36 University of California Publications in History

ment harassed by civil war, and was occasioned by the uprising of
the West Florida residents about Baton Rouge, nine-tenths of
whom were immigrants from the United States." These people,
in July, 1810, met in convention, declared themselves an inde-
pendent state, and requested admission as one of the states of the
Union. The United States government paid little heed to this re-
quest, but did authorize occupation of the region under the title
alleged to have been acquired in the Louisiana Purchase. All of
West Florida was taken except Mobile. In April, 1812, that section
west of the Pearl River was made a part of the new state of Louisi-
ana, and the region between the Pearl and the Perdido was in-
eluded in Mississippi Territory.
 The declaration of war at once brought to the United States the
 fear of invasion from the territory still under Spanish control. In
 February, 1813, in response to the call for volunteers and through
 plans laid by the War Department, three bodies of troops were
 ready to advance into the Floridas if occasion arose. Brigadier
 General James Wilkinson, in command in the southwest, was at
 New Orleans. Andrew Jackson, with two thousand Tennessee vol-
 unteers, was at Natchez. On the St. Mary's and St. John's (the
 latter in East Florida in Spanish territory) were federal troops
 under Major General Thomas Pinckney (continuing the occupa-
 tion begun by Mathews and Mitchell) and some Georgia and Ten-
 nessee volunteers.
 The combined attack was frustrated, however, by the decision
 of the Senate, on February 12, to authorize the seizure of only that
 region west of the Perdido-meaning simply Mobile, since it alone
 remained in Spanish hands there." This necessitated the order for
 withdrawal, and disbandment or diversion of the troops. Pinckney
 finally withdrew in May, 1813, but not before the Tennessee volun-
 teers had burned several deserted Seminole villages, taking corn
 and skins, and driving off cattle. Jackson, refusing to disband his
 men, kept them under guard on his own responsibility at Nashville.
 Meanwhile the peace commissioners who had been sent abroad
 were afraid that the actions in the Floridas would jeopardize their
 settlement, and Gallatin urged against even the authorized seizure
 of Mobile. That occupation was carried out, nevertheless, in April.
 Wilkinson effected it and had begun the erection of a fort there
 when he was recalled to the northern frontier.