Dirt McGirtt: The Man Florida Loved to Hate

Few bothered to write about Daniel McGirtt unless they hated him - and then their words were many. Historians remember him as colorful, calling him a bandit, head of the banditti, a horse thief and murderer. Yet the British Governor of East Florida made him lieutenant colonel in the East Florida Rangers. He fought bravely and daringly under Brigadier General Augustine Prevost at Savannah, Charleston and Augusta. Tasked with guarding Florida's border from the opportunism of Georgia's raiders, he pursued them all the way into Georgia, recovering the stolen goods, frequently with much bloodshed and a large penalty consisting of the rest of their property. After the war, when Spanish Governor Zespedes gifted land to the former raiders, those Daniel had angered became his neighbors. That uncomfortable arrangement resulted in harassment, political bullying and ultimately Daniel's imprisonment at the Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine and El Castillo de Los Tres Reyes Magos Del Morro in Cuba. This study of the life of Daniel McGirtt attempts to understand the real man instead of confirming or denying the allegations assembled to defame him. The many accusations leveled at McGirtt remain vague, but consistently appear to be written by his enemies. In the face of all that, his many friends and large family remained loyal and protective. Somewhere, between the anger and the love, rests the truth.