This lively account of the southern frontier is the first to give a detailed critical analysis of the 1733-49 period during which Georgia served as a British military buffer colony between Spanish-dominated Florida and British-held South Carolina. Primarily a military history, British Drums on the Southern Frontier also emphasizes frontier politics and Indian diplomacy. Since James Oglethorpe, first as Georgia's civil leader and later as a British general, implemented--and frequently designed--Britain's imperial strategy on the southern frontier, his character and his political, diplomatic, and military activities are subjected to close scrutiny.