THE BLOCKADE OF FLORIDA

Seminole Indians, angered over President Andrew Jackson’s plan for their relocation to the Oklahoma Indian Territory, rose up on 28 December 1835 and attacked a column of Army troops under MAJ Francis L. Dade south of Tampa, Florida.  Only three of Dade’s 110 men escaped the massacre.  The Second Seminole War was thus ignited, the only Indian war in which our Navy played a significant role.

Whether or not arms and ammunition were being run to the Seminoles by the Spanish from Cuba, as Floridian officials continuously insisted, is arguable.  But on this day, in response to Florida Governor John H. Eaton’s persistence, Secretary of the Navy Mahlon Dickerson ordered a blockade of the southern coast of Florida.  The job fell to the West Indies Squadron, but Commodore Alexander J. Dallas had only five ships as his disposal–the venerable 38-gun frigate CONSTELLATION, the sloops-of-war ST. LOUIS, 20, WARREN, 20, and VANDALIA, 18, and the schooner GRAMPUS, 12. 

To our 1830s Navy, maritime blockade was an unknown mission.  Since her foundational years our Navy had served only two missions: the Federalist task of guerre de course by lone-ranging independent ships; and the Jeffersonian reservation of the Navy for harbor and inshore defense.  The frame of mind necessary to manage an offensive blockade didn’t exist among Naval officers, Commodore Dallas in particular.  In this Seminole War there were no enemy cruisers to attack, merchantmen to intercept, or fleets to engage.  Dallas’ strategic orientation did not suit the tasking.  Furthermore, possessed of only deep draft warships, blue-water cruising was his only viable course–and gun running to Florida could have been more easily done with shallow-draft skiffs and barges working up through the Keys.  As a result, this blockade of Florida wasn’t our most shining accomplishment.

Dallas also found his attentions distracted by competing priorities.  New England merchants were ranting over losses to Haitian pirates.  Texas was striking for independence from Mexico, and the simultaneous Creek War in Georgia demanded Marine Corps support.  But most damning, our Navy never believed that arms were being run to the Seminoles in the first place.  Dallas would find it impossible to prioritize a mission he judged unnecessary from the outset.

Not surprisingly, no filibustering captures were made off Florida during the 1836-42 blockade, though it was maintained continuously throughout the Seminole uprising.  Our greatest contribution to the conflict turned out to be a “mosquito fleet” of shallow-draft riverine craft that took the fight to the enemy in Florida’s wetlands.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  26 JAN 26

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Buker, George E.  Swamp Sailors:  Riverine Warfare in the Everglades, 1835-1842.  Gainesville, FL: Univ. Presses of Florida, 1975, pp. 1-5, 34-35, 47-48.  Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 2 “C-F”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1977, p. 171.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 3 “G-K”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1977, p. 130.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 6 “R-S”.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1976, p. 244.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 8 “W-Z”.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1981, p. 107.

Mahon, John K.  History of the Second Seminole War, 1835-1842.  Gainesville, FL: Univ. of Florida Press, 1985, pp. 121, 171, 220.

Sweetman, Jack.  American Naval History:  An Illustrated Chronology of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, 1775-Present, 3^rd ed.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 2002, p. 40.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  The Second Seminole War is an example of how not to run a joint operation.  Throughout the conflict the Army continued to believe the Indians were being supplied from Cuba and could not fathom why the Navy didn’t prevent such.  The Navy thought the opposite, and until the advent of the “mosquito fleet” in 1840, there was very little coordination between Army and Navy operations.

ST. LOUIS was to have an exceptionally long career for a wooden sloop.  She was built by the Navy, for the Navy, at the Washington Navy Yard in 1828 and initially served as the flagship for Dallas’ West Indies Squadron.  She was transferred to the Pacific Squadron in 1839.  After showing our American flag for the first time in San Francisco Bay, she transferred to Singapore with our East Indies Squadron.  Again a flagship, she was re-assigned to the Mediterranean Squadron in 1852.  She served twice with the African Squadron, suppressing slave trading in the pre-Civil War years, then patrolled with the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron during that latter momentous conflict.  From 1866-94 she was laid up at Philadelphia as a receiving ship and training ship for the Pennsylvania Naval Militia.  In 1894 she was formally loaned to the state Militia and in 1904 her name was changed to USS KEYSTONE STATE in deference to that organization.  She was finally stricken from the Naval Vessels Register on 6 August 1906 and sold for scrap.  Her 78-year career, marked by multiple re-fits, spanned four wars and allowed the training of countless naval personnel.

The post The Blockade of Florida appeared first on Today in Naval History.

                                 LAST EVERGLADES EXPEDITION

After our acquisition of Florida from Spain in 1819, settlers came into increasing conflict with the Native Americans of Florida, collectively called Seminole Indians.  Conflicts over territory and over the sheltering of runaway slaves led to a series of Seminole wars and the decision in 1832 to re-locate the Seminoles to the Oklahoma Indian Territory.  The US Army was sent into southern Florida to round-up and deport the Seminoles.  These efforts met with mixed success, and when it was suspected that the Indians were obtaining weapons and supplies from Cuba, the US Navy was called upon.  By 1842, a “mosquito fleet” of small coastal schooners and canoes was in Florida service, under the command of LT John T. McLaughlin.  Ten years of Army persistence had pushed Seminole populations into decline.  Army COL William J. Worth, the overall area commander, estimated in February 1842 that only about 300 were left, most of whom were hiding in the impenetrable reaches of the Everglades swamp.  Worth asked that the Army suspend its Florida campaign.

Then, eager to demonstrate the value of the Navy, LT McLaughlin proposed that two Navy assault parties sweep the Everglades to clear these last holdouts.  LT John B. Marchand and a detachment of sailors from the schooners WAVE, 1; PHOENIX, 2; and VAN BUREN, 4, entered the Everglades from the southwest on this day.  Two days later another party from MADISON, 1, and JEFFERSON, led by LT John Rodgers, entered the swamp from the east.  Each party ran up streams and followed the trails they encountered in an effort to rout any remaining Seminoles.  For two months they lived in their canoes, slept at their thwarts, and hunted alligators, waterbirds, and the occasional fish that jumped into their canoes.  At times they had to drag their canoes through chest-high sawgrass–appropriately named for the wounds it inflicted!  They searched every stand of high ground, and on multiple occasions found Seminole encampments–always abandoned, usually only a day or so ahead of their arrival.  They even sighted native canoes in the distance on two occasions but were unable to overtake them.  It seemed as if the Seminoles were keeping one step ahead.  By the end of the two-month trek, the men were exhausted, hungry, and badly cut.  Most sustained wounds and infections that would fester for years in these days before antibiotics.

COL Worth’s opinion had proven correct, neither Navy party found any Seminoles.  The number of remaining Indians was indeed small enough, and the swamp large enough, that they simply faded into the environment.  Further operations were suspended, and to this day, the Seminoles still inhabit the Everglades.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  14-15 FEB 25

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Buker, George E.  Swamp Sailors:  Riverine Warfare in the Everglades, 1835-1842.  Gainesville, FL: Univ. Presses of Florida, 1975, pp. 127-32.

Mahon, John K.  History of the Second Seminole War, 1835-1842.  Gainesville, FL: Univ. of Florida Press, 1985, p. 304.

Preble, George Henry.  “A Canoe Expedition into the Everglades in 1842.”  Tequesta magazine, Vol 5, 1945, pp. 30-51.  AT: http://www.digitalcollections.fiu.edu/tequesta/files/1945/ 45_1_03.pdf, retrieved 20 December 2010.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  (Later) MGEN William Worth was second in command to Zachary Taylor during the Mexican War of 1846-48.  He is the namesake of Fort Worth, Texas, as well as numerous counties and townships in the eastern and mid-western US.

The post Last Everglades Expedition appeared first on Today in Naval History.