The Louisiana-Mexican border prior to Dr Otway’s arrival at Fort Jesup in 1842

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William Beauclerc Otway set up and operated the first steam-powered quartz-crushing mill in Ballarat.[Notes 1] An American, he arrived in Victoria in December 1853 with his wife Rebecca.[1]

Otway joined the United States Army in 1840[2] and was stationed at Fort Jesup, Louisiana, where his troops' use of a steam-powered sawmill for "an extensive building program"[3] may have kindled his interest in things mechanical.

USA vs New Spain

After a brief and bloodless skirmish between the Spanish and American armed forces on the border between Louisiana and New Spain in 1806, the generals of the two armies agreed to set aside a strip of land on the east side of the Sabine River as neutral territory. The neutrality of this zone was respected by the Spanish.[4] However, American settlers, traders, and filibusters[Notes 2] moved through the zone and into foreign territory, squatting on land illegally, inciting unrest in Indian tribes, and engaging in guerrilla raids against the Spanish and later, Mexicans. Despite repeated declarations by the American government that such activity was forbidden, little was done to curb it. American military forces at the southwest frontier were insufficient and poorly equipped, and their leaders, who mostly favoured an American invasion of Spanish dominions in the hopes of conquering Texas and even Cuba, were disinclined to police the situation except when specific orders were given. When the Spanish pushed back against the incursionists, exaggerated claims of an imminent Spanish invasion of American territory would become the stuff of public agitation, and worse, of the advice of American military leaders to their superiors.[5]

Fort Seldon

As part of the American efforts to address this situation, Fort Seldon was built near Natchitoches toward the end of 1820 and became home to the Seventh United States Infantry, under Lieutenant Colonel Zachary Taylor.[4] Taylor would go on to become a general in the Mexican-American War and, in 1849, the United States of America’s twelfth president.[6]

The neutral zone became part of the United States when the land acquisitions agreed to under the Treaty of Washington formally occurred on 17 July 1821. A month later, the Treaty of Córdoba was signed on 24 August 1821 and Louisiana was no longer bordering the viceroyalty of New Spain, but the federal republic of the United Mexican States, commonly called Mexico.[7] When the neutral strip became part of Louisiana, the fort was 80 kilometres away from the border, and was abandoned in 1822 when Fort Jesup was built.[4]

Fort Jesup

The site chosen for Fort Jesup, called Shield’s Spring at the time,[5] was still nearly 30 kilometres from the new border, the Sabine River, but had the advantages of a reliable fresh water spring and plentiful local timber, as well as being located on “a dry, airy ridge”, presumably to provide relief from the Louisiana climate. Taylor, now a full Colonel, was charged with Fort Jesup’s construction,[4] and chose the name himself, in honour of his long-time friend and Quartermaster General of the Army, General Thomas Sidney Jesup.[5][Notes 3]

Prior to around 1835, the men at Fort Jesup were engaged in civic works such as road building and improving the navigability of local rivers, notably the removal of the Red River Raft, a 200-kilometre-long log-jam whose removal allowed steamboats to travel through to upstream settlements and significantly reduced flooding which had previously prevented the cultivation of rich river delta land. In matters to do with illegal liquor and arms trading and inter-tribal hostilities, management of Indian affairs was generally left to the Indian Agent, who was often significantly under-resourced, to the point of sometimes being the only representative of the US government in the areas affected. Military intervention in such matters was mostly limited to situations where American settlers living within US territory were at risk.[5]

This reluctance of the military to assist civil authorities in the management of Indian affairs was not present when it came to slaves. The Army was commonly involved in capture and containment of escaped slaves, and from December 1838 to October 1839 one company from Fort Jesup was camped outside of Natchitoches as a visible deterrent following rumours of an imminent slave uprising.[5]

Raids by filibusters into Mexico increased during the 1830s in support of the revolutionaries in Texas hoping to take over Indian land in defiance of Mexican law. In 1836, Major General Edmund P. Gaines, commander of the Western Department of the Army, was ordered to locate himself at the southwest border as troops were being moved there in response to instability associated with the revolutionary movement in Texas. A veteran of the 1812 war and a reputed warmonger, Gaines lobbied his superiors for even more troops, apparently seeking to undermine his government’s neutral stance on the Texas situation by exploiting, and even inflaming, rumours that Indian hostilities associated with the revolution were putting Americans living in Texas at risk.[8][9]

However, apart from one foray into Texas – for which he later had to face an inquiry – Gaines complied with his superiors’ repeated affirmations of US neutrality regarding the Mexican situation despite his own views. In fact, all of the rumours regarding imminent Indian attacks on the filibusters, when investigated by Gaines’ troops, turned out to be false.

With the signing of the “Treaties” of Velasco on 14 May 1836, hostilities between Mexico and the revolutionaries subsided, and although not recognised by Mexico, the Republic of Texas became self-governing.[10] Although the border with Texas was generally peaceful for the next few years, the build-up of troops continued in anticipation of the annexation of Texas into the United States and a subsequent war with Mexico.

See also

William Beauclerc Otway

External links

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Jesup

Notes

  1. ↑ Several authors credit Otway with more than this. See, for example, Cooper, B. 'Black Hill - the White Cliffs of Ballarat', Ballarat Historian, v4 n7 (1990)[1] or Guide to Ballarat, F.W. Niven & Co, Ballarat, 1890, p.49
  2. ↑ Americans making illegal incursions into Indian and foreign territories seeking to incite revolution.
  3. ↑ For a time prior to Otway joining the Second Dragoons, they were part of the forces commanded by Jesup in Florida.


References

  1. ↑ Potts, E. Daniel (Eli Daniel) & Potts, Annette, (joint author.) (1974). Young America and Australian gold : Americans and the gold rush of the 1850's. University of Queensland Press, St. Lucia, QLD
  2. ↑ United States Registers of Enlistments in the U.S. Army, 1798-1914, index and images, FamilySearch : accessed 24 February 2015, William B Otway, 08 May 1840; citing p. 167, volume 043, New York, United States, NARA microfilm publication M233 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 21; FHL microfilm 350,327.
  3. ↑ 2d Cavalry Association. (2011). History, Customs and Traditions of the second dragoons. Published by the 2d Cavalry Association
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Hardin, J. F. (1933a). Fort Jesup, Fort Selden, Camp Sabine, Camp Salubrity: Four forgotten frontier army posts of western Louisiana (first installment). The Louisiana Historical Quarterly, 16(1), 5-26.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Middleton, H. F. (1973). Frontier outpost : a history of Fort Jesup, Louisiana, 1822-1846. [Baton Rouge, La.].
  6. ↑ Sidey, F. F. a. H. (2006). Zachary Taylor. Retrieved from https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/presidents/zachary-taylor/
  7. ↑ Wikipedia contributors. (2018, September 9a). History of Mexico. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=History_of_Mexico&oldid=857965745
  8. ↑ Hardin, J. F. (1933b). Fort Jesup, Fort Selden, Camp Sabine, Camp Salubrity: Four forgotten frontier army posts of western Louisiana - Second installment. The Louisiana Historical Quarterly, 16(2), 276-292.
  9. ↑ Hardin, J. F. (1933c). Fort Jesup, Fort Selden, Camp Sabine, Camp Salubrity: Four forgotten frontier army posts of western Louisiana - Third installment. The Louisiana Historical Quarterly, 16(3), 441-453.
  10. ↑ Wikipedia contributors. (2018, September 9b). Treaties of Velasco. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Treaties_of_Velasco&oldid=849373697

Neil Huybregts 09:49, 30 November 2023 (AEDT)

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