Colonel Daniel Newnan led a troop of Georgia militia on a raid into Spanish Florida in September 1812 in an attempt to annex Florida to the United States during the War of 1812. Newnan's men engaged a force of Seminole Indians under the command of Seminole Chief King Payne, and several soldiers and Indians were killed in the battle. During the Creek War of 1813-14, while campaigning in Alabama under Brigadier General John Floyd, Newnan led a group of Georgia volunteers and was wounded on January 27, 1814. He was evacuated to his home in Putnam County, Georgia. Upon healing, he rallied the state against the threat of British invasion from the harassed Georgia coastal islands. Newnan later served as a Major General in the Georgia Militia 3rd Division in 1817, Secretary of State from 1825 to 1827, and a United States Congressman from 1831 to 1833. The city of Newnan was named for this distinguished soldier and statesman in 1828.