The Seminole War

During the early period of the nineteenth century few troubles with the Indians existed, except those that formed a portion of the war with Great Britain. The first conflict with Tecumseh antedated that war, but the principal troubles with the Tecumseh confederacy, and with the Creeks, whom he had stirred up to hostility, were its resultants. The country east of the Mississippi was now so thickly occupied by white settlers as to awe the savages, and the final conflicts in this region came from two thinly-settled territories,-Wisconsin, in the far northwest, and Florida, in the southeast. In 1832 the famous chief Black Hawk roused the Sacs, Foxes, and Winnebagoes of Wisconsin to hostilities. As a result, most of the Indians were driven west of the Mississippi, and a treaty of peace was concluded, by which they ceded to the United States a large section of their territory.

The powerful tribal organizations of the Southern range of States, the Cherokees, Creeks, Chickasaws, and Choctaws, were gradually induced to yield their lands to the whites and to accept new homes in the Indian Territory. The Seminoles of Florida, a tribe said to have been derived from Creek refugees, resisted the efforts made to remove them, and started a war which proved to be the longest and most costly Indian war to which the United States had ever been subjected. Instead of being concluded in one or two severe campaigns, as in ordinary cases, it dragged its slow length along for seven years, until the government almost despaired of subduing its savage adversaries.

Difficulties with this tribe began in 1812, when Colonel Newnan invaded their territory and was forced to retreat with loss. The shelter which they gave to fugitive slaves, and their depredations on the settlements, were the cause of the next war, conducted by General Gaines and afterwards by General Jackson, which resulted in the cession of Florida by Spain to the United States in 1819.

The active efforts to settle this new territory which succeeded were partly checked by the presence and the lurking hostilities of the Indians, while the shelter which they gave to runaway slaves in their secret coverts formed another source of disturbance. Finally, in 1833 a treaty was made with the principal chiefs for the removal of the tribe to the Indian Territory. But many of the younger warriors resisted this treaty, which they declared to have been fraudulently obtained. The celebrated Osceola, in particular, displayed indications of determined hostility to the whites.

After evading the execution of the treaty until 1835, with studied dissimulation of their real intentions, in which Osceola acted his part so perfectly as completely to deceive the government agents, while in the mean time they collected all the arms and ammunition possible, they suddenly broke out into hostilities. Major Dade, with a party of over one hundred men, was ambushed, and the whole party killed or mortally wounded. At the same time Osceola and some followers made a sudden attack upon the government commissioner, General Thompson, and massacred him and several of his companions, within a short distance of Fort King. The war thus inaugurated was prosecuted with more or less vigor for several years succeeding. But such were the intricacies of the swamps in which the savages concealed themselves that they proved almost impossible to reach, while they constantly appeared at unexpected places and committed unceasing murders and depredations.

In October, 1836, Governor Call, with nearly two thousand men, penetrated the swamps, and defeated the Indians in two engagements. They received a severe blow in 1837. General Jessup, after several encounters with them, induced some of the principal chiefs to sign a treaty of removal. This treaty was soon broken through the influence of Osceola. But in October this chief, with several others, who had come into the American camp under the protection of a flag, was seized and held prisoner by General Jessup. Osceola was subsequently confined in Fort Moultrie, where he died of a fever in the following January.

In December, 1837, the army in Florida numbered about nine thousand men. Yet against this strong force the Indians still held out. A severe battle took place during this month near Lake Okechobee, in which General Taylor defeated the enemy, after a hard fight in the swamps.

Both sides now changed their tactics. The Indians avoided pitched battles, and confined themselves to unexpected onslaughts, while hiding effectively from the troops. The whites, on the contrary, penetrated the everglades more and more deeply, and gradually broke up the lurking-places of the foe. A warfare of a peculiar and unusual character ensued, a description of the principal features of which we select from Fairbanks's "History of Florida."]

THE winter of 1838-39 was spent by the troops in active service in the endeavor to hunt out from their hiding-places the small Indian bands scattered through the country, but with little success, as the Indians, by their better knowledge of the country, were enabled to avoid their pursuers. Occasionally their settlements were reached and broken up, but few of the Indians were seen.

During the operations of this campaign, one hundred and ninety-six Indians and negroes surrendered or were captured and sent West.