Seminole War, 1818—Jackson Invades East Florida—Defeats the Seminoles—
Captures St. Marks—Arbuthnot and Ambrister—Prophet Francis—His
Daughter.
At the close of the war between the United States and Great Britain, the
British troops were withdrawn from the fort on the Appalachicola river
built under the auspices of Nicholls and Percy.
The Seminoles were, as their name signifies, outlaws and runaways from
the Creek confederacy, or their descendants. Hence it was, that those of
the Red Sticks who refused to submit to the terms of the treaty between
the United States and the Creeks, either fled to the British at
Pensacola, or to the Seminole nation. It was in a district inhabited by
Seminoles, that the fort built by Nicholls on the Appalachicola river
was situated. The spirit and objects which prompted its construction
continued to animate its motley garrison long after Nicholls’ departure.
At length it proved such an interruption to navigation, besides being an
asylum for runaway negroes, as to bring against it, in 1816, an
expedition by land and water under Colonel Duncan L. Clinch. A shot from
a gunboat exploded the magazines and destroyed the larger part of the
garrison. The destruction of this nest of rapine, however, did not for
long give peace and security to the district.
In the fall of 1817, a feeling of unrest and suspicion mutually seized
upon the white settlers and Indians, induced by causes for which both
were responsible. The first act of war, however, was the capture on
November 21 of Fowlton, a Seminole village above the Georgia line, by an
American force, under Colonel Twiggs. This proved the signal for Indian
massacres, the most shocking of which was that of Lieutenant Scott and
his command. Whilst going up the Appalachicola river in a barge they
were attacked from a dense swamp on the bank. There were in the barge
forty men besides Scott, seven soldiers’ wives, and five children. All
were killed except one woman spared by the Indians, and four men who
swam to the opposite bank.
In March 1818, General Jackson was ordered to the seat of war. He
invaded East Florida, and in a campaign of six weeks crushed the
Indians. In one of their towns, were found three hundred scalps of men,
women and children, fifty still fresh hanging from a red war pole. He
also captured the Spanish Post of Saint Marks.
For the last act, investigation can find no adequate reason. It was not,
however, an irremediable wrong, for restitution furnished a remedy. Two
irreparable wrongs, however, marked that short campaign.
Alexander Arbuthnot, being found at St. Marks, was brought before a
court-martial. He was a man of seventy years of age, a Scotchman, an
Indian trader, and a friend of the Indians, but a counsellor of peace
between them and the whites; a man of education, who used his pen to
represent Indian wrongs to both Spanish and American officials; and who,
when Jackson was about to invade their country, advised the Seminoles to
fly and not to fight. On his trial, the plainest rules of evidence were
disregarded, and without proof he was found guilty of the charges of
inciting the Creeks to war on the United States and, likewise, of
“aiding and abetting the enemy, and supplying them with the means of
war.” Under that baseless judgment the old man was hanged; his waving
white locks protesting his innocence.[61]
Robert C. Ambrister, who had formerly belonged to Nicholls’ command,
being found in the Indian nation, was also seized and tried by a
court-martial. He confessed that he had counselled and aided the
Indians. The court at first sentenced him to be shot, but before closing
the trial, upon a reconsideration it set aside that judgment, and
substituted for death the punishment of fifty stripes, and confinement
“with a ball and chain at hard labor for twelve months.” Nevertheless,
General Jackson disregarding the last, executed the first judgment.[62]
Jackson having early in May closed his campaign against the East Florida
Seminoles, and obtained evidence satisfactory to himself, that the
Spanish officials at Pensacola were in sympathy with them, resolved to
march upon that town, and repeat the lesson which he had taught it in
1814. Before following him in that expedition, however, mention will be
made of the adventures, fate and daughter of Francis, the Indian
prophet, who left Pensacola, it will be remembered, with Nicholls on the
approach of the Americans in 1814.
Francis had been one of Tecumseh’s most notable and zealous disciples,
as well as one of the most sedulous in making Red Stick converts. A
leader in the massacre of Fort Mims, he had revelled in deeds of blood
in that human slaughter pen. When Nicholls left Florida with his troops,
Francis accompanied him, and finally made his way to London. There in a
gorgeous dress he was presented to the Prince Regent, who in recognition
of his military services to the crown, bestowed upon him a gilded
tomahawk, with a dazzling belt, a gold snuffbox, and a commission of
brigadier-general in the British service. Well would it have been for
the prophet had he remained in a land where his deeds were so highly
appreciated. But the instinct of the savage brought him back to Florida,
where he was captured by the decoy of an American vessel lying in the
St. Marks river, flying a British flag. He went off to her in a canoe,
to meet allies, but found enemies, who seized and delivered him to
Jackson. He was summarily hanged, with his brigadier’s commission on his
person.
It is a pleasing change to turn from deeds of blood to instances of
humanity, especially when they come to us in the form of attractive
youth. A young Georgian, named Duncan McRimmon, captured by the Indians
whilst he was fishing, was doomed to death. The stake was fixed, the
victim bound, the faggots and torch were ready when a deliverer came in
the person of Milly or Malee, a girl of sixteen years, the daughter of
Francis. Her intercessions induced her father to spare McRimmon and send
him to St. Marks to insure his safety. Not thinking himself secure
there, McRimmon went aboard the decoy vessel, and by a singular fatality
was there when Francis also came.
Malee, bewitching in face, slender and graceful in form, a Red Stick in
blood and courage, an expert with the rifle, a fearless rider who
required no other help than one of her small hands to mount, was the
ideal of an Indian heroine. She was likewise sprightly in mind, and
spoke English and Spanish as well as Indian.
An adventure will illustrate her heroic nature. After her father’s
capture, but in ignorance of it, she and several attendants barely
escaped the snare into which he had fallen. As they approached the
decoy, however, something occurring to excite suspicion, their canoe was
turned for the land. To arrest it, a blank shot was fired by the vessel.
That being unheeded, a charge of grape shot was sent after the
fugitives. The missiles fell around them, but the canoe neither pausing
nor changing its course, was paddled the faster for the shore. A boat
was sent in pursuit, but the chase was too late. As the heroine leaped
from the canoe to the beach, she snatched a rifle from an attendant and
fired at the pursuers. The ball having grazed several of them, and
struck the rudder-post, put an end to the chase.
After the close of the war, McRimmon sought Malee in marriage. His suit,
after repeated refusals, was crowned with success. A marriage, and a
happy plantation home on the Suwanee, were the fruits of her humanity,
and his persistent wooing. After eighteen years of married life, Malee
found herself a widow with eight children.
Among the Red Sticks, who after the disastrous battle of the Horse Shoe
fled to the Seminole nation, were a Creek mother and her orphan boy,
whose age might be twelve. The young Red Stick was destined in after
years to fill the continent with his name. Osceola was old enough at the
time of Tecumseh’s mission, and the stirring events in which it
resulted, to receive from them a deep and lasting impression. To those
impressions, doubtless, and the blood he derived from one of those
Spartan warriors, whose heroism excited the admiration of their
conquerors,[63] was due his primacy in the Seminole war; for an alien he
was without the influence of a sept to achieve it. In the career of the
Seminole chief may be discerned the far-reaching influence of the Great
Shawnee, and the abiding force of youthful impressions.
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Footnote 61:
Niles’ Weekly Register, Vol. 15, pp. 270-282.
Footnote 62:
Niles’ Weekly Register, Vol. 15, p. 281.
Footnote 63:
So impressed was General Jackson’s chivalric nature with the lion-like
courage of the Red Sticks at the battle of the Horse Shoe, that he
made an earnest, but ineffectual effort to end the conflict, and
thereby save a remnant of that band of heroes.
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