The Exiles of Florida

“And the party of the second part releases, transfers and assigns to the party of the first part, all their right, title, claim, interest and demand in and to the annuity granted by the party of the first part to the party of the second part, for the year 1837. In witness whereof, I, John A. Campbell, on the part of the United States, do hereby set my hand and affix my seal, the 28th of August, 1836.”

“JOHN A. CAMPBELL, [L.S.]”

“In witness whereof, we, the Chiefs and Head-men of said tribe, on the behalf of said Nation, do hereby set our hands and affix our seals, the 28th of August, 1836.”

“HYPOTHLE YOHOLA, his X mark, [L.S.]LITTLE DOCTOR, his X mark, [L.S.]TUCKABATCHEE MICO, his X mark, [L.S.]YELCO HAYO, his X mark,[L.S.]”

“Attest: EDWARD HAWICK,

BARENT DUBOIS.”

The real character of this contract will at once be seen when the reader shall be reminded, that the laws of the United States had, in the most specific manner, prescribed the amount to be paid each man who should enter the military service of the Government, and the manner and time of payment; nor had there been any act passed enabling General Jessup, or the Secretary of War, or the President, to employ any other persons in the army except those enlisted in the ordinary mode; yet this contract was duly approved by the War Department, at that time under the direction of General Cass. That provision which gives to the Creek warriors such plunder as they might capture, has been denounced as “piratical;” and we are constrained to admit there is some degree of propriety in this denunciation, when we find that General Jessup, by whose orders it was framed, and General Cass, Secretary of War, who approved it, and the Creek Warriors who signed it, all understood that the Creeks were to hold as slaves all the negroes they might capture, while engaged in the service of the United States. It was this construction which subsequently involved the War Department in difficulties, from which it has never been able to extricate itself.

The barbarous practice of enslaving prisoners captured in war, had been repudiated by all Christian nations for more than two hundred years. The civilization of the sixteenth century had brought that atrocious practice into disrepute, which was now resorted to and renewed in the nineteenth, by this American Republic, so boastful of its refinement and Christianity. While the laws of the United States provided for an ignominious punishment of those who seize the stupid heathen of Africa and enslave them, our nation was taxing its resources, employing our army and paying out its funds, to employ heathen allies to capture and enslave a people who for generations had been free.

On the nineteenth of September, General Armstrong, with a brigade of twelve hundred Tennessee militia, was ordered to Suwanee “Old Town.” Here he was met by a detachment of two hundred Creek warriors, under Major Brown, and a battalion of Florida militia, under Colonel Warren; and with this formidable army, Governor Call moved upon Withlacoochee. On coming near the stream he encamped.

During the darkness of night the allies fired upon his troops, and kept them in a state of alarm. In the morning it was found that the river had suddenly risen, which rendered it difficult for the troops to cross; and this gallant army returned to Fort Drane for supplies without firing a gun or seeing an enemy, leaving the allies in peaceful possession of the country.

But the Indians and Exiles now found themselves almost daily threatened in their own fastnesses. Along the Withlacoochee were many small villages and plantations occupied almost exclusively by Exiles. Large crops of corn and other vegetables had been raised there during the season, and it was known that stores of provisions were located upon various islands surrounded by the swamps lying along that river, and in the great morass called the “Wahoo Swamp;” while it was equally known that many families of the Exiles were residing in that vicinity. It was therefore deemed important to destroy those villages and obtain the supplies which they contained.

General Armstrong, with five hundred mounted men, while marching toward these villages on the fourteenth of November, encountered a strong force consisting of Indians and Exiles. The conflict was spirited. In forty minutes, eleven of Armstrong’s men fell before the deadly aim of the allies. He, however, drove them from the field, but they took with them their dead and wounded. This fact with savages is regarded the only test of success in battle: they never acknowledge defeat while they hold possession of their dead and wounded.

But the time drew near when they were constrained to acknowledge a defeat. On the eighteenth of November, a regiment of Tennesseeans, consisting of about five hundred, encountered a body of the enemy whose numbers are not given by any officer or historian whom we have consulted. They were posted in a hommock. The Tennesseeans were the assailing party. The battle continued more than two hours, when the allies fled, leaving upon the field twenty-five Indians and Africans slain in battle; while the loss of the assailants was still larger. This was the best contested battle which occurred during the campaign of 1836, and the first in which the allies left their dead in possession of our troops.

This defeat appears to have taught the allies to be cautious, and stimulated a desire to wipe out the impression which their defeat was calculated to make upon the public mind.

General Call having formed a junction with Major Pearce of the regular service, with nearly three hundred regular troops under his command, making in all more than one thousand men, entered the great Wahoo Swamp on the twenty-first of November. Their intention was to obtain the provisions supposed to be deposited in the villages situated upon the islands in that extensive morass. But they were attacked soon after entering the swamp. The fire at first was principally concentrated upon the Creek Indians, the mercenary troops employed by General Jessup. Major Pearce hastened to their relief. The fire then became general. The men were in a swamp which was nearly covered with water, and much of it with a thick underbrush. After maintaining the battle for a time, the Indians fell back, crossed the river, and formed upon its bank, each man protected by a log or tree. The river was turbid and appeared difficult to pass. As our troops approached it, the fire upon them was severe. Captain Moniac, of the Creek warriors, was killed while examining the stream to ascertain if it could be forded. Others were wounded. The allied force appeared determined to make their final stand upon this stream. Behind them were their wives and children, their provisions, their homes and firesides.

General Call and his troops now obtained an opportunity of fighting the enemy; a privilege which he had long sought, though he embraced it under disadvantageous circumstances. Our troops had great inducements to advance, but the dangers corresponded with the advantages to be gained.89 General Call, however, concluded to withdraw; and after sustaining a heavy loss he retreated and left the allies in possession of the field. They very correctly, feeling that their success depended greatly upon the position they had taken, did not pursue General Call, who, with his whole force, retired to Volusi to recruit. His loss was fifteen killed and thirty wounded.

It is certain the allies manifested great skill in selecting their place of attack, and the position for their final stand. Their success greatly encouraged them, and the gallantry displayed by the Exiles served to increase their influence with the Indians.

The Creek warriors had shown themselves very efficient in this expedition, but they suffered severely; and at no subsequent period did they maintain their former character as warriors. They had been greatly stimulated in this conflict with the expectation of capturing women and children, whom they expected to seize and sell as slaves. But so far as that object was concerned, their warriors who fell in this battle died ingloriously, and the result discouraged the survivors.

CHAPTER X.

THE WAR CONTINUED – PEACE DECLARED

General Jessup assumes command of the Army – Number of Troops in the Field – His Advantages – His energetic Policy – Orders Crawford to the Withlacoochee – Capture of fifty two Women and Children – They are held as plunder by the Creeks – Wild Cat and Louis attack Fort Mellon – Severe Battle – Allies retire with their dead and wounded – Death of Captain Mellon – Our loss in killed and wounded – Caulfield’s Expedition to A-ha-popka Lake – Capture of nine Women and Children – Expedition to Big Cypress Swamp – Capture of twenty-five Women and Children – General Jessup seeks Negotiation – Abram and Alligator meet him preparatory to a more general Council – Several Chiefs agree upon terms of Capitulation – Difficulty in regard to Exiles – Jessup yields – Express Stipulation for their Safety – Indians and Exile come into Tampa Bay – Are Registered for Emigration – General Jessup discharges Militia and Volunteers – Transports prepared – He declares the War at an end, and asks to be relieved from active duty.

On the eighth of December, 1836, Major General Jessup joined General Call at Volusi, and relieved that officer from the further command of the army in Florida. He had now eight thousand troops in the field well provided in all the material of war. They were in fine spirits, and he was in all respects prepared to push the campaign with energy. He had all the advantages which experience of the previous campaign had furnished, and endeavored to profit by it. He was careful to order no large body of troops, nor any artillery, into the uninhabited portions of the country. He employed only light troops for such purposes. His first attention was directed to the settlements of Exiles on the Withlacoochee who had up to that time defied our army. They had been the object of frequent attacks, and the scene of as frequent defeats. He directed a battalion of mounted men under Major Crawford, accompanied by two battalions of Creek Indians, to make a sudden descent upon those villages. But the allies had removed their provisions, and most of the people had abandoned the settlements. A few only were left. The warriors fled to the swamps; and the troops seized and secured fifty-two women and children. These were the first prisoners captured during the war; and General Jessup made a formal report of this important victory. It was a victory over defenseless women and helpless children, obtained by the aid of Creek Indians, who claimed both women and children as plunder under their contract. But this victory stimulated the allies to strike in retaliation for the injury thus inflicted upon non-combatants.

1837

Fort Mellon, on the south side of a small body of water called Lake Monroe, some thirty miles west of the Atlantic, was supposed by the allies to be in a weak condition, and they determined to surprise it. Preparatory to this, however, they sent spies to examine and report the condition of the troops at that station. Their report being favorable, “Wild Cat,” acting in conjunction with Louis, the slave of Pacheco, who, it will be recollected, concerted the massacre of Major Dade, made their arrangements for an assault. With a force of two hundred and fifty warriors the allies invested this fort, which they supposed to be garrisoned by not more than one hundred men. Unfortunately for the assailants, however, other troops arrived after the Indian spies had left the vicinity of the fort, and the allied forces unexpectedly met superior numbers protected by defenses which are always regarded as safe against savage foes. The attack was made with great determination, and continued for three hours, when the assailants retired without leaving either dead or wounded upon the field.

Lieutenant Colonel Faning commanded our troops, numbering some three hundred men. A steamboat was lying in the lake, near the fort, having a field-piece on board. This was also brought to bear upon the left wing of the allied forces, so as to completely drive them from that part of the field.

Captain Mellon, who had entered the military service of the United States in 1812, fell early in the action. Midshipman McLaughlin and seventeen others were wounded; some of them mortally.

It may well be doubted, whether history furnishes an instance in which savage troops have beset a superior number of disciplined forces in a fortified position with such daring and obstinacy as that which was manifested at Fort Mellon.

There was a small settlement of Exiles and Indians upon the south side of A-ha-popka Lake, situated about the twenty-eighth degree of north latitude, and nearly equi-distant between the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico. On the twenty-second of January, Lieutenant Colonel Caulfield with his regiment was ordered to visit that settlement, attended by the Creek Indians. A sub-chief of the Seminoles, named Osuchee, with his band of warriors, hastened to the defense of their friends, as soon as they ascertained the object of our troops; but they were unable to resist the large force under Caulfield. Osuchee and three warriors were killed; and nine Exiles, all of them women and children, were taken prisoners.

All the disposable forces under General Jessup were now put into active employ. With the main body of the army he penetrated far into the Indian territory. His report, dated at Fort Armstrong, February seventh, after stating the commencement of his march, says, “On approaching the Thla-pac-hatchee, on the morning of the twenty-seventh ultimo, the numerous herds of cattle feeding on the prairies, and the numerous recent trails in various directions, indicated the presence of the enemy.” He goes on to say: “On the twenty-eighth, the army moved forward, and occupied a strong position on ‘Ta-hop-ka-liga’ Lake, where several hundred head of cattle were obtained.” These immense herds of cattle show to some extent the means of subsistence which the allies possessed. The commander of our army, however, proceeds to state that “the enemy was found on the Hatchee-lustee, in and near the great Cypress Swamp, and gallantly attacked. Lieutenant Chambers of the Alabama Volunteers, by a rapid charge, succeeded in capturing the horses and baggage of the enemy, with twenty-five Indians and negroes, principally women and children.” This language was novel in the military reports of our officers. A charge made by a body of armed troops upon horses, women and children, is termed by the commanding General “gallant.”

The next day one of the prisoners was directed to return to the two principal chiefs, Abraham, with whom the reader is already acquainted, and Alligator, who commanded the Indians, with a message of peace, desiring them to meet the commanding General in council.

Abraham was, perhaps, the most experienced and best informed chief in the allied forces. He had lived at Micanopy; and his familiar acquaintance with the treaty of Payne’s Landing, and the supplemental treaty entered into at the West, qualified him to exert a powerful influence with the Exiles.90 The Indians, also, appear to have held him in the highest respect.

Alligator was an active warrior and chief. He was a bold leader; but was supposed to be much under the influence of Micanopy, a chief somewhat advanced in years, said to be very corpulent, and too indolent to be otherwise than pacific in his desires. It is related of him, that he was actually carried, by the younger and more enthusiastic warriors, into battle on one occasion, in the early part of the war. It is not unlikely that both Abraham and Alligator were influenced in some degree by Micanopy to visit General Jessup, and make arrangements to hold a conference with him, at Fort Dade, on the eighteenth of February.

Lieut. Colonel Henderson, of the United States Marines, serving on land, also made a very successful excursion into the Indian Country, with a pretty large force of mounted men and friendly Indians. In his report, he states the capture “of twenty-three negroes, young and old; over a hundred ponies, with packs on about fifty of them; together with all their clothes, blankets, and other baggage.” In this expedition, his loss was two men killed and five wounded.

On the first of March, the troops under the command of Major General Jessup had captured one hundred and nine women and children of the Exiles, and some fifteen belonging to the Indians. The fortunes of war now bore hard upon those friendless and persecuted people; but not a warrior had fallen into the hands of our troops. It is a remarkable fact, that in all the conflicts which had occurred, no Seminole Indian nor negro warrior had surrendered, even to superior numbers. They had fought gallantly, they had died freely; but they preferred death to that slavery which they knew would follow a surrender.

General Jessup now ordered the cessation of hostilities, in the hope of getting the Indian and negro chiefs to assemble in council, in order to negotiate for their emigration West. After his interview with Abraham and Alligator, he appears to have felt confident of success. The Exiles and Indians also began to feel that it would soon be necessary for them to plant corn, potatoes and pumpkins, for their support during the coming season. Every effort was made by General Jessup to acquaint the different chiefs with this arrangement, and to induce them to come in, or send by some sub-chief or warrior an expression of their willingness to emigrate to the western country.

Agreeably to these arrangements, a few of their principal men met General Jessup at Fort Dade, near the Withlacoochee, on the sixth of March. Only five chiefs were present, either in person or by proxy. The principal chiefs in attendance were Halatoochie and Jumper.

But the former difficulty was again encountered, at the very commencement of the negotiation. The Indians would enter upon no arrangement that did not guarantee to the Exiles equal protection and safety as it did to the Indians. Such stipulation would constitute an abandonment of the objects for which the war had been commenced and prosecuted; but, after sixteen months occupied in hostilities, and the expenditure of much blood and treasure, this question lay directly across the path of peace. But the Indians were firm. Not one of the Exiles, except Abraham, now dared trust himself within the power of our troops; yet Abraham’s influence was powerful with the Indians.

General Jessup yielded. The articles of capitulation were drawn up and considered. The fifth reads as follows: – “Major General Jessup, in behalf of the United States, agrees that the Seminoles and their allies, who come in and emigrate West, shall be secure in their lives and property; that their negroes, their bona fide property, shall also accompany them West;91 and that their cattle and ponies shall be paid for by the United States.”

The language of this article could not be misunderstood. The black men then residing with the Indians, in the Indian Country, who were acting with them, and fighting our troops by the side of the Seminoles, were their “allies:” and to show that the capitulation was not a surrender of property, they were careful to have the compact expressly state, that their own “negroes, their bona fide property” (for many Seminoles owned slaves), should accompany them; and that their cattle and ponies, which would become the property of the captors by virtue of an ordinary surrender, under their ideas of warfare, were to be paid for by the United States. There was no room left for cavil or dispute on these points;92 nor could it be supposed that Abraham, with his experience and shrewdness, would leave such an important point doubtful.

Under these articles, the Exiles were to enjoy that security for which they had contended during a century and a half. It was for this that their ancestors left South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Florida; to attain it, they were willing to leave the graves of their fathers – the country in which they had lived during many generations. Abraham now entered upon the work of inducing all his brethren, both Indians and negroes, to go to the Western Country, where they could be free from persecutions.

Those willing to emigrate, were to assemble within a district of ten miles square, marked out for that purpose, near Tampa Bay. Many of the Indian chiefs visited that station; spoke encouragingly of the prospect; that the whole Nation would emigrate at no distant day. Even Osceola, the most inveterate of all the Seminole chiefs, visited Fort Mellon, avowing his intention to emigrate; while Abraham made report of a like feeling among the Exiles. Twenty-six vessels, employed to transport the emigrants to New Orleans, were anchored in Tampa Bay. Hundreds of Indians and negroes had reached the camp assigned to the emigrants, near “Fort Brooke.” Their names were duly registered; they drew their rations, and made every preparation to go West.

General Jessup announced the war at an end, dismissed the militia and volunteers, and asked of the Department leave to retire from active duty.

CHAPTER XI.

GENERAL JESSUP OVERTHROWS HIS OWN EFFORTS IN FAVOR OF PEACE

Mr. Van Buren’s advent to the office of President – Follows the policy of his predecessor – General Jessup’s stipulation in favor of the Exiles – Sustained by precedent, and by National Law – Not contrary to General Jackson’s object in commencing the War – Citizens of Florida protest – Compact ratified by War Department – General Jessup for a time endeavors to carry out Articles of Capitulation – Begins to yield – Promises to make arrangements with Chiefs to deliver up Slaves who had left their Masters during the War – Then declared he had done so – No such Compact found by the Author – Subsequent history shows that he had made such arrangement, by parol, with Co-Hadjo only – He also uses army to seize and return Exiles claimed by citizens of Florida – Revokes Order No. 79 – Indians and Exiles take alarm – Flee to their fastnesses – General Jessup acknowledges all is lost– The War renewed.

On the fourth of March, Mr. Van Buren assumed the duties of President of the United States, and General Jackson retired to private life. Belonging to the same political party to which General Jackson had attached himself, Mr. Van Buren was not expected to make any particular change in the administration of the Government. Indeed so popular had General Jackson been, that it would have required great boldness in his successor to attempt any very obvious change in our national policy; and so far as the Florida war was concerned, there was none whatever.

It was therefore fortunate that, under the administration of General Jackson, the existence of the Exiles, as a distinct people, had been acknowledged. In the articles of capitulation, they were again recognized as the “allies” of the Indians. In entering into this stipulation, General Jessup went no farther than his legitimate powers extended. The peace of the country in that region was entrusted to his judgment, under the direction of the President. If necessary to secure peace, he had the undoubted right to send every slave, of whatever description, from the Territory of Florida; and it would appear, that no doubt whatever could arise as to his authority to transport to the Western Country, all who were engaged in actual hostilities against our nation, and that too without stopping to inquire whether one portion of the people were, or were not, claimed as property by the people of Florida. General Jackson had set a noble example on this subject which was well worthy of imitation. When New Orleans was threatened by the British, in 1814, he proclaimed martial law – ordered men into service without inquiring whether they were slaves or freemen. Many of them were slaves, and on the day of battle were emancipated by being captured or killed by the enemy. The same powers had been exercised by our officers almost constantly during the Revolution. It is a principle understood by all intelligent men, that when war exists, peace may be obtained by the emancipation of all the slaves held by individuals, if necessary.93

These articles of capitulation were duly transmitted to the War Department, and were regularly approved by the Executive. It would appear impossible that General Jessup, or any other person, could either misapprehend or fail to understand this stipulation, which was in no respect modified by other covenants.