Manuel de Montiano
He defended Florida from an attack by British forces in 1740 and launched his own unsuccessful Invasion of Georgia during the War of Jenkins' Ear.
Shortly after his taking office he wrote to the Governor of Cuba notifying him of a forthcoming British invasion, and requested supplies to ward off the danger.
On March 15, 1738, Governor Montiano established Fort Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mosé[3] as a fortified town for blacks who had escaped enslavement in the Carolina Colony to whom Montiano granted citizenship and freedom in return for their serving in the militia and professing belief in "the True Faith", Roman Catholicism.
Jenkins wasn't a skilled enough captain to avoid the guard, so his ship was boarded by Spanish sailors from La Isabela and he was punished by having his ear cut off.
Spain and England had been disputing ownership of the area in and around Georgia for some time when Oglethorpe brought the first colonists to Savannah, where neither country had established a permanent settlement.
On June 13, 1740, Oglethorpe began the siege of St. Augustine by blockading the city including the Matanzas Inlet, and the Castillo de San Marcos.
Governor Montiano in the meantime had prepared well the defenses of the Castillo and the Spanish colony, by having all the inhabitants of the city take refuge inside the fort, while he held the British at bay.
A small Spanish vessel managed to get through the blockade by evading the lone British ship guarding the Matanzas Inlet to the south of Anastasia Island and set sail for Havana, Cuba.
On July 7, the courier which had been sent to Cuba returned to St. Augustine and told Montiano that six supply ships were at Mosquito Inlet, 68 miles farther down the coast.
He also told Montiano that the British had withdrawn the vessel blocking Matanzas Inlet, and the way appeared clear to provision the city.
They promptly entered the Matanzas Inlet, sailed up the river, and safely anchored at St. Augustine, allowing supplies to be brought to the Castillo without opposition.
Oglethorpe had captured Fort Mose at the beginning of the war, but Montiano managed to recapture it at daybreak on June 26, after a battle that left 68 dead and 34 taken prisoner.
A Spanish galliot (a shallow-draft vessel propelled mainly by oars), which had gone unnoticed by the British, opened fire from long range but scored no hits.
Early on the morning of Wednesday, July 7, several Spanish scouts advanced northward toward Fort Frederica to assess the landscape and plan their attack.
They met a body of British rangers at Gully Hole Creek at approximately nine o'clock, and the two units exchanged shots.
Oglethorpe posted a detachment to defend his position and returned to Frederica to prevent another Spanish landing on the northern coast and to recruit more men.
During mid-afternoon of the same day, the Spanish sent more troops into the region, and the British forces fired upon them from behind the heavy cover of brush in the surrounding marshes.
In 1748, Montiano was named Governor of Panama, and promoted to brigadier general and field marshal as a reward for his deeds in Florida.
