William King was born in
Delaware in the late 18th century. He was commissioned as a
second lieutenant of the
United States Army in May 1808. In February 1812 he was sent by Lt. Col.
Zebulon Montgomery Pike to negotiate with the Spanish commander Bernardo Montero about a joint U.S.–Spanish mission to clear "banditti" out of the
Neutral Ground around the
Sabine River; Montero declined as he said he was not authorized for such a campaign. King served in the
War of 1812. King was promoted to
colonel in 1813. King wrote to
Daniel Parker in August 1817 asking if it was true that a war against the
Seminoles was impending; according to historian Samuel J. Watson, "his main concern was that it be conducted after the hot season to minimize casualties to disease." King was a man of the Jacksonian school in that he advocated that invasion by the Americans, whether the site of invasion be
Texas or
Florida, prevented "ineffectual Spanish rule" from being replaced by "Indian war, illegal slave trading...or freebooters preying on American commerce." The
Georgia Patriots who sought to liberate Florida for the benefit of the United States wrote to him in 1817 asking him for weapons. King replied that such action by the Georgians would be unlikely to meet "the approbation of my superiors" but he simultaneously argued that to "permit the Star Spangled Banner to wave o'er the works of the
Barrancas &
St. Augustine & the Troops of the U.S. to occupy those post subject to the further arrangements of the two governments." Per Watson on extracurricular filibustering by the U.S. Army during this period, "Even though he sympathized with
Jesup, encouraged
Gaines, and ordered to concentrate the Fourth Infantry Regiment where it could join the
Seventh 'towards' Pensacola, Jackson wanted to avoid upsetting
President-elect Monroe, whom he expected to support future expansionist action." He led the
4th Infantry Regiment under
Andrew Jackson during the
First Seminole War. He was with Jackson during his controversial 1818 invasion of the Spanish colony of
West Florida and the occupation of
Pensacola. According to a directory of officers published 1818, he was colonel commanding the 8th department of Alabama, stationed at Pensacola. Following Governor
José Masot's surrender on May 23, Jackson appointed King military governor of West Florida on May 26. Jackson interpreted Masot's terms of surrender as giving the United States control over the entirety of West Florida. As military governor, King was charged with upholding
Spanish law in the colony, overseeing Spanish property, and caring for soldiers wounded in Jackson's campaign. After Jackson's departure from Florida on May 29, he also oversaw the dispersal of the Tennessee and Kentucky militia. However, Jackson's invasion of Florida threatened to derail the
Adams–Onís Treaty, by which the United States hoped to acquire Spanish Florida, and the
James Monroe administration wanted West Florida restored to Spanish control. King served in his post until he was relieved by
Edmund P. Gaines on orders from
U.S. Secretary of War John C. Calhoun. He was succeeded by
José María Callava, West Florida's final Spanish governor. King was apparently court-martialled, at
Montpelier, Alabama, in February 1820 by judge advocate
Stockley D. Hays and "suspended from all rank, pay and emoluments for the space of five years." The
Army Register states that King was honorably discharged from the Army in June 1821, and died in January 1826. Obituaries published in New Orleans papers reported that he died at his home near
Mobile, Alabama, on January 1, 1826, and was buried in Mobile with military honors on January 2.
Fort King, constructed in 1827, was named in honor of King. ==References==