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.

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                                           THE SEMINOLE WARS

Florida’s aboriginal natives fell victim to European diseases and enslavement during two centuries of Spanish rule from the 1500s.  Their demise left a vacuum into which displaced northern tribes, runaway slaves, and American squatters filed.  Locals began referring to the amalgamation of immigrant Indians as “Seminoles,” from the Spanish word “cimarròns” meaning “wild ones.”  But Spain proved a detached landlord, little concerned over the Indian problem that was growing by the 18^th century. 

US interests in Florida began after the 1803 Louisiana Purchase.  In that day, West Florida extended along the Gulf Coast from the Perdido River to the Mississippi River.  France and Spain both claimed West Florida; after 1803, we favored French claims.  Americans were encouraged to settle in West Florida and inevitably came into conflict with British, Spanish, and Native Americans already there.  In 1817-18, GEN Andrew Jackson led a punitive expedition against Native Americans in West Florida who were implicated in cross-border raids–an extension of the Creek Wars in western Georgia.  This 1^st Seminole War drove the Indians south.  When the United States purchased Florida from Spain the following year, a large tract in central Florida was set aside for their use.  To contain them, the US Army built Fort Brooke to the west and Fort King to the north (modern Tampa and Ocala, respectively).

But animosities toward the Seminoles continued, as they were now collectively known.  A decade of further tensions led to calls for their relocation with other Native American tribes to the Oklahoma Territory.  With the 1832 Treaty of Payne’s Landing, the US won relocation.  Officials grouped all of Florida’s Indians as “Seminoles,” but in truth the Creek, Alabama, Yamassee, Yuchi, and Muskogee elements remained culturally distinct.  Not all bands felt bound by the agreements of others, and some Seminoles refused to leave.  White vs. Seminole clashes erupted over this issue, and over cattle rustling, land disputes, and Seminole mistrust of White agents.  Vigilantism festered, but violence became “official” this day when PVT Kinsley H. Dalton of the US Army’s 3^rd Artillery was killed while carrying mail between Fort Brooke and Fort King.  Then in December, MAJ Francis L. Dade’s Army detachment was ambushed and massacred en route to reinforce Fort King (Dade massacre).  Thus began the 2^nd Seminole War.  This is the only “Indian War” in which our Navy played a substantive role, blockading Florida from Cuban filibustering and pursuing renegade bands with landing parties.  At a cost of 1500 Army, Navy, and Marine Corps casualties (most to non-battle injury (NBI)), this war ended in 1842 with the extermination or relocation of most renegade Seminoles.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  20 AUG 24

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Buker, George E.  Swamp Sailors:  Riverine Warfare in the Everglades, 1835-1842.  Gainesville, FL: Univ. Presses of Florida, 1975, pp. 1-15.

Mahon, John K.  History of the Second Seminole War, 1835-1842.  Gainesville, FL: Univ. of Florida Press, 1985, pp. 1-134.

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:  Between 1855-58, the remaining Seminoles struck once more against continued infringements.  Our Army’s reactionary punitive engagements have been called the 3^rd Seminole War.  All three were characterized by the paucity of pitched battles, the exposure of US forces to harsh environments and strange diseases, and victory through attrition rather than military defeat.  Efforts to relocate all of Florida’s Seminoles ultimately failed, as they continue a legitimate presence in south central Florida today.

Army PVT Dalton is the namesake of Dalton, Georgia.  MAJ Dade is remembered in the naming of Dade Counties in Florida, Georgia and Missouri.

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