USA > Florida > Historical sketches of colonial Florida > Part 11
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When the first account of the invasion reached Havana, American vessels were seized as a retaliatory measure; but when all the
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particulars of the expedition were learned they were promptly released.
Having blown up St. Michael, General Jackson left Pensacola, on November 9, to go to the defence of New Orleans, which from all indications was threatened with an attack by the British. There he arrived with his army, on December 2, to begin those preparations which were to end on January 8, in the grand and glorious land victory of the War of 1812.
When Percy and Nicholls left Pensacola, they took with them, not only their Indian allies, but also about one hundred negro slaves be- longing to the inhabitants of the town. Sailing to Appalachicola, they there landed the Indians and negroes. Still bent on instigating a savage warfare against the American settlements, a fort under their directions was built on the Ap- palachicola river, which they supplied with guns and ammunition. It was designed to serve as a refuge for fugitive slaves, and a resort for hos- tile Indians, as well as a salient point from which to carry on an exterminating warfare against the white settlements in southern Geor- gia and Alabama.
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Such were the inglorious results of the Percy- Nicholls expedition to Florida, beginning, as we have seen, with stilted proclamations to the people of Louisiana and Kentucky, coupled with an invitation to a nest of pirates to become their allies; and ending with the rob- bing and destruction of the property of a com- munity to which they had come under the guise of friendship, and as its shield from wrongs which existed in their own imaginations only.
Aside from the barbarity which marked the warfare instigated by Britain against the Americans in Florida and Alabama during the years 1812-1814, history has cause to lament its fatal consequences to the people who were the cruel instruments by which it was waged.
At the time of Tecumseh's mission to the Creeks, about twenty years had elapsed since the death of their Great Chief, McGillivray. In that interval, under the impulse of his teachings and example, continued and increased by the fostering care of the United States, they had made considerable advance in civilization. Large numbers of them had learned to rely more upon tillage and their herds for a livelihood,
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than on the chase. It was no uncommon thing to see in the nation, well-built houses standing in the midst of considerable farms. They owned slaves and large herds of cattle. The hum of the spinning wheel, and the noise of the shuttle, moved by the deft hands of Indian matrons, were common sounds throughout the Creek country; whilst an Indian maiden with her milk pail, or at her churn, was no unusualsight. The schools established amongst them were gradually shedding upon them the light and mellowing influence of knowledge. *
The large infusion of white blood into the tribe, owing to the attractions of the Creek women, which have already been noticed, like- wise, added the hope of a civilization resting upon the strongest instincts of human nature. Of the possibility of this civilizing and ennob- ling influence, gradually permeating and elevat- ing the Creeks as a people, we have the evidence in some of their descendants, who at this day, are amongst the most respectable citizens in several communities in Alabama and Florida.
*Niles' Weekly Register, Vol. 6; p. 370.
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Such was the state of the Creek nation, when the British at Detroit sent Tecumseh, like another Prince of Evil, into that fair garden of a nascent civilization, to convert its peaceful scenes into fields of slaughter, with all the woes that follow in the footsteps of war.
The first fruit of that cruel scheme, as we have seen, was the tragedy of Fort Mims. Then followed in rapid succession the avenging battles of Tallasehatchee, Talladega, Auttose, and Holy Ground. To those succeeded the last great heroic struggle at the Horse Shoe, in which, of one thousand Red Sticks engaged, two hundred only survived. Afterwards came the surrender of Weatherford with that speech *
* Weatherford having boldly ridden up to General Jack- son's tent, was met by the threatening question: "How dare you, sir, ride up to my tent after having murdered the women and children at Fort Mims?" Weatherford replied: "General Jackson, I am not afraid of you. I fear no man, for I am a Creek warrior. I have nothing to request in behalf of myself; you can kill me if you wish. I come to beg you to send for the women and children of the war party who are now starving in the woods. Their fields and cribs have been destroyed by your people, who have driven them to the woods without one ear of corn. I hope you will send
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which comes to us as the dirge-like epilogue of the woeful drama; and a memorial of that pro- phetic shadow which fell on his people when they learned their Grand Chief was lying in the "sands of the Seminoles. "
The Spaniards criticised General Jackson's Florida campaign, because he did not, instead of advancing on Pensacola, proceed at once to Barrancas, to capture San Carlos, and there- by prevent the escape of the British vessels. But the answer to the criticism is, that he was not aware, perhaps, of all the conditions known to the Spaniards, which in their judgment, would have facilitated a surprise, or contributed to a successful assault. Besides, such a move- ment would have been inconsistent with the purpose of his invasion, which was to procure the exclusion of the British from Florida, by the
out parties to safely bring them here in order that they may be fed. I exerted myself in vain to prevent the massa- cre of the women and children at Fort Mims. I am now done fighting. The Red Sticks are nearly all killed. If I could fight you any longer I would most heartily do so. Send for the women and children ; they never did you any harm. But kill me if the white people want it done. "-Pickett's History of Alabama, Vol. II., p. 349.
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action of the Spaniards themselves ; a consider- ation which was due to the amicable relations existing between Spain and the United States. Entertaining these views, General Jackson did not deem it proper to seize the Spanish forts in the first instance without communicating with the Governor. This he attempted to do, and it was only after the outrage of firing on his flag, he resolved, without further parley or remon- strance, by his own arms to drive out the British.
That, however, he had considered a move- ment on Barrancas, before or at the time of his advance on Pensacola, is evidenced by an inter- view which he had with Don Manuel Gon- zalez, who was an officer in the Spanish commis- sary department, and who had a cattle ranch at a place then known as Vacaria Baja, now as Oakfield, one mile from the trail the American army was following. Don Manuel, with his family, was at the ranch, when the General rode up to the house, and accosted him. There was with the Don at the time, his son, Celestino, then a young man. Through an interpreter, the General made known, that the purpose of
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his visit was to require the Don, or his son, to guide the army to Barrancas. The Don boldly refusing, the General became insistent, to the degree of threatening the use of force to secure compliance. Roused by the threat, with a mien as dauntless as Jackson's, Don Manuel replied : "General, my life and my property are in your power; you can take both; but my honor is in my own keeping. As to my son, I would rather plunge a sword into his bosom than see him a traitor to his king." The General replied by extending his hand with the exclamation, "I honor a brave man, " and thenceforth became his friend.
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CHAPTER XXI.
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 Appalach- icola river built under the auspices of Nicholls and Percy.
The Seminoles were, as their name signifies, outlaws and runaways from the Creek confed- eracy, or their descendants. Henceit 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' depar-
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ture. '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 gun- boat 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 suspi- cion mutually seized upon the white settlers and Indians, induced by causes for which both were responsible. The first act of war, however, was thecapture on November 21 of Fowlton, a Semi- nole village above the Georgia line, by an Ameri- can 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.
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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 Scotch- man, 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
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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 inno- cence. *
Robert C. Ambrister, who had formerly be- longed to Nicholls' command, being found in the Indian nation, was also seized and tried by a court-martial. He confessed that he had coun- selled and aided the Indians. The court at first sentenced him to be shot, but before closing the trial, upon a reconsideration it sct 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 judg- ment.t
Jackson having early in May closed his campaign against the East Florida Seminoles, and obtained evidence satisfactory to himself,
* Niles' Weekly Register, Vol. 15, pp. 270-282.
+Niles' Weekly Register, Vol. 15, p. 281.
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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 serv- ices to the crown, bestowed upon him a gilded tomahawk, with a dazzling belt, a gold snuff- box, 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
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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 commis- sion 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 McRim- mon, 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 grace- ful in form, a Red Stick in blood and courage, an
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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 ap- proached the decoy, however, something occur- ring 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 pur- suit, but the chase was too late. As the heroine leaped from the canoe to the beach, she snatch- ed 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
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Malee in marriage. His suit, after repeated re- fusals, was crowned with success. A marriage, and a happy plantation home on the Suwanee, were the fruits of her humanity, and his per- sistent wooing. After eighteen years of mar- ried life, Malee found herselfa widow with eight children.
Among the Red Sticks, who after the disas- trous battle of the Horse Shoe fled to the Semi- nole 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 impres- sion. To those impressions, doubtless, and the blood he derived from one of those Spartan war- riors, whose heroism excited the admiration of their conquerors, * was due his primacy in the
*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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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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.CHAPTER XXII.
Jackson's Invasion of West Florida in 1818 -- Masot's Pro- test - Capture of Pensacola - Capitulation. of San Carlos-Provisional Government Established by Jack- son-Pensacola Restored to Spin-Governor Callava- Treaty of Cession-Congressional Criticism of Jack- son's Conduct.
HITHERTO Jackson's operations had been con- fined to the province of East Florida. On the tenth of May, 1818, he began his invasion of West Florida by crossing the Appalachicola river at the Indian village of Ochesee. Thence he followed a trail which led him over the natural bridge of the Chipola river-a bridge which it would be difficult for the wayfarer to observe, as it is formed by the stream quietly sinking into a lime-stone cavern, through which it again emerges within a distance of half a mile.
Within a few hundred yards of the trail, and near the north side of the bridge, there is a cave one-fourth of a mile in length, with many
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lateral grottoes, its roof pendant with glittering stalactites and its floor covered with lime-stones moulded in varied and eccentric forms. Panic- stricken by Jackson's campaign in East Florida, the Indians on the west of the Appalachicola river, when he began his westward march, made this cave a place of refuge, and were there quietly concealed when his troops unconsciously marched over their subterranean retreat.
The army marched in two divisions. The one commanded by Jackson in person followed the bridge trail, the other moved by a trail which led to the river, northward of the place where it made its cavernous descent. The water being high, the construction of a bridge or rafts became necessary to enable the wagons and artillery to cross. Whilst the northern division was thus obstructed, General Jackson, unim- peded in his march, reached the appointed place of junction. Here he waited, in hourly expecta- tion of the appearance of the other column, until worked up to a frenzy of impatience which was changed to indignation when, after the junc- tion, the interposition of a river-contradicted, as he supposed, by his own immediate experi-
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ence-was assigned as the cause of the delay. At length, however, the guides, by disclosing the existence of the bridge, solved the riddle and re- stored the general to good humor.
His march westward, and south of the north- ern boundary of the province of West Florida, brought him to the Escambia river, which, having crossed, he reached the road that he had opened over the old trail in 1814, when he marched to Pensacola on a similar mission to that in which he was now engaged.
Don José Masot, who was governor of West Florida, having received intelligence of Jackson's westward march and his designs on Pensacola, sent him a written protest against his invasion, as an offence against the Spanish king, "ex- horting and requiring him to retire from the Province," threatening if he did not, to use force for his expulsion. This protest was delivered by a Spanish officer, on May 23, after Jackson had crossed the Escambia river and was within a few hours' march of Pensacola. Notwith- standing Masot's threat, instead of advancing to meet the invader, he hastily retired with most of his troops to Fort San Carlos, leaving
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a few only at Pensacola, under the command of Lieutenant-colonel Don Lui Piemas, for the pur- pose of making a show of resistance.
Masot's protest, instead of retarding, seems to have accelerated Jackson's advance. In the afternoon of the same day on which it was re- ceived, the American army was in possession of Fort St. Michael and encamped around it. Thence, immediately upon its occupation, Jack- son sent Masot a dispatch in reply to his pro- test, in which he demanded an immediate surrender of Pensacola and Barrancas. In his answer, on May 24, to that demand, Masot, as to Pensacola, referred Jackson to Don Lui Piemas; as to San Carlos he replied: "This fortress I am resolved to defend to the last ex- tremity. I shall repel force by force, and he who resists aggression can never be considered an aggressor. God preserve your excellency many years." Upon the receipt of this com- munication, Jackson, by arrangement with Colonel Piemas, took possession of Pensacola.
On the twenty-fifth, Jackson replied to Masot's dispatch of the twenty-fourth, in which he tells him he is aware of the Spanish force,
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and hints at the folly of resistance to an over- whelming enemy. In conclusion he says: "I applaud your feelings as a soldier in wishing to defend your post, but when resistance is ineffec- tual and the opposing force overwhelming, the sacrifice of a few brave men is an act of wanton- ness, for which the commanding officer is ac- countable to his God."
, In the evening of the day on which Jackson's communication was written, and within a few hours after it was received by Masot, Fort San Carlos was invested by the American army. `On the night of the twenty-fifth, batteries were established in favorable positions within three hundred and eighty-five yards of the fort, though the work was interrupted by the Span- ish guns. Before the American batteries replied, Jackson, in his anxiety to spare the effusion of blood, sent Masot, under a flag of truce, another demand to surrender, accompanied by a rep- resentation of the futility, if not the folly, of further resistance. The refusal of the demand was followed by the batteries and the fort opening upon each other. The firing continued until evening, when a flag from the fort invited
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a parley, which resulted in a truce until the fol- lowing day, the twenty-seventh, when, at eight o'clock in the morning, articles of capitulation were signed. Such was Masot's defense to "the last extremity," and such the fruit of Jackson's expostulation with his fiery but feeble antag- onist.
The military features of the capitulation were that the Spanish surrender should be made with the honors of war, drums beating, and flags flying, during the march from the gate of the fort to the foot of the glacis, where the arms were to be stacked; the garrison to be transported to Havana; and their rights of property, to the last article, strictly respected.
But, as in the case of General Campbell's and Governor Chester's surrender, in 1781, to Gal- vez, there was a political aspect to the capitu- lation of Masot.
In Jackson's despatch to Calhoun, Secretary of war, he says of the capitulation: "The articles, with but one condition, amount to a complete cession to the United States, of that portion of the Floridas hitherto under the gov-
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ernment of Don José Masot." The condition alluded to was, that the province should be held by the United States until Spain could fur- nish a sufficient military force to execute the obligations of existing treaties.
Having accepted the cession of West-Florida to the United States, Jackson further assumed the authority of constituting a provisional government for the conquered province. He appointed one of his officers, Colonel King, civil and military governor ; he extended the revenue laws of the United States over the country ; ap- pointed another of his officers, Captain Gads- den, collector of the port of Pensacola, with authority to enforce those laws; declared what civil laws should be enforced, and provided for the preservation of the archives, as well as for fthe care and protection of what had been the property of the Spanish crown, but now, in the General's conception, become the property of the United States.
Shortly after these occurrences, General Jack- son, with his constitution sorely tried by the fatigue and privations of the campaign, left Pensacola for his home in Tennessee, to find
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quietude and repose, made sweet by public ap- plause on the one side, and interrupted by bitter censure and criticism on the other.
The views with which Jackson began the Seminole campaign in March, and those which he entertained at its close in May, by the capit- ulation of Masot, present a strange and strik- ing contrast. He invaded East-Florida to crush the Seminoles, as he had crushed the Creeks of Alabama. This he accomplished by invading the territory of a power at peace with the United States. As an imperious necessity, the invasion was justified by his government. During his operations, however, he acquired in- formation from which he concluded that there existed a sympathy between the Spanish officials at Pensacola and the Indians. Osten- sibly, to correct that abuse he marched to Pen- sacola, where he ended his campaign by procur- ing the cession of the province of West-Florida, followed by the establishment of an American government, without the authority of the United States.
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