"When he died in 1838, Seminole warrior Osceola was the most famous Native American in the world. Born a Creek, Osceola was driven from his home to Florida by General Andrew Jackson where he joined the Seminole tribe. Their paths would cross again when President Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act that would relocate the Seminoles to hostile lands and lead to the return of the slaves who had joined their tribe. Outraged Osceola declared war. This vivid history recounts how Osceola led the longest, most expensive, and deadliest war between the U.S. Army and Native Americans and how he captured the imagination of the country with his quest for justice and freedom. Insightful, meticulously researched, and thrillingly told, Thom Hatch's account of the Great Seminole War is an accomplished work that finally does justice to this great leader"--Provided by publisher.
Osceola was born Billy Powell in 1804, in what was known at the time as a "Mississippi Territory." His mother, a Creek Indian, married a white trader, but left him early in Billy's life and took her son to 'Spanish Florida', where he grew up with a tribe of "free men" the Spanish called "Seminoli." All the "Seminoli" were farmers, who lived in Northern and Central Florida, where they raised a variety of crops, herds of cattle and a large number of horses and ponies. In the early 1800's, whenever 'Negro' slaves wanted to escape their life in the fields up North, more often than not, they headed South into 'Spanish Florida', where they knew the "Seminoli" would take them in and give them their freedom. Consequently, with so many settlers in Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee and Carolina losing 'Negro' slaves, the U.S government tried to help the settlers by removing all the Indians from Florida, so they could resettle them in a new 'Indian Territory', the government set up West of the Mississippi River. Early in Billy Powell's life, his name was changed to Osceola. He definitely did not think the U.S. government had any right to move all Indians out West, especially since, he believed, all the land, water and animals were given to the people by the Great Spirit! Billy began organizing many of his friends and convinced them to join him in his fight against Army troops of the U.S. government. Unfortunately, they also had to convince some of their own Seminole Chiefs! When the government offered the Chiefs good money for their cattle, ponies and horses, plus free food and supplies, while they waited for schooners to take them out West, many of the Chiefs wanted to accept the governments offer, which Osceola opposed!! When Osceola and his loyal braves began winning battles against the U.S. Army, the Army shipped thousands of armed soldiers with cannon batteries into Florida, to stop the 'up-start' renegade Osceola once and for all! That's when Osceola decided to lead his people to South Florida and convinced them to move into the Everglades an Big Cypress Swamp, where the U.S. Army was unable to follow them or maneuver their horses, troops and cannons. Many Seminole's definitely didn't want to move into a swamp with snakes and alligators, since they had lived their whole as farmers on solid ground. But when Osceola was able to prove to them the Army could not reach them in the swamp, many decided to stay, where they live to this day, the only Indian Tribe never to surrender to the U.S. government! How Billy Powell became Osceola, how he led his people against the U.S. government and how he became a famous Seminole War Chief is what this story is all about. Only by deceit and trickery was Osceola, very sick at the time, lured to Fort Marian located close to St. Augustine and captured by Army troops, before being transferred to Fort Moultrie outside of Charleston, South Carolina. While in custody a very famous artist painted Osceola's picture, which was wildly distributed internationally, which enabled Osceola to become the most famous Indian War Chief in the U.S. When Osceola died in prison, his head was removed and kept as a souvenir for years, until it was donated to a museum and lost in a fire.
A bestselling, up-to-date evaluation of a legendary Indian leader. Named Outstanding Book by the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Human Rights. "Osceola's Legacy is significant for its geneology and archaeological study of this Native American and his interaction with the federal government during the 1800s. The catalog of photographs of Osceola portraits and his personal possessions makes this a worthwhile reference book as well." --Georgia Historical Quarterly
By examining the Second Seminole War through the lenses of race, Jacksonian democracy, media and public opinion, American expansion, and military strategy, Monaco offers an original perspective on a misunderstood and often-neglected chapter in our history.
During the 19th century, US forces confronted the Seminole people in a series of bitter wars over the fate of Florida. After the refusal of the Seminoles to move west to the Creek Reservation in Mississippi, the US government sent troops to bring Florida under federal control, marking the beginning of the Second Seminole War. On December 28, 1835, troops led by Major Francis Langhorne Dade were ambushed and massacred en route to Fort King. Two years of guerrilla warfare ensued, as the Seminoles evaded the US forces sent to defeat them. Ordered to hunt down the Seminoles, a US force led by Colonel Zachary Taylor incurred heavy losses at the battle of Lake Okeechobee (December 25, 1837), but the Seminoles were forced to withdraw. At the battle of the Loxahatchee River (January 24, 1838), forces led by Major General Thomas S. Jesup encountered a large group of Seminoles and met them with overwhelming numbers and greater firepower. Despite their stubborn efforts to resist the US military, the Seminoles were defeated and Florida became a state of the Union in 1845. This fully illustrated study assesses the forces fighting on both sides, casting light on the tactics, weaponry, and combat record of the Seminole warriors and their US opponents during the Second Seminole War.
Discusses the life of Seminole warrior Osceola, from his childhood in an Upper Creek village to his involvement in the Second Seminole War, capture, and death.
This definitive account of the final war between the US government and Florida’s Seminole tribe “brings to life a conflict that is largely ignored” (San Francisco Book Review). Spanning a period of over forty years (1817–1858), the three Seminole Wars were America’s longest, costliest, and deadliest Indian wars, surpassing the more famous ones fought in the West. After an uneasy peace following the conclusion of the second Seminole War in 1842, a series of hostile events, followed by a string of murders in 1849 and 1850, made confrontation inevitable. The war was also known as the “Billy Bowlegs War” because Billy Bowlegs, Holata Micco, was the central Seminole leader in this the last Indian war to be fought east of the Mississippi River. Pushed by increasing encroachment into their territory, he led a raid near Fort Myers. A series of violent skirmishes ensued. The vastness of the Floridian wilderness and the difficulties of the terrain and climate caused problems for the army, but they had learned lessons from the second war, and, amongst other new tactics, employed greater use of boats, eventually securing victory by cutting off food supplies. History of the Third Seminole War is a detailed narrative of the war and its causes, containing numerous firsthand accounts from participants in the conflict, derived from virtually all the available primary sources, collected over many years. “Any reader interested in learning more about Indian wars, Army history, or Florida history will profit from reading this book,” as well as Civil War enthusiasts, since many of the officers earned their stripes in the earlier conflict (The Journal of America’s Military Past).
When we published our initial work on the Seminole Wars in 2004, we lamented the fact that such an important series of events was widely unknown to the American public in general and to the majority of Floridians. Not that we should have been surprised: The war was fought in one small corner of the nation and therefore of little concern to Americans as a whole, and most Floridians weren’t born in the state and would have had little opportunity to learn about the wars. Yet it shouldn’t have been that way. The Seminole Wars were a major conflict for the nation and arguably one of the most formative events for the State of Florida. The Indian Wars of the American West are famous worldwide, yet the Seminole Wars were bigger than any western Indian war. The foundations for most of Florida’s great cities are a result of the Seminole Wars, yet few of those cities’ residents are aware of the fact. It was an historical oversight we felt was in need of correction.
