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previous: Chapter 17 This webpage reproduces a chapter of The Five Civilized Tribes by Grant Foreman University of Oklahoma Press Norman, Oklahoma, 1934 The text is in the public domain. This page has been carefully proofread and I believe it to be free of errors. If you find a mistake though, please let me know! next: Chapter 19

[ Seminole ]

 p247  Chapter eighteen
Emigration Resumed

Hostilities in Florida were now a part of history. The "War" was definitely ended by the announcement of General Worth in 1843 after the surrender of Halleck Tustenuggee. The people of Georgia and Florida insisted that the war was not over and only when General Worth refused to continue feeding their militiamen would they believe him. This incitement to martial ardor abated, no more troops were offered and peace for a time respond upon the remnant of wretched Seminole Indians who hung on with the tenacity of desperation to their beloved homeland. After capturing and sending off Halleck Tustenuggee's band in 1843 General Worth estimated that there were remaining in Florida only about 300 Indians, and he sent for their headmen to meet him in council at Cedar Keys on August 14. Realizing the impossibility of capturing these resourceful and elusive people he told them that they might remain peaceably on a restricted area of swampland in the southern part of the Peninsula, the limits of which were defined by him.

Immured in the fastnesses of southern Florida, little was heard of the Seminole Indians for some years, but the Government was not permitted by the white people entirely to forget them or the desire to have them driven from the country. To consign them to death from disease or starvation in the swamps, was a challenge to the indomitable character of the Indians and it is not to be supposed that they meekly observed the restraints prescribed by General Worth, so that occasional complaints of intrusion by them into the white settlements were heard. And there were reports of depredations and murders of whites the provocations for which received scant notice.

The white people had not lost their appetite for "war" that placed  p248 numbers of troops in the field, made a market for their produce and gave employment and food to the militia. Opportunity for further military excitement and attempted removal of the Indians was revived in the early part of 1849. A party of four Seminole Indians murdered a white man named Barker on Indian River. While there was no suggestion of concerted action by the Indians, it was not long before the state was in a ferment on the subject of Seminole depredations. On January 13, 1849 the Florida legislature adopted, and the governor approved, a resolution addressed to congress presenting their parlous situation and calling for relief by the Federal Government. On the same day the legislature enacted a law forbidding the passage of any Indian across the line prescribed by General Worth.⁠1

Soon negotiations were under way to send another delegation of western Seminole to exercise their influence on their eastern brothers and endeavor to secure their removal to the west. In charge of Seminole Agent Marcellus DuVal a delegation left North Fork Town October 16 for Fort Smith to take a boat down the Arkansas River. The deputation was headed by Halleck Tustenuggee, and included "Passacke Yoholo, Holatooche, Nocose Yoholo, Carbitchachuppe, Thlathlo Hadjo, Cotchar, Hothelebogeh, Cochokna Hadjo, Isipeco Chopco, Tustunnuccochee, with the interpreters Toney, Jim Bowlegs and Tom." They were promised $1,000 each for their service.⁠2

Capt. J. T. Sprague who had much experience with the Florida Indians estimated that at this time there were only 120 in Florida capable of bearing arms, 70 Seminole, 30 Mikasuki, twelve Creeks, four Yuchi, and four Choctaw, who with their families constituted a total population of 360. They included Sam Jones (Abiaca), ninety-nine years old; also Billy Bowlegs, thirty-three years old who spoke English fluently and exercised supreme control over the Indians.

With this formidable array of 120 warriors to oppose, assuming all of them to be hostile, Col. Joseph Plympton of the Seventh Infantry at Jefferson Barracks was ordered with his command to Florida, and to report to Gen. D. E. Twiggs at Tampa Bay. The State of Florida also ordered out two companies of militia. By the next February General  p249 Twiggs was in command of a force of 1,735 officers and men at different stations in Florida.⁠3

General Twiggs and his staff arrived at Tampa Bay November 17 and met a party of fifty or sixty Seminole Indians who had been waiting there

However General Twiggs persevered and after much persuasion the Indians later agreed to meet the General in a council on January 19, 1850. Taking the delegation of western Seminole with them they departed for the swamps to interview their people on the subject of emigration.⁠5 They were offered large financial inducements to join their brothers in the West: $500 a head for each man and boy capable of bearing arms, $100 for each woman and child; the Government to subsist them for a year after their removal to the West; to pay for all cattle, hogs, crops, and other property abandoned or lost; to make presents of dresses and blankets; to furnish a physician for the journey. And in addition large sums were offered to individual Indians of influence in the tribe amounting in one case to $10,000.⁠6

No such inducement was ever held out to any other tribe, but only a small part of the Seminole were influenced by it. The remainder stubbornly refused to abandon their native land. One of Twiggs's posts located fourteen miles east of Fort Clinch was called Fort Arbuckle  p251 and was occupied by one company of artillery and one of infantry. Here sixty Seminole men, women, and children came and agreed to emigrate and with a few others they were taken to Manatee. On February 28 these and fourteen more Seminole emigrants headed by their chiefs Ca‑pit‑chu‑che, and Ca‑cha‑fix‑i‑co, in charge of Maj. T. H. Holmes embarked on the steamer Fashion and sailed for New Orleans.⁠7 They were accompanied by the Arkansas delegation who were returning home. The ship arrived at New Orleans March 13, all of the party, the most of whom were children, having been very seasick.

Negotiations with the Indians had broken down. The delegation from the West having tired of their employment and departed for their homes, General Twiggs on March 11 ordered Maj. W. T. H. Brooks to proceed immediately to the western home of the Seminole and endeavor to induce Wild Cat and Jim Jumper to assemble another delegation of their people and return to Florida. Mikanopy had died a few months before and he was succeeded as chief by Jim Jumper. At the same time Twiggs directed Maj. W. H. Garrett to go to New Orleans and look after the comfort of the emigrating Indians on the Fashion. He was told that they had a large amount of money and he must find a comfortable boat for them on which to ascend the Mississippi, and try to induce them to put their money in the safe of the boat until they arrived at their destination.

The emigrants in charge of Major Garrett and Marcellus DuVal, their agent, were shipped from New Orleans on the steamer Cotton-plant which brought them to Fort Smith on April 1. Here "some of them took the steamboat J. B. Gordon for Fort Gibson, and the remainder traveled all the way by land, to their place of destination. . . . They are abundantly supplied with money, and this being the first point where they have stopped since leaving New Orleans, they have been very liberal with it, and it is supposed that a large amount, the greater portion of what they had with them, has been disbursed at this town [Fort Smith]. There was a great and sudden rise in the price of horses and ponies, as many were needed by them. In fact the town has been almost entirely drained of this kind of property. It was a perfect harvest to pony dealers and horse  p252 jockeys. The prices which the Indians, in some cases, paid for quite indifferent animals, was astonishing. The store-keepers or merchants, also, highly enjoyed themselves, obtaining in most cases, very extravagant prices for their wares."⁠8

Twiggs reported to the secretary on March 27 that the Indians had broken off negotiations and removed from the vicinity of the troops. Bowlegs and his people, he said, had refused to emigrate and all hopes of a peaceful settlement had vanished, though no hostilities were anticipated. On May 5 Brooks arrived with Seminole Chief Jim Jumper, four subchiefs and three interpreters.⁠9 But this delegation had little influence with the Seminole. The latter declared they would hold no communication with them and would shoot them if they came into the Seminole country. They said they were grossly deceived by the former delegation and would have nothing to do with another.⁠10

Then Luther Blake in 1851 went to Washington where he secured appointment as a special agent to the Florida Indians and received a commission to attempt their removal. He was authorized to offer $800.00 to each warrior, and $450.00 for each woman and child who would remove. But this effort also failed to induce the Seminole people to abandon their beloved homes.⁠11 Blake then hastened to the Indian Territory to secure another delegation to work on the Florida Indians. But he contracted the cholera near Fort Gibson and was delayed in  p253 returning to his post for months. In the end he accomplished nothing.⁠a

Seminole emigration remained at a standstill for some time. And President Pierce on May 18, 1853 announced that "The manner heretofore adopted to effect the removal of the Indians from the State of Florida having failed of their object, I deem it proper and do hereby direct that the duty of removing the Indians be devolved upon the Secretary of War" and taken away from the interior department.⁠12

Nobody seemed to be getting anywhere with the removal of the handful of Indians remaining in Florida, and in November 22, 1853, Chief Chilly McIntosh of the Creek tribe offered to take a contract to remove the remainder of them.⁠13 But nothing came of this offer. Lieut. John Gibbonº of the Fourth Artillery visited the western Seminole to secure another delegation to Florida and on December 12, 1853 the delegation joined him at Fort Smith. It was composed of John Jumper, brother of the chief, Jim Jumper, Halleck Tustenuggee who headed the delegation in 1849, "Kapitchochee," chief of the emigrant party of 1850, Toliss Hadjo, son of Sam Jones, and eleven others including Jim Factor, Indian interpreter and George Noble, a Negro interpreter. Leaving Fort Smith in wagons they descended the river until they met a boat and arrived at Tampa Bay January 5, 1854.

The Florida legislature had enacted a law prohibiting any one from trading with the Indians so that they not only would be unable to secure arms or ammunition with which to kill game for food or secure peltries to exchange for any of the things necessary to sustain them. It was hoped that the Indians would thus be starved out and would be willing to emigrate. Capt. J. C. Casey, who had been left in charge of the small number of troops in the country, was engaged in efforts to catch escaped slaves among the Indians and asked the aid of the latter. They declined, saying that the whites had refused to let the Indians trade with them; therefore they accepted the challenge and said, if your troops will stay on your side of the line we will stay on ours, and there will be no trouble. But Casey said their proposition could not be entertained. In March Casey wrote to Jefferson Davis, secretary of war, that there was no prospect of inducing the Indians  p254 to leave Florida and he was going to send home the delegation of western Seminole. They took their departure April 10. The only hope of conquering the stubborn Florida Indians, he said, was to starve them out by enforcing the law against trading with the whites.

The Government was later engaged in exploring and surveying the swamps of Florida and the Indians not only did not interfere but assisted when called upon, with the pathetic plea that when the soldiers and surveyors saw how poor and worthless the country was they would agree to let them stay. But in December 1855 a company of twenty or thirty warriors burned the unoccupied blockhouses in and near Big Cypress and attacked a white man. Casey, still hopeful, asked the secretary of war to have J. W. Washbourne, Seminole agent at Fort Smith, send Ben Bruner to Florida to interpret between him and the Seminole prisoners in his custody.

In 1854 Bowlegs and some of his people visited Washington to secure some abatement of the persecution to which he and his people were subjected in Florida. Maj. J. T. Sprague later wrote the secretary of the interior concerning these unhappy Seminole:

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The Author's Notes:

1 Secretary of war to secretary of interior, March 28, 1849, enclosing letter from Maj. W. W. Morris, OIA, Seminole file, W 324.

2 But did not receive it. They left New Orleans November 6 on the steamer Ashland for Tampa Bay.

3 Twiggs to secretary of war, February 2, 1850, AGO, ORD, WDF, T 4.

4 The Indian Advocate, December 1849, p3, col. 2.

5 Twiggs to secretary of war, January 22, 1850, AGO, ORD, WDF, T 16.

6 This offer in all probability was to Billy Bowlegs as he was the Indian above all others whom it was hoped to reach. His identity was not revealed in the source from which the information was obtained.

7 Twiggs to secretary of war, January 19 and 29, February 11, 12, and 20, 1850, AGO, ORD, WDF, T 3, 4, 9, 13, and 17.

8 Letter written by Rev. Charles E. Pleasants dated at Fort Smith April 2, 1850, in New York Sun, copied in Fort Smith Herald, May 25, 1850, p2, col. 2. Rev. Mr. Pleasants was a Philadelphian temporarily residing in Fort Smith. He was a correspondent for the Sun and had furnished that paper with several communications describing conditions and events in the vicinity. In reply to charges that the Fort Smith merchants had imposed on the emigrant Indians Judge John F. Wheeler, editor of the Fort Smith Herald, wrote a sharp reply. After a rejoinder in the New York paper Wheeler again paid his compliments to Pleasants. The next time they met there was an exchange of fiery epithets, whereupon Wheeler struck Pleasants with his cane and the latter in turn shot the editor in the breast with a derringer. Fortunately for both of them, Wheeler was carrying a large bundle of mail he had just taken from the post office which with the contents of a breast pocket broke the force of the bullet and saved his life.

9 Up to this time a total of eighty-five Seminole Indians had emigrated.

10 Col. J. H. Winder to secretary of war, September 20, 1851, OIA, Seminole file W 566.

11 Report of commissioner of Indian affairs for 1851; U. S. House executive document No. 2, Thirty-second Congress, first session, p306.

12 Adjutant general to Gen. Winfield Scott, May 19, 1853, AGO, ORD, WDF, A 41.

13 AGO, ORD 917 M 1853.

14 Casey to Davis, March 12, 1854 and April 9, 1854, AGO, ORD, WDF, C 128.

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Thayer's Note:

a For details, see Florida Historical Quarterly, Vol. 41 No. 2, pp136‑139.

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