Thomas Jesup

Americans, President Jackson included, are growing tired of the war in Florida.

Major Ethan Allen Hitchcock is among those who had found the remains of the Dade party in February.

In his journal he wrote a haunting account of the discovery, then vented his bitter discontent with the conflict: "The government is in the wrong, and this is the chief cause of the persevering opposition of the Indians, who have nobly defended their country against our attempt to enforce a fraudulent treaty.

The natives used every means to avoid a war, but were forced into it by the tyranny of our government."

On November 21, 1836, at the Battle of Wahoo Swamp, the Seminoles fight against American forces, killing David Moniac, the first Native American graduate of West Point.

This key skirmish restores much confidence and proves their ability to hold their ground in the Florida wilds against their old enemies the Creeks and white settlers.

Major General Thomas Jesup, placed in command of the Seminole War late in 1836, brings a new approach to the war.

Instead of sending large columns out to try to force the Seminoles into a set-piece battle, he concentrates on wearing the Seminoles down.

This requires a large military presence in Florida, and Jesup will eventually have a force of more than nine thousand men under his command.

About half of the force consists of volunteers and militia.

It also includes a brigade of marines, and Navy and Revenue-Marine personnel patrolling the coast and inland rivers and streams.

There is a change in the war in Florida in January 1837: numerous Seminoles and Black Seminoles are killed or captured in various actions.

At the end of the month, some Seminole chiefs send messengers to Jesup, and a truce is arranged.

Fifty seamen from USS Concord and twenty artillerymen, manning a six-pound iron gun and twelve-pound howitzer at Fort Foster, resist Seminole attacks and attempts by the hostile natives to burn the rebuilt bridge, which had been destroyed in attacks in the previous year.

The fort will be abandoned in the following summer because of disease among its forces.

Several chiefs, including Micanopy, sign a "Capitulation" in March, stipulating that the Seminoles can be accompanied by their allies and "their negroes, their bona fide property," in their relocation to the West.

Many chiefs, including Micanopy, have surrendered by the end of May.

Two important leaders, Osceola and Sam Jones (a.k.a. Abiaca, Ar-pi-uck-i, Opoica, Arpeika, Aripeka, Aripeika), have not surrendered, however, and are known to be vehemently opposed to relocation.

On June 2, these two leaders with about two hundred followers enter the poorly guarded holding camp at Fort Brooke and lead away the seven hundred Seminoles there who had surrendered.

The war is on again, and Jesup will never again trust the word of a native.

On Jesup's orders, Brigadier General Joseph Marion Hernández commands the expedition that captures several native leaders, including Coacoochee (Wildcat), Osceola, and Micanopy when they appear for conferences under a white flag of truce.

Coacoochee and a number of other captives are able to escape their cell at Fort Marion in St. Augustine, but Osceola does not go with them.

General Thomas Jesup organizes a sweep down the Florida peninsula with multiple columns, pushing the Seminoles further south.

On Christmas Day 1837, Colonel Zachary Taylor's column of eight hundred men encounters a body of about four hundred Seminoles on the north shore of Lake Okeechobee.

The Seminoles, led by Sam Jones, Alligator, and the recently escaped Coacoochee, are well positioned in a hammock surrounded by sawgrass.

Taylor's army comes up to a large hammock with half a mile of swamp in front of it.

On the far side of the hammock is Lake Okeechobee, were the saw grass stands five feet high and the mud and water are three feet deep; horses will be of no use.

It is plain that the Seminole mean this to be the battleground.

They have sliced the grass to provide an open field of fire and have notched the trees to steady their rifles.

Their scouts are perched in the treetops to follow every movement of the troops coming up.

At about half past noon, the sun shining directly overhead and the air still and quiet, Taylor moves his troops squarely into the center of the swamp.

His plan is to make a direct attack rather than encircle the Indians.

All his men are on foot.

In the first line are the Missouri volunteers.

As soon as they come within range, the Indians open with heavy fire.

The volunteers break; their commander, the fatally wounded Colonel Gentry, is unable to rally them.

They flee back across the swamp.

The fighting in the saw grass is deadliest for five companies of the Sixth Infantry; every officer but one, and most of their noncoms are killed or wounded.

When that part of the regiment retires a short distance to re-form, they find only four men of these companies unharmed.

The Seminoles are eventually driven from the hammock, escaping across the lake.

Taylor loses twenty-six killed and one hundred and twelve wounded, while the Seminole casualties are eleven dead and fourteen wounded.

Nevertheless, the Battle of Lake Okeechobee is hailed as a great victory for Taylor and the Army.

General Thomas Jesup's troops catch up with a large body of Seminoles to the east of Lake Okeechobee at the end of January 1838.

The Seminoles are originally positioned in a hammock, but cannon and rocket fire drive them back across a wide stream, where they make another stand.

The Seminoles eventually just fade away, having caused more casualties than they received, and the Battle of Loxahatchee is over.

Seminole chiefs Tuskegee and Halleck Hadjo had approached General Jesup in February with the proposition that they would stop fighting if they would be allowed to stay south of Lake Okeechobee.

Jesup favors the idea but has to write to Washington for approval.

The chiefs and their followers camp near the Army while awaiting the reply.

When the secretary of war rejects the idea, Jesup seizes the five hundred natives in the camp, sending them west.

In May, Jesup's request to be relieved of command is granted, and Zachary Taylor assumes command of the Army forces in Florida.

With reduced forces in Florida, Taylor concentrates on keeping the Seminoles out of northern Florida by building many small posts at twenty-mile (thirty-kilometer) intervals across northern Florida, connected by a grid of roads.