The Seminole Indian Wars

Mark A. Clark

After the War of 1812 the United States was looking to expand the newly formed nation.  Indians in the southeast United States were causing problems for Americans who were trying to expand their land.  The United States was hampered and frustrated by the Seminoles Indians.  The Seminole Indians were a tribe that flourished and survived for nearly a century.  The Seminoles were seen as one of the Five Civilized Tribes in the southeast, but the Seminoles willingness to help escaped slaves led to a conflict with the United States.  The Seminole Wars lasted for years and cost the United States in both money and soldiers and peoples lives.  The Seminole Wars were fought in dangerous jungle like settings and the Seminole Indians were a determined people and used guerrilla tactics to bring the better-equipped and trained American army to a standstill.[i]  In this research paper I will examine the Seminole Wars and the battles the United States had with the Indians leading up to the Seminole Wars.

In the early nineteen hundreds the Creek Indians found themselves fighting amongst themselves.  A detachment of Creek Indians led by Chief Little Warrior killed a group of traveling American families in what was called the Raisin River massacre.  The United States government was very upset by the actions of the Creek Indians and demanded that the Creek Indians surrender the murderers.  The Creeks took justice in their own hands and executed the murderers themselves.  The actions of the Creeks led to a split between them, the Lower Creeks known as the White Sticks who were in alliance with the white American government and the Upper Creeks known as the Red Sticks who were against allying with the white American government.  The United States would have many battles with the Upper Creek Red Sticks.[ii]

During the early nineteen hundreds the United States was involved with many battles leading up to the Seminole Indian Wars.  On August 30, 1813 the Red Stick Indians attacked the United States Fort, Fort Mims located north of Mobile Alabama.  Fort Mims was lead by Major Donald Beasley said that he could hold the Fort against any Indians, but was unprepared for the Red Stick Indians.  The Red Stick Indians destroyed the Fort and massacred about three hundred and fifty people only about thirty six people escaped with most of the blacks who were kept so the Red Sticks could use them as slaves for the Creek Indians.  The massacre shocked and upset the United States so a committee on public safety called on Andrew Jackson to help with the Indian problem.  The Tennessee Legislator allotted Andrew Jackson enough money to outfit an army of about thirty five hundred soldiers to fight the Indians in the southeast of the United States.[iii]

The First Seminole War

After the War of 1812 the Spanish authorities could not stop the escaping slaves who were fleeing to Florida.  During the War of 1812 the British built a fortress near the United States boarder.  In 1816 the fortress was held by over a three hundred and fifty man garrison made up mostly of runaway slaves who were allies with the Seminole Indians.  The southern slaveholders were very unhappy about this fort of former black slaves saying they were a menace to their lives and their property.  The United States demanded that the Spanish remove the Fort, which was in Spanish territory, or the United States in self-defense would have to enter Spanish territory and destroy the Fort themselves.  The Spanish government wanted to remove the Fortress but were unable to do anything about it due to the weakness of their own government.  So the United States sent a garrison of men led by Colonel Duncan L. Clinch to destroy the Fortress.  Colonel Clinch’s attachment attacked the Fortress, but he was unsuccessful at destroying it.  It was not until a cannon ball shot from a United States gunboat that was sailing on the Apalachicola River hit the major powder magazine and destroyed the Fortress.  The explosion killed two hundred and seventy of the tree hundred and fifty black soldiers in the Fortress and the United States also recovered a large number of weapons.[iv]

In retaliation of the attack on the fortress by the United States chief Neamathla of the Seminole Indian tribe ambushed a United States gunboat killing thirty-four soldiers, six of the soldiers wives were captured, and killed four children.  The attack by the United States combined with the ambush by the Seminole Indians was the start of the conflicts between the United States and the Seminole Indians.  Chief Neamathla’s village was close to the United States Fort Scott so chief Neamathla sent word to the commander of the Fort General Edmund P. Gaines not to attack the Seminoles or their allies again.  General Gaines found this demand to be unacceptable and in turn demanded chief Neamathla to come to Fort Scott.  When chief Neamathla did not follow the orders of General Gaines the General sent an attachment of about two hundred and fifty men to retrieve the chief.  Upon arriving to the Seminole village the soldiers found that the chief had escaped, there were five Seminoles killed and the General ordered the Seminoles village to be burned down.  These actions of the Seminoles and the United States are to be said to be the start of the Seminole Wars.[v]

The combination of the fights with the Indians, runaway slaves, and the weakness of the Spanish government in Florida drew attention to the administration of President Monroe.  In December of 1817 John Calhoun the Secretary of War ordered General Andrew Jackson to the region and gave General Jackson full power to conduct the war as he saw it necessary.[vi]  General Jackson took about fifteen hundred militia and volunteers and also about eighteen hundred Creek Indian warriors led by Chief William McIntosh to Florida.[vii]  General Jackson’s force hit the Seminole town of Miccosukee, which was one of the largest Seminole towns, and burned down over three hundred of the town’s houses and buildings.  General Jackson reported that only one of the soldiers was killed and several were wounded, the casualties of the Seminole Indians were unknown.  General Jackson had destroyed the largest town of the Seminoles and took all the crops and cattle.  General Jackson went on to St. Marks one of the Spanish’s largest settlements in Florida and occupied the town with out a fight. 

The next objective for General Jackson was a Seminole town led by chief Bowlegs.  The United States force encountered the Seminoles and after a brief firefight the Seminoles retreated, the United States captured about one hundred Seminoles and General Jackson ordered the town to be burnt down.[viii]  During this small battle General Jackson captured two British citizens and after a summary trail General Jackson ordered the men to be executed for aiding the Seminole Indians.  The United States believed that these British citizens and their intrigues with the Indians and runaway slaves were largely responsible for the First Seminole War.[ix]   The executions of the British citizens and the capture of St. Marks and Pensacola, both Spanish towns, by General Jackson created international problems for the United States.  This outside pressure on the United States caused a division in the capital.  Some in Washington wanted to see General Jackson resign but the President John Q. Adams supported the General.  Not only did President Adams support General Jackson he used the attacks that the General made for leverage and told the Spanish government if they could not control the Seminole Indians they should give up their land to the United States.  In 1819 the Spanish sold Florida to the United States for five million dollars and a promise by the United States to honor the rights of the Indians.[x] 

It was wrote in a South Georgia newspaper that, “The war was at an end, to all intent and purpose-the enemy’s strong holds had been destroyed-many of them killed or taken prisoners, and the remainder, a feeble band, dispersed and scattered in every direction.”[xi]  The First Seminole Indian War was over and the United States now was in possession of the peninsula of Florida.  White American settlers saw an opportunity to take advantage of the land that the Seminole Indians were kicked out of.[xii]  General Jackson was made the intern governor of the newly acquired land from the Spanish.  The area that was now inhabited by Americans saw population and economic growth and the Seminoles were seeing the exact opposite the beginning time of disaster.  This would lead to the Second Seminole War.[xiii]

The Second Seminole War

The Seminoles were the last of the Indians in the southeast to move west to the Indian Territory.  In 1830 President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act saying to congress “It seems now to be an established fact that [Indians] can not live in contact with a civilized community and prosper.”  The United States sent James Gadsden to pressure the Seminoles to sign the Treaty of Payne’s Landing.  The Seminoles believed that the singing was not legal it was believed that the Seminole chiefs were made to sign the treaty under questionable circumstances. [xiv]  The Treaty of Payne’s Landing required the Seminoles to leave Florida to the Indian Territory in Oklahoma within three years and the United States government would give the Seminoles a blanket for each man, women, and child and to the whole tribe fifteen thousand and four hundred dollars.  When the three years had passed and the Seminoles were supposed to be out of Florida not one Seminole Indian had left Florida, but had moved deeper into the Everglades.[xv]     

The Second Seminole Indian War started in the later part of 1835.  The United States Army launched a campaign to remove the Seminole Indians to the Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River.  The Army thought that this would be fairly easy since many other local tribes had moved with little or no resistance.  The Army was shocked when the Seminoles launched numerous attacks on the military detachments and destroyed many American settlements in Florida.  President Andrew Jackson saw the failures of the Army unacceptable and started replacing the leadership of the military, President Jackson had replaced the commanders four times within a years time.  President Jackson put Major General Thomas Sidney Jesup in command; General Jesup was an experienced Indian fighter who was well liked by his troops because he took very good care of them.  General Jesup demanded that President Jackson give him sufficient men and supplies to successfully complete his task and President Jackson did.  General Jesup proved to be the most effective of all the commanders who waged war against the Seminoles.  General Jesup started by building multiple Forts and surrounded himself the best men including lower leadership, but General Jesup proved to be the most effective because of his decision to fight the Seminoles using guerrilla warfare techniques and rejecting traditional warfare. [xvi]

Tensions among the Seminoles and the United States grew so the Seminoles meet and formally decided to resist removal by any means necessary and also declared that any Seminole Indian that accepted the removal plan would be killed.  Know as the greatest Seminole chief, chief Osceola killed the most influential chief that was in favor of moving to the western Indian settlements.  The Seminoles struck first blood under the leadership of Osceola, they struck and destroyed Major Francis Dade’s one hundred and eight man force; Major Dade’s force was completely wiped out to the last man.  Next the Seminoles attacked over seven hundred soldiers under the command of General Duncan Clinch even though the Seminoles were out numbered heavily the Seminoles sent General Clinch in a confused retreat. [xvii]  In 1836 a letter was written to Joseph M. White in Washington by Elias Wallen a Florida resident.  The letter said “ The Indians are destroying all the plantations around us, and no means of their being prevented from doing so, and their trail has been discovered within eight or ten miles of this place.  If the Government does not send a force sufficient, immediately, to stop them in their devastation, God knows where it is to end;”[xviii] 

Throughout 1836 the army under General Jesup won many battles, captured many of the Seminoles and persuaded many of the Seminoles to move west to avoid bloodshed.  General Jesup found the Seminoles to be very worthy opponents and knew that for this war to come to an end the war would lead to heavy losses and bloodshed.  Since the public and General Jesups superiors demanded quick results General Jesup started considering other means of removing the Seminole Indians fairly.  General Jesup started believing that the United States was wrong in trying to remove the Seminoles before the land was needed for settlements.[xix]  General Jesup attempted to negotiate a safe honorable end to the conflict since the Seminoles were tiered and hungry so the Seminoles were willing to negotiate.  The negotiations worked so well it was recorded that General Jesup reported to his superiors, “The war is over.”  General Jesups statements were premature some Seminole Indians received word that the General was going to import blood hounds from Cuba to hunt out the Seminoles that retreated to the swaps for safety.  The situation grew even worse when slave hunters began raiding Seminole villages collecting the run away slaves and returning them to their owners.  The negotiations were lost and the Seminoles went back into the forests and the war started again.  General Jesup was criticized forcefully from his superiors in Washington and the General stated, “If the war be carried it must be one of extermination” and “We have, at no former period in our history, had to contend with so formidable an enemy.”  General Jesup wanted to have nothing to do with a war of extermination so he asked to be relieved of his command, but the army refused his requests.  Later when given the chance to step down General Jesup decided to stay in charge and redeem himself of all the criticism he had endured.[xx]

General Jesup dropped his former techniques and decided to start seizing Seminole chiefs and Seminole Indians under a truce flag.  General Jesup set his sites on the most powerful of the Seminole Indians, chiefs Osceola, the General sent a force to surround the Seminoles and demand to negotiate the removal of the Seminoles.  Shortly after the forced negotiations General Jesup’s force moved in and captured all of the Seminoles without a gunshot fired.  Chief Osceola who was very sick was held as a prisoner at Fort Moultrie in South Carolina.  Chief Osceola died of a throat infection in January of 1838 and given a full military burial, but without his head.[xxi]

General Jesup by the end of 1837 had many victories against the Seminole Indians and the General had removed over two thousand Seminole Indians.  The last significant battle of the Second Seminole War was the Battle of Okeechobee on Christmas of 1837.  A force of over four hundred Seminole Indians escaped from a prison at St. Augustine the United States force led by Zachary Taylor quickly destroyed and captured the Seminole Indians.  Again General Jesup was tiered of the war and wrote to the Secretary of War for the purpose of letting the Seminoles be allowed to remain in southern Florida.  General Jesup stated, “We have committed the error of attempting to remove them when the lands were not required for agricultural purposes.”  The Secretary of War refused General Jesups request so General Jesup went on capturing Seminole Indians and Seminole Indian chiefs.[xxii]

Finally General Jesup was relieved of command by his own request and replaced by Zachary Taylor.  The Seminole War drug on for nearly five more years.  All of the Seminoles were never found and removed. In early 1843 the United States Army finally gave up on the Seminole Wars and with drew the troops and called off the war.  Hostilities continued to happen between the Seminoles and the whites and continued until 1858 when most of the hostile Seminole Indians were persuaded to move to the western Indian reservations by a group of western Seminoles.  The few Seminole Indians left in Florida still resisted white expansion and peace was not officially negotiated until 1934 almost one hundred years later.[xxiii]

Throughout the Seminole Wars the United States was successful in removing over thirty eight hundred Seminole Indians to the western Indian Territory.  The price of the Seminole Wars was very high to the United States.  The Seminole Wars lasted close to thirty years, over fifteen hundred of United States soldiers died, and cost the United States somewhere between twenty million and sixty million dollars.  On top of it all the Seminole Wars were a notional embarrassment.  The United States Army was shocked by the fierceness and ferocity of the Seminoles and was unprepared for the extensive war.  The United States Army loss respect internationally and domestically in a war that could have been avoided.[xxiv]                    

Links:

Seminoles of Florida History

Second Seminole War

Seminole Tribe of Florida: History