page_title: Raid on St. Augustine
section_title: Capture
hierarchical_section_title: Raid on St. Augustine / Capture
context_page_description: The Raid on St. Augustine was a military event during the Anglo-Spanish War in which the Spanish settlement of St. Augustine in Florida was captured in a small fight and burnt by an English expedition fleet led by Francis Drake. This was part of Francis Drake's Great Expedition and was his last engagement on the Spanish Main before Drake headed north for the Roanoke Colony. The expedition also forced the Spanish to abandon any settlements and forts in present-day South Carolina.
context_section_description: The English attacked and bombarded a small wooden fort in the sand dunes; the Spanish there fired only a few shots and fled. Drake sent a landing party to investigate, while Christopher Carleill, captain of the Tiger, and a few volunteers rowed a ship's boat into the inlet and saw no sign of any Spaniards. It sat on a strip of sand, separated from the mainland by a band of water, which entered into the inlet. A French Huguenot Nicholas Borgoignon, who had been taken prisoner by the Spanish six years before was found in a boat and agreed to guide the English to the Spanish settlement.
  The Spanish governor of St. Augustine, Pedro Menéndez de Márquez (nephew of Pedro Menéndez de Avilés), was warned that Drake was off the coast, and he realized that with fewer than a hundred militiamen he could offer little in the way of resistance. The Spanish settlers withdrew inland and hoped to make surprise raids against the English gradually. Drake and his men occupied the area of the small fort but during the night Indians, native allies of the Spanish garrison, attacked. Drake and his men held their ground and within twenty minutes the Indians were repulsed with some loss.
  The following day, Drake, Carleill, and around two hundred men advanced up the inlet in pinnaces and small boats, and they soon came upon the Spanish log stockade fort of San Juan. After a few shots by the Spanish, the English landed and took the fort with only a few losses. They found it deserted, as the Spanish had fled, but discovered an intact gun platform with fourteen bronze artillery pieces. They also found a chest containing the garrison's pay, about 2,000 gold ducats, which was inadvertently left behind in the retreat. Drake, knowing the Spanish had fled, began to plunder what he could; he took the guns, and burned the fort to the ground.
  Soon the English came upon the main settlement of St. Augustine itself, this time they found it deserted. The Spanish, however, were just outside the town when Drake's men arrived, and they opened up a skirmishing fire. Anthony Powell, one of Carleill's officers, was killed in the opening shots as he tried to assault the outskirts. Carleill's men then charged all the way to the outskirts of the town into the scrub, forcing the Spanish to retreat, and leaving Drake in control of the settlement.
  The English garrisoned the town overnight and the following day razed the whole of St. Augustine to the ground. All buildings were torched, crops were destroyed, and anything of value was either taken or destroyed. The fort of San Juan was burnt and all the artillery pieces were carried away by the English among other booty.
caption: Sir Francis Drake
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