Battle of Alligator Bridge

The Battle of Alligator Bridge on June 30, 1778 effectively ended American attempts to invade East Florida and remove it as a base for British operations against Georgia and South Carolina. General Robert Howe commanded about 1,000 Continentals and militia who had advanced into East Florida as part of an ambitious if poorly coordinated operation.

At Alligator Creek Bridge — a crossing on the road through the Florida swamps — British forces under Colonel Thomas Brown and Loyalist rangers under Daniel McGirth established a defensive position that stopped the American advance cold. The terrain was desperately difficult: swampy, heavily wooded, and extremely hot. Disease was ravaging the American column as badly as enemy action.

After the repulse at Alligator Bridge, the American expedition collapsed. The troops retreated northward, having accomplished nothing and having lost more men to disease and exposure than to enemy action. The failed invasion demonstrated the impossibility of projecting force into East Florida with the logistical resources available to the Americans, and effectively secured East Florida as a British base for the remainder of the war. Florida remained British territory until it was ceded to Spain in the 1783 peace settlement.