Seminole Wars

Seminole Wars, three wars that extended from 1817 to 1858 and pitted U.S. forces against first the Spanish and then the Seminole Indians of Florida. The major causes were white lust for land and the gap between Indian and white cultures. The escape of African slaves into Florida was also a prime cause of the first and second wars.

The First Seminole War began in November 1817. Charging that Spain was unable to control the Indians, President James Monroe ordered Major General Andrew Jackson to invade Spanish Florida along the Apalachicola River; Monroe understood that given the opportunity, Jackson would seize Florida. After destroying the Indian settlements west of the Suwannee River, Jackson occupied Spain's two settlements in West Florida, St. Marks and Pensacola. When Pensacola surrendered on 24 May 1818, Jackson withdrew. In the Adams‐Onís Treaty (1821), Spain transferred Florida to the United States. Having assumed sovereignty over some five thousand Indians, called Seminoles, the U.S. government prepared to transfer them west of the Mississippi River.

The Seminoles were a loose association of disparate bands, including Creek from Georgia, local Apalachee, and runaway black slaves. As white settlers crowded in, Osceola, part white and not a hereditary chief, assumed leadership and rallied the Seminoles against the government's resettlement plans. On 28 December 1835, Osceola shot the U.S. government's Indian agent at Fort King, while another party of Seminoles killed 108 U.S. soldiers marching to relieve the fort. Thus began the second Seminole War (1835–1842). For nine months, the Indians confined the whites of North Florida to three strong points. But then increasing U.S. military power, coupled with Osceola's illness, reversed the Seminoles’ dominance.

The first three U.S. generals, especially Winfield Scott, employed conventional military strategy, but it failed in the swampy wilderness. Major General Thomas Jesup, however, initiated a strategy of seizing the war leaders. Most notorious was his capture of Osceola under a flag of truce on 27 October 1837. Indian leadership now passed to Wildcat, Alligator, Jumper, Halleck Tustenuggee, Billy Bowlegs, and Sam Jones.

On Christmas Day 1837, Colonel Zachary Taylor positioned 800 U.S. soldiers on the north shore of Lake Okeechobee, held by three bands of Seminoles. At a cost of 26 U.S. soldiers killed and 112 wounded, Taylor's force drove the Indians away. Indian casualties were 11 killed and 14 wounded.

In March 1838, Jesup further diluted Seminole strength by promising freedom to all escaped slaves who would change sides. The last two U.S. generals in the Second Seminole War sent detachments of 20 to 40 soldiers, guided by blacks or captive Seminoles, to search and destroy hidden Seminole camps and fields. Deprived of essentials, ragged and hungry bands of Indians surrendered. In all, 3,428 were shipped west. The 200 to 400 who remained withdrew south of the Caloosahatchee River and Lake Okeechobee. In August 1842, Brigadier General William J. Worth ended hostilities.

In the 1850s, U.S. soldiers and surveyors pushed south of the Caloosahatchee. On 20 December 1855, these incursions induced Billy Bowlegs to attack a U.S. military camp. Thus began the Third Seminole War. By 1858, facing the same search‐and‐destroy tactics that had ended the second war, Chief Bowlegs considered further struggle futile. After paying $44,000 to the departing Indians, U.S. officials on 8 May 1858 shipped Bowlegs and 165 followers to the West. Left behind were only 120 Seminoles.
See also Expansionism; Indian History and Culture: From 1800 to 1900; Indian Wars; Slavery; Slave Uprisings and Resistance; Spanish Settlements in North America.

Bibliography

John K. Mahon , History of the Second Seminole War, 1967.
Virginia Peters , The Florida Wars, 1979.
James W. Covington , The Seminoles of Florida, 1993.

John K. Mahon