James Oglethorpe established Fort Frederica on what is today St. Simons Island in 1736, just three years after he founded Georgia.. The goal of the settlement was to to protect the southern boundary of the British colony of Georgia from the Spanish. At times, more than 600 British troops were stationed at the fort. A visitor to the fort in 1745 described it as “a pretty strong fort of tabby,” noting the structure was “surrounded by a quadrangular rampart, with four bastions of earth well stocked and turned, and a palisade ditch.” During the battles of Bloody Marsh and Gully Hole Creek in 1742, Oglethorpe’s successfully repulsed Spanish attempts to invade St. Simons Island.