Seminole Wars (1818; 1835–42; 1855–58).The southeastern border of the United States was continuously turbulent during the early nineteenth century. Runaway slaves escaped into Spanish Florida, while Indian bands and white bands marauded unrestrained. Open war finally broke out on 27 November 1817, when Maj. Gen. Edmund P. Gaines sent a detachment to Fowltown, a Seminole village, to arrest its chief, Neamathla, for defying the authority of the United States.

Maj. Gen. Andrew Jackson took over command on 26 December 1817. With an army of about 4,000 men, half of them Creek Indians, he invaded Spanish Florida and destroyed Seminole power west of the Suwannee River. He went on to take St. Marks and Pensacola, offending Spain; then offended Great Britain by executing two British citizens for aiding the Seminoles. The war seemed over to him, and on 30 May 1818, he left Florida. The next year, because of Jackson's conquests, the Spanish government transferred Florida to the United States by the Adams‐Onís Treaty.

For the Seminoles, American acquisition ended an era of prosperity and began one of deprivation. The first U.S. policy, initiated in 1823, confined them to a reservation of 4 million acres of poor land. There were numerous violent confrontations, many of them disputes over the ownership of blacks. U.S. slaveholders, Creek Indians, Seminoles, and the blacks themselves harried each other over slave property.

As Americans shoved into Florida in the years after the war, the Seminoles, a loose association of diverse bands, prepared to fight once more. In 1834, however, their leadership came not from hereditary chiefs but from Osceola, a part‐white warrior without ancestral or tribal standing, whose courage and determination inspired the bands to act together. Miccosukees ravaged the plantations east of the St. Johns River, while Alachuas and others killed the Indian agent, Wiley Thompson, and annihilated Maj. Francis L. Dade's detachment of 108 men on 28 December 1835. Dade's defeat began the undeclared Second Seminole War, 1835–42.

By September 1836, the Seminoles controlled all of North Florida east of the Suwannee River except Newnansville, Micanopy, and Garey's Ferry. But when Osceola sickened in the late summer, cooperation among the bands slackened. Leadership passed from Osceola to Wildcat ( Coacoochee), Alligator ( Halpatter Tustenuggee), Jumper ( Ote Emathla), Halleck Tustenuggee, Billy Bowlegs ( Holata Mico), and Sam Jones ( Arpeika). These men led not a nation but disparate bands that sometimes cooperated.

For the United States, Brig. Gen. Duncan L. Clinch commanded first, followed by Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott. After Scott, the civilian governor of Florida, Richard K. Call, took charge for six months. Then the sequence of ranking general officers recommenced: Maj. Gen. Thomas S. Jesup, Brig. Gen. Zachary Taylor, Brig. Gen. Walker K. Armistead, and Brig. Gen. William J. Worth.

Scott's Napoleon‐like strategy failed. Jesup, frustrated, began to seize key leaders when they came in to negotiate; his most notorious capture was of Osceola on 27 October 1837. Zachary Taylor directed the notable battle near Lake Okeechobee on Christmas Day, 1837. He threw his 800 men head‐on against a position meticulously prepared by the three bands of Seminoles waiting there. He finally dislodged them but sustained 138 casualties.

About 400 blacks, effective fighters, stood with the Seminoles until the spring of 1838. In March of that year, General Jesup reversed previous policies and promulgated his order that all blacks who joined the U.S. force would become free. Thereafter, the blacks shifted allegiance, ceasing to serve alongside the warriors.

The last two U.S. commanders relied on small detachments led by junior officers. Blacks or captured Indians guided them to the ultimate hideaways of the Indians, where they destroyed the remaining Seminole means of subsistence. Ragged, hungry, and short of ammunition, hostile bands began to surrender; in August 1842, General Worth was able to declare the Second Seminole War ended. About 350 Indians remained south of Lake Okeechobee and Pease Creek.

For a few years, Billy Bowlegs and Sam Jones strove to keep the peace; but the United States, pressed by settlers, began to build roads and survey within the Indian preserve. Escalating white encroachments brought an attack on an army camp on 20 December 1855. It was the catalyst for the Third Seminole War. U.S. volunteers rather than regulars provided the main military force this time. The last fight took place on 5 March 1857. Billy Bowlegs, convinced that the cause was lost, accepted several thousand dollars to emigrate, taking with him 165 followers. About 120 Seminoles remained behind. One of them was Sam Jones, who never left, but died in Florida in 1867, one hundred eleven years old. The United States declared the Third Seminole War officially ended on 8 May 1858.
[See also Native American Wars.]

Bibliography

John K. Mahon , History of the Second Seminole War, 1835–1842, 1967.
James W. Covington , The Billy Bowlegs War, 1855–1858, 1981.
Virginia Bergman Peters , The Florida Wars, 1979.
Kenneth W. Porter , The Black Seminoles, 1996.
Frank Laumer , Dade's Last Command, 1995.
John K. Mahon , The First Seminole War, 1817–1818, Florida Historical Quarterly, Summer 1998.

John K. Mahon

SEMINOLE WARS

SEMINOLE WARS. In the first decades of the nineteenth century, Seminole Indians in the Spanish colony of Florida faced numerous pressures. With the Spanish and then the French expelled from Louisiana, interior southeastern Indians no longer had European allies for protection or as markets for their goods. Everywhere, Americans were turning Indian lands into farms—particularly along the fertile rivers of the South, where cotton plantations mushroomed. Many Seminole communities increasingly incorporated runaway African American slaves into their societies, in which the escapees became productive community members. Meanwhile, as southern plantation owners became more militant, raids and counterraids across the U.S.–Florida border characterized Seminole–white relations.

In 1816, detachments of the U.S. Army began pursuing runaways into Florida, and in March 1818, General Andrew Jackson assumed control of nearly three thousand men in an invasion of Seminole Florida that began the First Seminole War. Focusing on several Seminole communities in northern Florida, Jackson marched southward, burning Seminole fields, villages, and houses. As Seminoles abandoned their settled communities and retreated into the interior, Jackson turned west, capturing St. Marks in April 1818 and Pensacola the following month. In 1819, Spain relinquished control of Florida to the United States, and when Florida became a territory of the United States in 1822, thousands of settlers rushed south to claim plantation lands. Jackson became the first governor of the Florida Territory.

Throughout the 1820s and into the 1830s, Florida officials attempted to pressure Seminole groups to leave their lands and move westward. The Seminoles, however, were required to leave behind their black community members, who were to become the slaves of whites. Refusing to leave their homelands and to break up their families—many runaway slaves had intermarried with Seminoles—Seminole leaders defied all attempts to force their removal. In 1835, as U.S. officials attempted a final drive to displace the Seminoles, a young warrior, Osceola, was arrested after failing to sign a removal treaty. After his arrest, Osceola killed a proremoval leader and called on his community members to join him in driving out white officials. This began the Second Seminole War.

From 1835 to 1842, Osceola and other Seminole leaders orchestrated guerrilla campaigns against U.S. Army stations throughout north-central Florida. Often overwhelming vastly superior forces, Seminoles became renowned for their military prowess and strategy. In the last week of 1835, Osceola led his forces to three stunning victories over the Americans, culminating in his triumph at Withlacoochee on 31 December, when the Seminoles dispersed a force of about 750 whites under General Duncan Clinch. Andrew Jackson, now president of the United States, appointed nine commanders before finally capturing Osceola, who died in captivity in 1838.

The Second Seminole War continued until 1842, when the U.S. government at last accepted the futility of its campaign. Although three thousand Seminoles were removed west to Indian Territory, with about a thousand left behind, the government lost just under fifteen hundred soldiers and spent nearly $40 million, including fighting the Third Seminole War in 1855. Although enduring recurrent infringements on their lands, the remaining Seminole groups created lasting communities in the Florida Everglades.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Walton, George. Fearless and Free: The Seminole Indian War, 1835–1842. Indianapolis, Ind.: Bobbs-Merrill, 1977.

Weisman, Brent Richards. Like Beads on a String: A Cultural History of the Seminole Indians in North Peninsular Florida. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1989.

NedBlackhawk

See alsoFlorida ; Indian Policy, U.S.: 1775–1830, 1830–1900 ; Indian Removal ; Indians and Slavery ; Wars with Indian Nations: Early Nineteenth Century (1783–1840), Later Nineteenth Century (1840–1900) .

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

Seminole Wars a series of campaigns in the early nineteenth century mounted by the U.S. Army against various groups of runaway slaves, native Indian marauders, and white bandits, collectively known as the Seminoles, occupying parts of the present state of Florida. The First Seminole War (1817–1818) began on November 27, 1817, when Maj. Gen. Edmund P. Gaines led a force of some 4,000 men in an invasion of Spanish Florida to suppress the Seminole border marauders. Gaines was replaced on December 26, 1817, by Maj. Gen. Andrew Jackson, who destroyed Seminole power west of the Suwanee River and took the towns of St. Marks and Pensacola thereby ending the war on May 30, 1818. In 1819, pursuant to the Adams-Onís Treaty, Spain transferred Florida to the United States, and the Seminoles were confined to a reservation. White encroachment on Seminole territory led to the Second Seminole War (1835–1842), remembered as the bloodiest Indian campaigns in U.S. history. The Second Seminole War began on December 28, 1835, when a band of Seminoles led by the part-white Osceola, massacred a force of 108 men under Army Maj. Francis L. Dade. Under a series of commanding officers—who included, among others, Winfield Scott and Zachary Taylor—some 10,000 U.S. Army troops and 30,000 volunteers gradually wore down the resistance of some 5,000 Seminole guerrillas with aggressive patrolling, the detention of key Seminole leaders, the destruction of Seminole villages and crops, and the removal of Seminoles from Florida to reservations elsewhere. The Second Seminole War ended in August 1842, but white settlers continued to press the Seminoles, and the Third Seminole War began on December 20, 1855, with a Seminole attack on an Army outpost. The Third Seminole War was fought largely by volunteers rather than Regular Army troops, and the final battle took place on March 5, 1857. One of the principal Seminole leaders, Billy Bowlegs, surrendered with his band, leaving only about 120 Seminoles active in Florida, and the U.S. Army declared the war over on May 8, 1858.

Seminole War in U.S. history, armed conflict between the U.S. government and the Seminoles. In 1832 the U.S. government signed a treaty with the Seminoles, who lived in Florida, providing for their removal to Oklahoma in 1835 in exchange for a small sum of money. However, opposition to the treaty soon appeared among the Seminoles; under the leadership of the young chief, Osceola, the Seminoles organized small raiding parties that attacked the American troops. The U.S. army was rendered helpless by the raiding tactics of the Native Americans and suffered heavy casualties. Although Osceola was captured in 1837 and died in prison a few months later, resistance continued. When Gen. William J. Worth became (1841) commander of U.S. forces, a new strategy was adopted. The Seminole's crops were systematically burned and their villages destroyed. As winter approached and starvation was imminent, the Seminoles surrendered. A peace treaty was signed in 1842 and the Native Americans were removed westward. The war resulted in 1,500 U.S. soldiers killed, and cost more than $20 million.

Seminole Wars (1816–18; 1835–42) Two wars against Native American in the south-east US. Natives of Florida, the Seminole retaliated against US military forces sent into their area in search of escaped slaves. Andrew JACKSON's subsequent punitive expedition forced the Seminole south into the Everglades. In 1819 Spain ceded east Florida to the USA, and in 1832 the Seminole were forced to sign a treaty involving their removal to the Indian Territory west of the Mississippi (TRAIL OF TEARS). A substantial part of the tribe under OSCEOLA refused to move and held out in the Everglades until Osceola was treacherously captured and most of his followers exterminated. General William T. Worth then ordered (1841) that the Seminoles' crops be burned and their villages destroyed. Starved into surrender, the Seminole signed a peace treaty (1842) and accepted their deportation westwards.