HOSTILITIES CONTINUED.
The Allies in their Camp--News of General Clinch's advance--Two
hundred men volunteer to meet him--His force--The Allies await his
approach in ambush--He crosses the river in another place--They
attack him--The battle--His intrepidity saves his army--The loss of
the Allies--The loss of General Clinch--Escape of Florida
slaves--Their blood-thirsty conduct--Families murdered--Dwellings
burned--Inhabitants flee to villages--Their suffering--Effects of
the War--General Jackson--Members of Congress--General Cass--His
views and policy--Orders General Scott to Florida--General Gaines
moves upon Florida with his Brigade--Reaches the scene of Dade's
massacre--Buries the dead--Visits Fort King--While returning, is
attacked--Ino, the Exile Chief--His character--The Allies surround
General Gaines--His position--Is closely invested--Sends for
assistance--Provisions fail--Unauthorized Interference of
Cæsar--Flag of Truce--General Clinch arrives, and fires upon the
Allies--They flee--General Gaines returns to Fort Brooks--General
Clinch returns to Fort Drane.
The night after the massacre of Dade and his companions was spent in
exultation by the allies. Osceola and his friends brought with them from
the sutler's store various goods, with which they decorated their
persons; while the numerous scalps taken from the heads of their
enemies, were displayed as trophies of victory. They had also found
among the stores with which Major Dade's party were provided, sufficient
rum and whisky to intoxicate most of them, and their rejoicings and
felicitations continued, for hours, amid the darkness of night.
It was a late hour in the morning when they awoke from the stupor
occasioned by severe labors of the previous day, and the night's
debauch. Before they had refreshed themselves with the morning's meal,
their scouts arrived, bringing intelligence that troops were advancing
towards the Withlacoochee, in pursuit of Indians and Exiles. General
Clinch had been lying at Fort Drane. He clearly saw the evidence of
approaching hostilities; and, although wholly unconscious of the danger
which had threatened Major Dade, had felt it his duty to raise such
forces as he could command, and advance into the Indian country as far
as the Withlacoochee. He gathered about two hundred Regulars, from the
1st, 2d and 3d Artillery, and, with some four hundred Florida
volunteers, under General C. K. Call, had nearly reached the
Withlacoochee before the captors of Dade were informed of his approach.
About two hundred warriors, fifty of whom were Exiles, volunteered to
meet this army, of three times their own number, under the command of
one of the most able and gallant officers at that time in the service of
the United States.
Osceola and Halpatter-Tustenuggee commanded the allies. They hastened to
the crossing of the Withlacoochee, and there lay awaiting the approach
of General Clinch. Here the water was not more than two feet in depth,
and they entertained no doubt that the advancing forces would seek this
place for the purpose of fording the stream. Here they waited until the
morning of the thirtieth, when they learned that General Clinch, with
his two hundred Regulars, had already passed the stream some two miles
below. He had effected his passage by the aid of a bark canoe, which
carried only eight men at a time.
Having attained a position on the south side of the river with his
Regulars, General Clinch was ready for battle; although the four hundred
volunteers were yet on the north side of the stream. The Indians and
Exiles immediately engaged these veteran troops, although sustained by a
heavy force of volunteers, who were yet on the opposite side of the
river. At twelve o'clock, on the thirtieth of December, the contending
forces engaged, and a severe and deadly conflict followed.
As Osceola now for the first time engaged in battle, he felt anxious to
distinguish himself by his intrepidity. His voice was heard on every
part of the field, urging on his troops to deeds of daring. Undaunted by
the shrill war-whoop, and the constant report of Indian rifles and the
whistling balls around him, General Clinch charged his enemy. The allies
fell back, and he continually advanced until he drove them from the
thick hommock into the open forest. The gallant general coolly passed
along the lines during the action encouraging his men, and stimulating
them to effort by his presence and bravery. A ball passed through his
cap and another through the sleeve of his coat, to which he paid no
attention, but continued to encourage his men.
The Exiles also displayed unusual gallantry. Feelings which had
descended from father to son through several generations, had been
recently inflamed to the highest degree of indignant hatred. Conscious
that they were contending for their homes, their firesides, their
families, their liberties, they fought with desperation, and their aim
was fatal. Unfortunately, Osceola was wounded and disabled early in the
contest, and it was said that the Indians did not exhibit that undaunted
firmness on the field that was manifested by their more dusky allies.
They suffered less than our troops. Two negroes and one Indian were
killed, and three negroes and two Indians wounded--the loss of the
Exiles being twice as great as that of the Indians, although they
numbered but one-fourth of the allied force.
The battle continued an hour and twenty minutes. During this time, the
regular troops under Colonel Clinch were subjected to a brisk fire, and
their loss was severe. Eight men were killed and forty wounded, of whom
about one-third died of their wounds. Several officers were also
wounded. The militia consulted their own safety by refusing to expose
themselves to the fire of the enemy; while the regular troops lost, in
killed and wounded, nearly one-fourth of their number. The allies drew
off, leaving Colonel Clinch in possession of the field; but the victory
had been won at great expense of blood; and the determined coolness and
gallantry of the veteran officer who commanded our forces, saved them
from a total defeat.
The blows thus far had fallen most heavily upon our own troops. It
became evident, that the carrying out of General Jackson's policy, of
removing the Exiles and Indians from Florida, in order to encourage and
sustain slavery, was to be attended with great sacrifice of blood and
treasure. But while the Government and people were looking at these
unexpected exhibitions of firmness and love of liberty, on the part of
the allied forces, other scenes were presented to their view. The
fugitive slaves who had recently left their masters in Florida and
joined the Exiles, were stimulated with that hatred which slavery alone
can engender in the human breast. They thirsted for revenge upon those
who had held them in bondage; who had scourged and tortured them. They
were acquainted with the location of the small settlements throughout
the Territory. Uniting with the more daring spirits among the Indians
and Exiles, they proceeded rapidly and stealthily from plantation to
plantation, burning buildings, destroying property, and scattering
devastation throughout the border settlements; at times murdering whole
families, killing and scalping such individuals as fell in their way.
Men who had urged on the war with the hope of seizing and enslaving the
maroons of the interior, now saw their own plantations laid waste, and
in frequent instances mourned the loss of wives and children, instead of
rejoicing over captured slaves, whom they had intended to acquire by
piratical force. Farms, and the smaller villages on the frontier, were
abandoned to the enemy; and the inhabitants fled to the larger villages,
where they banded together for mutual defense. The citizens of Florida
who had petitioned General Jackson for the forcible removal of the
Indians, because they failed to capture and return slaves, were now
compelled to flee, with their families, before the infuriated servants
who had left them subsequently to the signing of that petition. Driven
from their homes--their property destroyed, their servants fled--many
families, who but a few months previously had been regarded as wealthy,
were now suffering from the want of bread.[84]
The whole scene was calculated to impress statesmen and people with that
religious philosophy which teaches, that every violation of justice or
of moral principle, is, by the immutable law of the Creator, inseparably
connected with an appropriate penalty. All that the Exiles or Indians
had ever asked or desired of the American Government, was to leave them
to themselves; to permit them to remain as they were, as they had been
for many generations.
The war on our part had not been commenced for the attainment of any
high or noble purpose. No desire to elevate mankind, or confer benefits
upon our race, had guided our national policy in commencing the war. Our
national influence and military power had been put forth to reënslave
our fellow men; to transform immortal beings into chattels, and make
them the property of slaveholders; to oppose the rights of human nature;
and the legitimate fruits of this policy were gathered in a plentiful
harvest of crime, bloodshed and individual suffering.
The great body of the people were ignorant as to the real causes of the
war. General Jackson had been popular as a military officer, and was not
less so as President of the United States. With his political friends
his will was law. The opposing political party were comparatively few in
numbers. They feared his power; and no member of either Senate or House
of Representatives appeared willing to expose the great moral crimes
which the Government was committing against humanity. Hence Congress
granted whatever supplies were demanded for carrying on this piratical
war, and enabling the President to slay those who refused to be
enslaved.
[Sidenote: 1836.]
General Cass, a statesman with whose character the present generation is
familiar, was Secretary of War. On him devolved the duty of controlling
the movements of the army. Unfortunately for him and for mankind, he
appears to have regarded moral and political duties as separate and
distinct in their character. He evidently believed that no moral
turpitude was attached to movements of the army, and the outrages
committed upon the Indians and Exiles, in order to compel them to
emigrate to the western country. He ordered Major General Scott to the
field, as Commanding General of the army in Florida (Jan. 20), with
authority to call on the Governors of South Carolina, Georgia and
Alabama for such troops as he should deem necessary. General Eustis,
commanding at Charleston, South Carolina, was directed to repair at once
to Florida with such forces as were stationed in that city and Savannah,
and to accept the services of such number of volunteers as he might deem
necessary under the circumstances.
Major General Gaines, commanding the western military department,
holding his head quarters at New Orleans, hearing of the sad fate of
Major Dade and his regiment, embarked at once with a brigade of eleven
hundred men, and reached "Fort Brooke" on the tenth of January. On the
thirteenth, he took up his line of march for "Fort King," and on the
nineteenth, encamped upon the same ground which Major Dade had occupied
on the night of the twenty-seventh of December. The next day they took
possession of the field of massacre, and buried the bodies of those who
had fallen in that unfortunate conflict. He then proceeded to Fort King,
where he arrived on the twenty-second. Leaving Fort King on the
twenty-fifth, he took a more westerly route back toward Fort Brooke.
On the twenty-seventh, as he was seeking a place at which to cross the
Withlacoochee, the allied forces opened a fire upon his advanced guard
from the opposite bank. The firing increased as other forces were
brought into action, and continued for more than two hours, ceasing with
the nightfall.
There were resident at different points upon the Withlacoochee many
families of Exiles. Their commander was named "Ino" of whom General
Jessup speaks in respectful terms. He is said to have been their
principal counselor, and one of the most important chiefs among the
Exiles. He, and such of his men as could be collected, hastily joined
the allied forces already in the field, and shared in the dangers of
that and of several following days. Both parties bivouacked upon the
field, on the different sides of the river, and at daylight the next
morning every man had his arms in readiness for renewing the conflict.
At sunrise, General Gaines moved down the river three miles, where he
expected to find a suitable ford; but on reaching it, the Indians and
Exiles opened a brisk fire upon his men. Lieutenant Izard of the
dragoons, endeavoring to rally his men to ascertain the possibility of
fording the stream, fell by a shot from the opposite bank.
Finding it impossible to ford the river, attempts were made to construct
rafts; but the fire upon the men employed was so galling that they were
ordered back out of the range of the enemies' shot. During these
movements, the Exiles, understanding the English language, kept up a
conversation with the whites on the opposite side of the river, and
tauntingly defied them. General Gaines was too well acquainted with the
Indian mode of warfare to attempt a retreat, under the circumstances
with which he was surrounded. He at once dispatched an express to
General Clinch, who was at Fort Drane, directing that officer to repair
as soon as possible to his relief with such troops as he could at the
moment bring with him. General Gaines soon after retired with his forces
into a pine barren, half a mile from the river, threw up a breastwork of
logs for the protection of his men, and awaited reinforcements.
The allied forces were estimated by General Gaines at fifteen hundred,
though subsequent reports show they did not exceed five hundred Indians
and two hundred negroes. He was immediately invested in his fortified
camp, but he coolly awaited the arrival of General Clinch. As the enemy
crossed the river in large forces, and became more bold in their
advances toward the breastwork, their fire became more annoying. In a
few days his provisions were nearly exhausted, and his men appeared to
feel unsafe, and expressed solicitude for the arrival of General Clinch.
On the first of February, the allied forces made a vigorous attack upon
the fortified camp, but they were repulsed after an hour of steady
firing. On this day, General Gaines directed all the corn in the camp to
be collected and dealt out to the men in equal quantities. It gave to
each _one pint_. On the third, they commenced killing horses, and
appropriating the flesh to sustain the lives of the men. The fire of the
allied forces was kept up on the fourth and fifth, while the troops had
nothing but horse flesh for food, and no tidings had yet arrived from
General Clinch. At this time great enthusiasm prevailed among the
allies. Their women were at the camp, a mile distant, casting balls,
cooking food for the men, and doing what they could to cheer them on to
victory, which they began to regard as almost certain. In the meantime,
the situation of General Gaines and his army was constantly becoming
more critical. His troops were depressed with a sense of their
situation; while the allies were becoming hourly more enthusiastic. They
had destroyed Dade's regiment; had maintained a severe battle with
General Clinch in the open forest. They knew their power, and that any
attempt to retreat from them would be fatal; while it would be
impossible for our troops to remain much longer in camp, as their stock
of horses must soon fail.
Twenty-one years had passed since General Gaines transmitted a letter to
the War Department, giving the first official notice that the Exiles
were collecting at "Blount's Fort." He then despised the friendless
people who were seeking liberty. He had himself detailed Colonel Clinch
and the regiment under his command, attended by Creek Indians, with
General Jackson's orders "_to destroy the fort, and return the slaves to
their rightful owners_." He then called the Exiles "outlaws," supposed
them incapable of taking care of themselves, even if in full possession
of their liberty. But he and his gallant army were now surrounded by
them and their friends, who were killing his men whenever they exposed
themselves to view. On the fifth of March, he had lost four men killed
and thirty wounded.
A circumstance occurred on the night of the fifth of February, which has
never been fully explained. About ten o'clock in the evening, John
Cæsar, one of the Exiles residing at Micanopy, an old man and somewhat
of a privileged character among both Indians and Exiles, advanced in the
darkness near the camp of General Gaines, and hailed the nearest
sentinel on duty. Speaking in good English, the sentinel supposed him a
messenger from General Clinch; but, on learning his true character, he
was inquired of as to his object. He declared that the allies were tired
of fighting, and wished to come in and shake hands with General Gaines
and his men. He was told to come in the morning with a white flag.
Cæsar returned to the allied camp and reported his conversation. He had
spoken to our troops as if authorized, while all the chiefs and head-men
denied his authority, and many were for inflicting upon him the penalty
of immediate death for this unauthorized act. Osceola, now raised to the
dignity of a chief, interposed to save him. He had headed the party who
put to death Charley E. Mathler, a brother chief, for consenting to go
West, and with his own hands had scattered the gold found on his person,
declaring it to be "the price of the red man's blood:" While now a black
man, one of their "allies," had committed a far greater impropriety, he
interposed to save him. All agreed that their honor had been pledged,
although Cæsar had no authority for his conduct.[85]
The next day some of their warriors left in disgust, after it had been
determined to send in a flag of truce, according to Cæsar's agreement.
But those who remained to carry out the arrangement, formed at twelve
o'clock into line, some forty rods in the rear of General Gaines's camp.
Three of their number, gaily dressed, advanced with a white flag.
Adjutant Barrow of the Louisiana Volunteers, met them. Osceola told him
that he desired a talk with General Gaines.
While these arrangements were going forward, General Clinch arrived in
sight of the Indians, on his way to relieve General Gaines. Seeing the
enemy thus drawn up, facing the camp, he at once deployed his column,
and opened a fire upon them. The allies supposing themselves to have
been betrayed fled precipitately, and the forces under General Clinch
united with those under General Gaines.
It is said that up to the time the allies received the fire of General
Clinch, they had not lost a man. That fire killed two Indians and one
negro, and wounded five others.
One of the Exiles, residing upon the Withlacoochee, who, after the
compact with General Jessup in 1838, surrendered, with others, and
emigrated West, stated that he assisted Osceola in counting the sticks
handed in by each warrior engaged in this affair, and there were seven
hundred present; and another bunch of sticks numbering one hundred had
been sent by a party who expected to reach the scene of action the next
day, when a general and determined attack was to have been made. But
their forces disbanded upon the arrival of General Clinch, and they
separated to their different homes.
The officers under General Gaines charged the allies with bad faith,
intending to massacre them under pretense of treating with them; while
the allies charged our troops with a treacherous effort to shoot them
while their flag of truce was floating over them, and they engaged in
peaceful negotiation.
General Gaines proceeded to Fort Brooke, and thence returned to New
Orleans; while General Clinch conducted his troops back to Fort Drane.