The Seminole War: Indian

The policy of the Indians was now, says General Taylor, to avoid giving battle to regular troops, even in single companies, while at the same time every opportunity was seized to wreak their vengeance on the unarmed inhabitants of the country. Moving by night, rapidly, in small squads, they were able to appear unexpectedly in remote parts of the country, their presence indicated only by their rifles and shrill yells as they approached at daylight the home of some unsuspecting settler. Murders were committed by the Indians within a few miles of Tallahassee and St. Augustine.

Discouraged at the failure of his efforts either to find the Indians or bring them to a stand, General Taylor adopted the plan of dividing the whole country into squares, and placing a block-house, with a small detachment, in each, a part of the number to be mounted. The officer commanding was to scout his district every alternate day, thoroughly examining the swamps and hammocks to see that they were clear of Indians. The merits of this plan were not tested, as it was never fully carried out.

It was prevented from being put into operation by the arrival of General Macomb as a government agent to treat with the Indians. He made an arrangement with the chiefs in which they agreed to confine themselves to a designated portion of the south of Florida until other arrangements could be made. It was now announced that the war was at an end, and great joy was felt by the citizens, who prepared to return to their devastated fields. Yet in July, when the season for active operations by the troops had passed, hostilities broke out in all directions, and many murders were committed. Colonel Harney, with a detachment of twenty-five men, was attacked and many of his men killed, while he himself escaped only by swimming to a fishing-boat.

The prosecution of the war now became extremely discouraging, and the end seemed farther off than three years before. The Indians had become familiarized with the exhibition of military power, and had learned to contemn it. They found themselves at the close of four years still in possession of the country, and powerful for annoyance and to inflict revenge, and their ferocity seemed to increase with its exercise.

The citizens and troops had become so exasperated against the Indians for their repeated massacres of the feeble and the unprotected that a feeling had grown up that they were deserving of extermination, and that any and every means should be used to hunt and capture or destroy them. The great difficulty in so wide an extent of country, abounding in thick hammocks, palmetto and scrubby lands, swamps, islands, and morasses, was to pursue them successfully.

An attempt was made to run them down with Spanish bloodhounds, but these proved unsuited to the country. The Indians continued their old tactics, coming in, professing friendship, claiming to be tired of the war, receiving food, and suddenly disappearing. New murders would quickly follow. Severely as they had been hunted, the country was so adapted to concealment that they were yet spread through all parts of the Territory.

Billy Bowlegs, the Prophet, and Hospetarkee, Shiver and Shakes, were the head-men of a large party of Seminoles who occupied the country south of Pease Creek. In December, 1840, Colonel Harney, with a detachment of one hundred men, penetrated this hitherto-unexplored region in canoes, and created much alarm among the occupants of this almost inaccessible portion of the country. Chekika, the Spanish-Indian chief, was overtaken by a detachment of troops and killed, and six of his companions captured and hung on the spot, and, it is said, their bodies were suspended from the trees.

This expedition, and the summary punishment inflicted by Colonel Harney, greatly intimidated the Indians, and they resorted to their old expedient of having "a talk" and expressing a strong desire for peace and amity. As their sincerity could only be tested by the result, their offers were accepted, and they came in and received clothing and subsistence, thus gaining time to plant their fields and devise new measures of security for their families. During the winter and spring, every day they could delay operations against them was important. In April, having accomplished their purposes, they again disappeared, leaving the baffled officers of the government to speculate once more on the uncertainty of Indian professions.

Five years had elapsed, and still the Indians remained, and the government was in the position of almost a suppliant for peace. The efforts of the troops against the Indians were evaded by the exercise of the utmost caution and cunning. With the sagacity and thorough wood-craft of natives of the forest, while the white soldier was plodding his weary way dependent upon guides or the compass for a knowledge of his route, the Indian stopped behind some clump of bushes or peered forth from some leafy covert and saw his pursuers pass by, and then stole back to attack some point in the rear of the pursuing troops, which had been left unprotected. Ill success brought, naturally, criticism and wholesale censure. Those who knew least were wisest in such matters, and had always a plan which, if adopted, would infallibly succeed. Constant changes of plans, of officers, and of troops made matters worse. An uncertain policy, holding out the olive-branch at one time and fire and sword at another, alternately coaxing and threatening, gave to the Indians a feeling of distrust mingled with contempt. They thought they had been deceived by fair words and false professions, and they used the same means to further their own purposes.