In the Shadow of Jackson: Uriah Blue\u27s Expedition into West Florida

Students of Florida history are well acquainted with General Andrew Jackson’s controversial invasions of Spanish Florida in 1814 and 1818. But what is not as well known is a related military expedition, that of Major Uriah Blue who led approximately 1,000 American forces into Spanish West Florida between December 1814 and January 1815. Andrew Jackson’s concurrent, and famous, battle with the British at New Orleans overshadowed Blue’s expedition. Yet, Blue’s troops played an integral part in Jackson’s overall plan. Both the expedition’s successes and failures affected future American-Spanish relations, for Jackson would reinvade Florida several years later to fight the Indians that had eluded Blue in 1814-1815