The end of the story

Moore ordered St. Augustine set to the torch as his men withdrew, and on 30 December Zuniga's men reoccupied the town and controlled the fires. The siege was over, but St. Augustine had to be almost completely rebuilt. The English destruction of Spanish settlements at Apalache, Timuca, and Guale left St. Augustine the only Spanish strongpoint in northern Florida, and over the next twenty years the town was rebuilt with a surrounding wall.




The retention of the Spanish hold on Florida was not completely accepted by the English colonists to the north. Although the War of the Spanish Succession ended in 1713, military action did not completely stop. In 1728 Colonel William Palmer of Carolina marched against the fort but "refrained" from capturing the town once he saw the fort. The next and last serious attack came in 1740, when the founder of the colony of Georgia, James Oglethorpe, led an expedition against Castillo de San Marcos in order to secure his southern border from expected Spanish incursion. Spanish Governor Manuel de Montiano commanded a sortie be launched against the English while their forces were divided and that paralyzed the English attack. They proceeded to bombard the fort with naval gunfire for twenty-seven days, but inflicted little damage and few casualties. With hurricane season approaching, the force finally retreated to Georgia.



The Castillo de San Marcos, when finally completed, performed its mission. It maintained Spanish authority in northern Florida by resisting every attack launched against it. Their final additions to the fort were built in 1762, at the end of the Seven Years War, but the fort saw no more action after Oglethorpe's abortive attack. Spain ceded Florida to Britain the following year as penalty for being on the losing side in the Seven Years War, but regained it in the wake of the American Revolution. The Spanish possessed Florida until 1819, when the territory was finally sold to the United States. By then Spanish power was little but a fond memory and the United States was just starting down the path to greatness.