As the War of 1812 entered its second year, American authorities grew increasingly concerned about British operations along the Gulf Coast and the disputed control of West Florida, where Spanish authorities allowed British forces to operate freely and to encourage and aid the Creek Nation in its war against the United States. In April 1813, General James Wilkinson seized Mobile from its Spanish garrison because of the potential threat to American-held New Orleans, and Americans immediately began building the first permanent fortification on Mobile Point at or near this spot. The semi-permanent fortification, built of wood and sand, was originally armed with eight heavy cannon taken from Fort Carlota in Mobile. On August 24, 1814, it was named for its first commander, Colonel John Bowyer, but by the following January it had been abandoned and ordered dismantled because of the vulnerability of its location. That changed in August, when General Andrew Jackson ordered it reconstructed and strengthened. The next month, under Major William Lawrence, it withstood an attack by a combined force of the British Navy and Creek Indians, and the fort and its garrison were hailed as heroes throughout the United States. In February 1815, the British returned in overwhelming numbers and besieged the fort, and Colonel Lawrence surrendered his command in the face of certain defeat. The war made Mobile Bay's importance to the defense of the Gulf Coast clear, and after the war Congress appropriated money for a more permanent fortification, present-day Fort Morgan. As construction of the new fortification advanced, Fort Bowyer was abandoned, and in 1821 a hurricane erased all signs of the small fort, whose exact location remains unknown.