traders, raiders, and slavers from the new province penetrated into Spanish Florida, leading to raiding and reprisal expeditions on both sides. In 1700, Carolina's governor, Joseph Blake, threatened the Spanish that English claims to Pensacola, established by the Spanish in 1698, would be enforced. Blake's death later that year interrupted these plans, and he was replaced in 1702 by James Moore.

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