Knetsch's book is a solid introduction to the Seminole Wars, although it was unclear at times. The biggest strengths were the balanced storytelling and the general narrative as well as the maps. However sometimes the timeline of events and the scale of events were confusing. It would have been helpful to a novice reader like myself to have critical events highlighted more. So as a result, I ended up consulting a lot of outside sources on the internet to get a clearer view of what happened in the war. But the book was really good and informative for my upcoming trip on the Seminole Wars Heritage Trail through Florida.
The most important takeaway I have from what I learned about the war is that this truly was a genocide. It is an obvious thing to say, but reading about it really makes it clear. The US military was not fighting battles against an army, it was exterminating a people if unable to forcibly deport them. It is horrific how commonplace it is in this book to read about military attacks on civilian populations, and routinized destruction and burning of Seminole villages. Something else important to understand is that, as Knetsch writes, the Second Seminole War was also the largest slave revolt in US history. Hundreds of escaped slaves fought as "Black Seminoles" and slavers on southern plantations were some of the war's biggest supporters, hoping to eliminate a backdoor escape route for their human property. But emigration was not easy. Betty Mae Tiger Jumper relayed a story to the author from her great-great-grandmother, who had told her great-grandmother and great-aunt instructions on how to follow natural signs and rivers, with the hope of helping them to escape the fates of their mother and older sisters, who were frequently raped by soldiers on their trip west.
The First Seminole War (1817-1818)
The First Seminole War began near modern Albany, Georgia, near the Florida border. After the Treaty of Fort Jackson that ended the Creek War (1813-14), the Creek Confederation had surrendered lands, but not everyone in the area had agreed. The United States claimed title based on the treaty, but the people of Fowltown, led by Chief Neamathla, pointed out that they were never consulted, and that the Creek tribes did not speak for them, and besides Neamathla's people had been there first. So when General Edmund P. Gaines started establishing forts in the area, conflict broke out, and the federal forces forced Neamathla and his people to retreat from Fowltown and abandon it in November, 1817.
But the First Seminole War was not just about conflict between the United States and Native Americans. It was also between the nascent United States and Spain. The United States was negotiating an acquisition of Florida, which the United States had been periodically sending military forces through since around 1810. Spain had been conquered by Napoleon and revolutions were breaking out in its American colonies, showing that it was unable to control its far-flung territories. This was punctuated by the adventurer and charlatan Gregor McGregor seizing Amelia Island in northeast Florida from the Spanish without opposition in June of 1817.
If the war hadn't already begun at Fowltown, it had certainly begun on November 30, 1817, when the Native Americans responded. Several hundred "Red Sticks" (Creek warriors) led by Homathlamico and Hillis Hadjo (Joseph Francis) ambushed a supply vessel on the Apalachicola River carrying twenty armed soldiers, twenty sick soldiers, seven women, and four children. This became known as the Scott Massacre. However, Knetsch mentions that he has examined all the reports personally, and says that it is far from clear that any children were present, and that that "fact" may be propaganda to whip up support for Jackson's campaign through the panhandle later.
Fresh off his victory in 1815 at the Battle of New Orleans, Andrew Jackson was spoiling for another fight. He was lucky to find a willing Secretary of War in John C. Calhoun, an ardent expansionist at the time. Calhoun supported Jackson and gave him orders authorizing Jackson to cross into Florida to take action against Native Americans, although he was strictly ordered not to take possession of any Spanish fort. He was not to jeopardize Spanish garrisons or citizens in any way, and could only attack or seize Native Americans.
Jackson invaded Florida in March 1818. He marched his men down the Apalachicola River and established Fort Gadsden, and proceeded to the Apalachee town of Anhaica (modern Tallahassee), which he burned on March 31. He burned the village on Lake Miccosukee the next day, destroying 300 houses and taking over 1,000 head of cattle. The army was enraged when they found, on April 1, scalps hanging from poles and clothing from the boat captured in the Scott Massacre. Jackson then proceeded to St. Marks, arriving on April 6, taking possession of a Spanish fort. Jackson (in a move to become common in US dealings with native peoples) engaged in some trickery. He raised a British flag at the fort, which enticed Homathlamico and Hadjo into the open, who had thought that Scottish traders had arrived. Jackson captured and executed the men responsible for the Scott Massacre. As a punitive expedition, the First Seminole War was over at St. Marks, but Jackson had bigger political ambitions.
At this point I find it irresistible to compare Jackson to Caesar in Gaull (probably because I just listened to the Dan Carlin Hardcore History episode about it). Like Caesar, Jackson was an ambitious general. Also like Caesar, Jackson lived in an unstable Republic. And most similarly, they both found themselves in control of powerful armies with a weak native population at their mercy (although all the numbers are much bigger in Caesar's case). Later, Jackson would, like Caesar, threaten the foundations of the Republic, but Jackson would not topple it as Caesar did. But, in keeping with Caesarian tradition, Jackson found justification to extend his orders, and he resolved to take the most important Spanish city between St. Marks and New Orleans: Pensacola.
Jackson had already indicated to Secretary Calhoun that he wanted to seize territory, and Congress had passed a resolution allowing the seizure of Florida under certain circumstances, if another major power tried to seize the land before Spain could give it up to the United States. Jackson claimed that the presence of the Scottish traders (who were British subjects that Jackson would execute in April) was justification under the resolution. And moreover, the seizure of Amelia Island provided further justification, as some economic activity (slave trading) was already evading US customs there. But perhaps more importantly, Florida was a lawless anarchy on the American border. It provided an area for slaves to escape to and American slaveholders feared guns in the hands of black men who "marooned" south of the border. There were economic concerns as well: Florida was rich in live oak trees, cedar, cypress, and yellow pine, and provided fertile ground for growing cotton.
And so the First Seminole War proceeded less like a war and more like a marauding party. Jackson faced essentially no opposition and did not fight a single pitched battle. Supposedly, Jackson had been informed that as many as 5,000 Indians were being armed by Spanish officials at Pensacola, so he returned first to Fort Gadsden, where he wrote a letter to Calhoun informing him of his intent to take Pensacola, and then resumed the march westward. He justified taking Pensacola in his letter on the existence of some other clashes in Alabama and that the Governor of Spanish Florida would not allow a US vessel to pass up the Escambia River through Pensacola to send provisions to Fort Crawford, Alabama. Jackson arrived and it was immediately apparent that there would only be token opposition. The Spanish governor retreated to the Fort Carlos de Barrancas, fired one artillery piece at no one in particular, and surrendered the land, fulfilling his obligation to offer resistance in the name of the King. At the end of the First Seminole War portion of the book, I am not convinced this was much of a war. The border war between cattle ranchers continued unabated after 1818 as it had for decades before 1817. Jackson never met the Native Americans or the Spanish in open battle. Every large town he approached was abandoned before he arrived. The Natives were certainly not defeated, as they had avoided pitched battles, and are known to have only lost two leaders, Hadjo and Homathlamico. But more escaped slaves coming from the United States added to their strength.
The First Interlude 1821-1835
After the war, the federal government decided initially that it wouldn't move the Native Americans from Florida, but would keep them in two reservations: a smaller one on the Apalachicola River, and a larger one throughout the center of the peninsula, roughly from Ocala to Tampa down to somewhere north of Okeechobee and over to the east without ever touching the coast. Neamathla had apparently negotiated to avoid having any land on the ocean, where evil influences could corrupt the youth. The Treaty of Moultrie Creek was signed in 1823 and would seemingly guarantee to the Seminoles a reservation in Florida as well as twenty years of payments from the federal government.
But it wouldn't work out so well. First, the supplies that the government provided were cut-rate. The Seminoles would need time before they could profitably farm the land in the center of Florida, and during that time they were dependent on US government shipments of food, which came sparingly. It wasn't enough, and Seminoles were dying of starvation in the 1820s. In the meantime, the military was establishing forts at Fort King (Ocala) and Fort Brooke (Tampa) to monitor the Seminoles. Federal troops also built Fort Duval at this time at the mouth of the Suwanee River, further north on the gulf coast. Throughout the period of the "Interlude" there was continued lawlessness and raiding between and among the white settlers moving into Florida and the Seminoles moving further down the peninsula. Congress passed the Indian Removal Act in 1830, mandating removal of all Native Americans living east of the Mississippi River. Pursuant to this, government agents went to Florida to secure the removal of the Seminoles. In 1832, Seminoles signed, in the face of starvation and further encroachment, the Treaty of Payne's Landing, in which they agreed to leave Florida within three years in exchange for $80,000 to the collective and a shirt and a blanket for each of them that arrived in the West. But from the Seminole point of view, this treaty was non-binding, and they thought that they would get a choice to move or not after their representatives had investigated the land promised to them in Oklahoma. They determined not to leave, and tensions built over the three years until they released in war in 1835.
The Second Seminole War 1835-1842
This is the main event of the Seminole Wars. It began with the Dade Massacre, on December 28, 1835, in which Osceola led and executed a well-planned attack against a column led by Major Dade on the way to Tampa. Only three men survived the battle, and two died of their wounds shortly thereafter. Within days, and before news had spread of any uprising, Seminoles also made an attack and killed most of a family on the banks of the New River in what is now Fort Lauderdale, leading to the temporary abandonment of the settlement and evacuation to Cape Florida. Seminoles also ambushed a force on the Withlacoochee River, without much result. The Seminoles had initial successes, and captured almost all of the eastern coast of Florida, with another attack on the lighthouse in Bill Baggs Park in Cape Florida in the summer of 1836. But these successes ended up being worse for the Seminole cause in the long run, as they rallied the nation against them. Volunteers from as far as Philadelphia made their way to Florida to fight in the war.
General Winfield Scott entered Florida in February 1836 planning to eradicate the Seminoles by sending three columns through Seminole territory in a triple-pincer converging on the Withlacoochee River, known to be the major home of the remaining Seminoles. One headed south from Fort Drane (near modern Ocala), and another headed north from Fort Brooke (modern Tampa), and another left St. Augustine, moving southwest through Palatka (then known as Palatlakaha). But things never got going. The Tampa troops nearly mutinied and never left Fort Brooke. Another column burned the Seminole village at Palatkaha and then went to Tampa without reaching the Withlacoochee. I am unsure how this worked geographically or which column it was. Knetsch says it was the "left wing," but who is "left" in a three-pronged attack? I am left in confusion.
General Thomas Jesup assumed command in 1836 with the largest military force yet, numbering 9,000, and coming fresh off of suppressing a Creek uprising in Georgia. About half of the force were volunteers and militia. Jesup marched from Fort Brooke east towards modern-day Orlando and then south towards Okeechobee, where he had intelligence that Seminole leader Sam Jones had an encampment. Another force moved along the east coast from St. Augustine to Miami, and a much smaller third force travelled up the Caloosahatchee River to Lake Okeechobee. Critically, the column marching to Okeechobee from Fort Brooke forced the Seminoles to fight a more-or-less standard battle in 1837, but the US took major casualties, suffering 26 dead and 112 wounded with the Seminoles only taking 11 dead and 14 wounded. The federal forces were able to hold the field however, and Zachary Taylor, the future president who led the troops on the field, declared victory (somewhat unconvincingly). William Lauderdale's force reached south Florida by 1838 and drove Seminoles off of Pine Island Ridge on March 22.
What is also important to note at this point is that the Second Seminole War was also the largest slave rebellion in American history. More escaped slaves fought in the war than any other conflict to date, and a huge portion of the reason the US fought the war was to eliminate the refuge for escaped slaves. But the Seminoles refused to sell out their allies. Although intermarriage was rare with the "Black Seminoles," the Seminoles stood united and refused offers of clemency for the Native Americans that would have led to re-enslavement of the black escapees. Jesup had informed the government that this was a "Negro War," not an Indian war. Jesup ended up permitting some Black Seminoles to migrate west. The option to migrate west was the critical pressure release valve throughout the wars that drained the morale of the Seminoles. Since the option was always kept open, it helped to divide Seminoles between the fiercest resistors and those who just needed a place to live. After all, the Seminoles were only one or two generations (at most) from living outside of Florida.
Jesup's greatest success came about from a trickery that is familiar throughout US dealings with Native Americans. He put up a white flag of truce for negotiations and then illegally captured Coacoochee, Osceola, and Coa Hadjo. Coacoochee and others escaped, but Osceola was gravely ill and remined behind. He was eventually shipped to South Carolina, where he died and became a symbol to opponents of the war as a "noble savage."
A truce came about in 1840 allowing Seminoles to live south of the line from Tampa to New Smyrna, but it would not be ratified by the US government, which at that point was bent on complete deportation and extermination. The truce still banned Seminoles from going within 20 miles of the coast. Originally, Neamthla had negotiated this to avoid corrupting influences on the Seminole youth, but now it was the Us government that wanted it to prevent the Seminoles from trading with Cuban and Bahamian fishermen. Any contact with whites outside of the reservation was prohibited, and all justice was meted out by the US government, not the Seminole councils. As the war resumed, significant numbers of Seminoles coming out of hiding and negotiating their terms of emigration. This resulted that by mid-1842, there were only about 300 souls left wandering around trying to avoid capture or death, according to Knetsch.
The Second Interlude (1843-1855)
The new settlers in Florida sent delegates in 1838 and 1839 to St. Joseph to start formulating a plan of government, which lasted until Florida joined the Confederacy in 1861. Florida would become a state on March 3, 1845, after long debates about the cost of the war. Ultimately, it was decided that the federal government would continue to provide for defense and military needs while the state government would cover the rest. By 1854, deputy surveyors were sent into the old limits of the Native American boundary to learn about the land, which could only mean that there would be more settlement. Knowing this, the Seminoles who remained felt forced to fight again. After suffering an attack on a Seminole plantation in the eastern Everglades, they led an attack on December 20, 1855 against the command of Lieutenant George Hartsuff near Billy Bowleg's town, in the modern Fort Myers area.
The Third Seminole War (1855-1858)
The final act in the Seminole wars featured no pitched battles, and the casualties caused by disease were the majority. It was essentially a low-intensity conflict between the bands of Billy Bowlegs, Assinwah, and Sam Jones in the Everglades and the federal government. Knetsch calls it a war of attrition and demobilization. The war ended with a conference near Fort Myers with Assinwah's band and others, resulting in terms that gave monetary inducements to leave. Billy Bowlegs and his band also agreed to deportation, and boarded a ship from Tampa Bay to the west. By the end of the war, the only remaining were 100 Seminoles and Miccosukees, including Sam Jones.
Miscellaneous Facts:
- "Seminole" comes from the Spanish word cimarrones, meaning wild ones or those who broke away.
- "Tallahasee" was an old Native American village that comes from the Muskogee term for "old fields."
- Much of the early portion of the book takes place in what is now Alachua County. I found it interesting that Payne's Prairie is named after the Seminole chief Payne and Gainesville is named after General Gaines. So Payne got the land that no one lives on now and Gaines got the "ville," where Seminole is still a bad word. I did some more Wikipedia research on Payne's Prairie. Seminoles raised cattle on the land descended from the original cattle of the abandoned La Chua ranch, which was owned by Spaniards who got the land from Timucua peoples. The Seminoles lived near modern Micanopy and then along the shores of Lake Wauberg in two towns named Cuscowilla, and Payne was the son of a man named Cowkeeper. So there's an interesting continuity to the land with the cattle originally brought by the Spaniards but then taken by the Seminoles.
- King Payne, of Payne's Prairie, was the son of Cowkeeper, and had a brother named Bolek or "Bowlegs." It is believed that they are related to Billy Bowlegs, the Seminole leader who came a generation or two later.
- The future President Franklin Pierce's brother fought in the Second Seminole War.
- At the time of the Second Seminole War, militia forces cost on average about four times as much as that of regular soldiers, and were limited to three months' service at any time. The reason they cost more was because they provided their own horses and weapons and were reimbursed by the government, which costed more than providing standardized armament.
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