 By 1739, Great Britain and Spain were at war and trouble was brewing for the Diego Plains settlers.British general James Oglethorpe was commissioned to harass the Spanish settlements south of the colony of Georgia, so the Spanish governor fortified the Diego farmhouse which was already being called Fort San Diego.After Oglethorpe’s failure to capture St. Augustine, the Spanish military abandoned Fort San Diego, but other inhabitants moved into the area, living off the land and the cattle.