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Fort Caroline was the first permanent French colony in North America, located in present-day Jacksonville, Florida.
History
A Huguenot exploratory group led by French naval officer Jean Ribault had landed at the site on the River of May (now the St. Johns River) in February 1562. The exploration had then moved north to Port Royal Sound, established Charlesfort on Parris Island and stayed for a time. Ribault returned to Europe to arrange supplies for the new colony, but was arrested in England due to complications arising from the French Wars of Religion.
Without supplies or leadership, and beset by hostility from the native Timucua, most of the colonists followed René Goulaine de Laudonnière south, where they founded Fort Caroline (or Fort de la Caroline) atop St. Johns Bluff on June 22, 1564. The fort was named for the reigning French king Charles IX.
In August 1565, Ribault returned to Ft. Caroline to take command of the settlement. Upon learning of the Spanish colony of St. Augustine just 35 mi (60 km) to the south, Ribault set out with several ships carrying 200 sailors and 400 soldiers to dislodge the Spanish, but he was surprised at sea by a violent storm lasting several days. Don Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, the governor of Florida for Spain, took advantage of this. Marching his troops overland, he surprised the Fort Caroline garrison at dawn on September 20, which then numbered about 200 to 250 people. The Spaniards attacked them and killed most of the defenders, except for about 50 women and children who were taken prisoner and 26 defenders who managed to escape, including de Laudonnière. As for the men of Ribaut's fleet, several had drowned; the Spanish picked up about 350 survivors, (including Ribault), south on the coast where their ships had been wrecked, only to put them to the sword, sparing about 20 (not including Ribault).This place is known today by a fort built much later, Fort Matanzas (Fort Massacre). This massacre put an end to France's attempts at colonization in Florida.
The Spanish continued to occupy the fort. In April 1568, Dominique de Gourgues led a French force which attacked and burned the fort. The Spanish rebuilt it, only to permanently abandon it the next year. The exact location of the settlement is not known.
Reconstruction
Fort Caroline was authorized as a National Memorial on September 21, 1950, and established on January 16, 1953. The memorial features a scaled-down reconstruction of the fort, based on historic renderings, and a visitor center. The memorial is administered in conjunction with Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve. As with all historic areas administered by the National Park Service, the memorial was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966.
References
- The National Parks: Index 2001–2003. Washington: U.S. Department of the Interior.
External links
- Fort Caroline National Memorial - official National Park Service website
- Fort Caroline shown on an engraving by Jacques Le Moyne
- Les expéditions françaises en Floride (1562-1568) - In French by Hélène LHOUMEAU
- Fort Matanzas National Monument
1953 establishments | Forts in Florida | French North America | History of Florida | Jacksonville, Florida | Lost cities and towns | National Memorials of the United States | Registered Historic Places in Florida
"Fort Caroline"