The affair of Dade's massacre is without a parallel in the history of
Indian warfare. No conflict of a similar kind had ever occurred--at
least, none so fatal to the whites engaged in it. In this case they
suffered complete annihilation--for, of the three wounded men who had
escaped, two of them shortly after died of their wounds.
Nor had the Indians any great advantage over their antagonists, beyond
that of superior cunning and strategy.
It was near the banks of the Amazura ["Ouithlacoochee" of the
Seminoles], and after crossing that stream, that Major Dade's party had
been attacked. The assault was made in ground comparatively open--a
tract of pine-woods, where the trees grew thin and straggling--so that
the Indians had in reality no great advantage either from position or
intrenchment. Neither has it been proved that they were greatly
superior in numbers to the troops they destroyed--not more than two to
one; and this proportion in most Indian wars has been considered by
their white antagonists as only "fair odds."
Many of the Indians appeared upon the ground mounted; but these remained
at a distance from the fire of the musketry; and only those on foot took
part in the action. Indeed, their conquest was so soon completed, that
the horsemen were not needed. The first fire was so deadly, that Dade's
followers were driven into utter confusion. They were unable to
retreat: the mounted Indians had already outflanked them, and cut off
their chance of escape.
Dade himself, with most of his officers, fell at the first volley; and
the survivors had no choice but fight it out on the ground. A
breastwork was attempted--by felling trees, and throwing their trunks
into a triangle--but the hot fire from the Indian rifles soon checked
the progress of the work; and the parapet never rose even breast-high
above the ground. Into this insecure shelter the survivors of the first
attack retreated, and there fell rapidly under the well-aimed missiles
of their foes. In a short while the last man lay motionless; and the
slaughter was at an end.
When the place was afterwards visited by our troops, this triangular
inclosure was found, filled with dead bodies--piled upon one another,
just as they had fallen--crosswise, lengthways, in every attitude of
death!
It was afterwards noised abroad that the Indians had inhumanly tortured
the wounded, and horribly mutilated the slain. This was not true.
There were no wounded left to be tortured--except the three who
escaped--and as for the mutilation, but one or two instances of this
occurred--since known to have been the work of runaway negroes actuated
by motives of personal revenge.
Some scalps were taken; but this is the well-known custom of Indian
warfare; and white men ere now have practised the fashion, while under
the frenzied excitement of battle.
I was one of those who afterwards visited the battle-ground on a tour of
inspection, ordered by the commander-in-chief; and the official report
of that tour is the best testimony as to the behaviour of the victors.
It reads as follows:
"Major Dade and his party were destroyed on the morning of the 28th of
December, about four miles from their camp of the preceding night. They
were advancing in column of route when they were attacked by the enemy,
who rose in a swarm out of the cover of long grass and palmettoes. The
Indians suddenly appeared close to their files. Muskets were clubbed,
knives and bayonets used, and parties clenched in deadly conflict. In
the second attack, our own men's muskets, taken from the dead and
wounded, were used against them; a cross-fire cut down a succession of
artillerists, when the cannon were taken, the carriages broken and
burned, and the guns rolled into a pond. Many negroes were in the
field; but no scalps were taken by the Indians. On the other hand, the
negroes, with hellish cruelty, pierced the throats of all whose cries or
groans shewed that there was still life in them."
Another official report runs thus:
We approached the battle-field from the rear. Our advanced guard had
passed the ground without halting when the commanding officer and his
staff came upon one of the most appalling scenes that can be imagined.
We first saw some broken and scattered boxes; then a cart, the two oxen
of which were lying dead, as if they had fallen asleep, their yokes
still on them: a little to the right, one or two horses were seen. We
next came to a small inclosure, made by felling trees, in such a manner
as to form a triangular breastwork. Within the triangle--along the
north and west faces of it--were about thirty bodies, mostly mere
skeletons, although much of the clothing was left upon them. They were
lying in the positions they must have occupied during the fight. Some
had fallen over their dead comrades, but most of them lay close to the
logs, with their heads turned towards the breastwork, over which they
had delivered their fire, and their bodies stretched with striking
regularity parallel to each other. They had evidently been shot dead at
their posts, and the Indians had not disturbed them, except by taking
the scalps of some--which, it is said, was done by their negro allies.
The officers were all easily recognised. Some still wore their rings
and breastpins, and money was found in their pockets! The bodies of
eight officers and ninety-eight men were interred.
"It may be proper to observe that the attack was not made from a
hommock, but in a thinly-wooded country--the Indians being concealed by
palmettoes and grass."
From this report, it appears that the Indians were fighting--not for
plunder, not even from motives of diabolical revenge. Their motive was
higher and purer--it was the defence of their country--of their hearths
and homes.
The advantage they had over the troop of Major Dade was simply that of
ambush and surprise. This officer, though a man of undoubted gallantry,
was entirely wanting in those qualities necessary to a leader--
especially one engaged against such a foe. He was a mere book-soldier--
as most officers are--lacking the genius which enables the great
military chieftain to adapt himself to the circumstances that surround
him. He conducted the march of his detachment as if going upon parade;
and by so doing he carried it into danger and subsequent destruction.
But if the commander of the whites in this fatal affair was lacking in
military capacity, the leader of the Indians was not. It soon became
known that he who planned the ambush and conducted it to such a
sanguinary and successful issue, was the young chief of the Baton
Rouge--Osceola.
He could not have stayed long upon the ground to enjoy his triumph. It
was upon that same evening, at Fort King--forty miles distant from the
scene of Dade's massacre--that the commissioner fell before his vow of
vengeance!