The Louisiana region known as the Florida Parishes remained under Spanish control after the Louisiana Purchase. In 1810, some settlers, displeased with tax law enforcement and the governing of the area, secretly planned to overthrow the Spanish government and seize the Spanish fort at Baton Rouge. Larry Moore of St. Helena claimed he knew how to enter the fort, and before dawn in the fog he led the Bayou Sarah cavalry through the hole in the palisades where cattle entered. After a short battle for control, the Lone Star Flag was unfurled for the first time over the fort in Baton Rouge on September 23, 1810. Shepherd Brown, Commandant and Alcalde for St. Helena, supported Spain and promised to muster five hundred loyal supporters, but he failed to raise them. When confronted by General Philemon Thomas and his four hundred men, Brown advised his approximately 80 men to disperse and save themselves, then fled by boat to New Orleans; later he was captured and held prisoner with the Spanish governor. For 74 days, the Republic of West Florida was an independent nation with its own constitution and President Fulwar Skipwith. On December 10, 1810, the Lone Star Flag was lowered and the Stars and Stripes of the United States flew over West Florida from the Mississippi River to the Pearl River. The Florida Parishes were annexed, and Shepherd Brown returned to St. Helena to become the first district judge, while Fulwar Skipwith later served as registrar of the St. Helena District Land Office.