- After defeat at Battle of Baton Rouge during Revolutionary War fought on 21 Sep 1779. Baton Rouge was the second British outpost to fall to Spanish arms.
When informed that Dickson had surrendered Fort Panmure, its commander was irate, believing Dickson had surrendered Panmure to get better terms of surrender. Isaac Johnson, a local justice of the peace, wrote that "In the mighty battle between Governor Gálvez and Colonel Dickson, the Spaniards only lost one man and some say not one, the English lost twenty-five and the commanding officer wounded his head on his tea table".
source: Haynes, Robert (1976). The Natchez District and the American Revolution. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi
Wikipedia: Battle of Baton Rouge (1779)
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On Oct 2 they learned that Galvez, with 1,500 men, had assaulted Manchac. the next day, Isaac Johnson, a justice of the peace, received the "dreadful tides" that Dickson "had fallen into the hands of Governor Galvez" and had surrendered Fort Panmure. Johnson, refusing to accept the report as true, went to the Natchez landing on Oct 4 to find out for himself if the rumors were accurate. Off in the distance, he spotted several barges flying Spanish flags coming up the river. Captain Anthony Forster,commander of the fort, showed Johnson a letter he had just received from Lt. Colonel Dickson as well as a translated copy of Pollock's communique to the citizens of Natchez.Like many other Loyalists in Natchez, Johnson's response was one of disbelief, followed by anger and gisgust. "I am struck dumb," he wrote," to think of this place being thought so little of as to be trifled away to obtain terms." Johnson wa not alone in believing that Cickson had traded away Fort Panmure, the only defensible English fort on the Mississippi, only to gin more honorable terms for himself and his soldiers. Nor were Johnson and his friends impressed by the reports of Dickson's valor. "in the mighty battle between Gov. Galvez and Col. Dickson," he sarcastically wrote, "the Spaniards only lost one man and some say not one, the English about twenty-five and the commanding officer wounded in his head by his tea table."
(The Natchez District and the American Revolution, by Rovert V. Haynes, pg 124)
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- On September 23, 1810, after meetings beginning in June, rebels overcame the Spanish garrison at Baton Rouge and unfurled the flag of the new republic: a single white star on a blue field. This flag was made by Melissa Johnson, wife of Major Isaac Johnson, the commander of the West Florida Dragoons. The "Bonnie Blue Flag" that was flown 50 years later at the start of the American Civil War resembles it.[1]
(Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_West_Florida)
On Saturday, September 11, 1810, a troop of dragoons under the command of Major Isaac Johnson set out for the provincial capitol at Baton Rouge. At the head of the column rode a colour sergeant carrying a blue flag with a single, five-pointed white star. This flag had been made a few days before by Mrs. Melissa Johnson. Together with other republican forces under the command of Colonel Philemon Thomas, these men captured Baton Rouge without loss to themselves, imprisoned Governor de Lassus, and on September 23, 1810, raised their bonnie blue flag over the fort of Baton Rouge. Three days later, John Rhea, president of the West Florida convention, signed a Declaration of Independence, and the lone star flag became the emblem of a new republic.
http://www.jacksonlamuseum.com/bonnieblueflag.htm
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Abt 1745 - Aft 1810 (~ 66 years)
