History of Davidson County, Tennessee, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 21

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford)
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia, J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1013

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SEMINOLE WARS.

battle was opened ; but his brave fellows immediately dis- mounted, and turning their horses loose stripped for the fight, and advanced in the direction of the British camp. They had proceeded but a short distance in the darkness before they received an unexpected fire from a line of the enemy which had taken refuge in that quarter from the guns of the " Caroline." Coffee ordered his men to press forward in a line, and only fire when close enough to distinguish the enemy's line with certainty. This was done, and such a destructive volley was opened at short range that the Brit- ish were driven back ; but they soon reformed, to be again forced back by the steady advance of the Tennesseeans, until they reached an orange-grove, along which ran a ditch, where they halted in full confidence of maintaining their position. From this, however, they were driven, to the mortification of the British officers, and in a short time from another position of similar nature, whence they retreated to the bank of the river, where, by great exertions, they were enabled to withstand further assaults for a half-hour, but at length they were forced to take refuge behind the remains of an old levee, which afforded security from the fire of the American rifles.

In the mean time the battle on the right wing had been pushed by Gen. Jackson in person, and the enemy driven nearly a mile from successive positions. In the last charge made by Coffee, Cols. Dyer and Gibson, with about two hundred men and Capt. Beal's company of riflemen, be- came separated from the rest of the brigade, and unex- pectedly found themselves in the presence of a line which they took for their own. On being hailed their officers rode forward and announced that they belonged to Coffee's brigade, when, discovering that it was a line of the enemy, they wheeled to retire. Col. Gibson fell over some obstacle, and before he could rise was pinioned to the ground by the bayonet of an adversary who sprang forward upon him. Fortunately the bayonet inflicted only a slight wound, and held him only by his clothing. With a violent effort he regained his feet, and knocking his enemy down made his escape. Col. Dyer's horse was killed by the fire of the enemy before going fifty yards, und himself slightly wounded and entangled in the fall. He called out to his men to fire, which arrested the advance of the enemy, and enabled him to make good his retreat. Capt. John Donelson, who com- manded a company from Davidson County, during the confusion of this movement, discovered a line advancing in his rear, and on hailing it was answered that it was " Cof- fee's brigade." This line advanced rapidly with their guns at a "ready" until within a few paces, when it fiercely ordered the "d-d Yankees" to surrender. Capt. Don- elson instantly ordered his company to fire, but the British line being prepared delivered the first volley, by which three of his men were killed and several wounded. Donelson had no thought of surrendering, but ordered his men to charge and cut their way through. In this des- perate attempt he not only succeeded, but brought off Maj. Mitchell of the Ninety-second Royal Foot a prisoner of war, taking him with his own hands. He, however, lost some prisoners.

The success of this first battle had answered Jackson's anticipations, but burning to make it complete, he ordered

Carroll's Tennessee division to report to him for an attack on the British lines at daylight. This design, however, was relinquished in favor of one of greater safety, and the troops were ordered to form on the Rodriguez Canal and fortify in haste. The events that followed, culminating in the battle of the 8th of January, are too familiar to need repetition in this place. From the date of their landing the invaders were put on the defensive day after day. Caution on their part took the place of enterprise, and when they advanced, seventeen days after their landing, it was but to slaughter and repulse from a line of fortifications which had sprung into existence in this interval. In the final battle the brunt of the attack fell upon the division of Gen. Carroll and the brigade of Gen. Coffee, which occu- pied the left wing of Jackson's line. Coffee was on the ex- treme left, and Carroll next, supported by the Kentuckians under Gen. Adair. The centre of Carroll's division was selected for the attack by the British commander on the information of a deserter from the American lines, who re- ported this as the weakest point on account of being occu- pied by " militia." The British advance was made in column, with a front of about seventy men, and hence the terrible destruction of life when, failing to carry the works, it had to retire across an open plain under a deliberate fire of rifles and cannon from many quarters.

In this battle, as in all of the events which have been related so briefly in connection with the history of this period, the sons of Davidson County bore a conspicuous and leading part. Her fame is indelibly linked with the immortal name of Jackson, while she borrows additional lustre from those of Carroll, Coffee, and thousands of others who occupied subordinate relations to their great chief, but in their spheres sustained the glory and prestige of the pioneer period.

CHAPTER XIX.

SEMINOLE WARS.

Influence of the Creeks with the Seminoles-First Seminole War- Gen. Jackson ordered to command the Campaign-He Seizes the Spanish Fort of St. Mark's-His Decisive Measures-Second Sem- inole War-Tennessee Troops-The Davidson "Highlanders"- "State Guards."

NOTWITHSTANDING their terrible defeat at the Horse- shoe in 1814, many of the Creeks still remained implacable, and sought safety in the neutral Spanish territory of Flor- ida, where they were taken into the service of Great Brit- ain. By the treaty of Ghent, which concluded the war between the United States and Great Britain, it was stipu- lated that the former power was to restore to the Indian tribes with which it was at war at the time of the ratifica- tion of this treaty all the possessions and rights that said tribes were entitled to in the year 1811. Peace had been made with the Creek nation many months before the ratifi- cation, but this government construed that the terms did not apply to them, and erected forts and permitted settle- ments to be made quite down to the Spanish boundary. The hostile Creeks, on the other hand, claimed that they

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HISTORY OF DAVIDSON COUNTY, TENNESSEE.

had not been a party to the treaty by which their lands were ceded, and that they had remained in a state of hostil- ity. The Seminoles, with whom they had become assimi- lated, also claimed certain boundaries on which the Geor- gians were making settlements. Individual acts of murder and rapine on either side led at length to an open rupture with the United States in the latter part of the year 1817. On the 21st of November of this year, Col. Twiggs, in command at Fort Scott, sent a body of troops to Fowltown, a Seminole village twelve miles east of the fort, to demand of the chief the surrender of some of his warriors who had been committing murder upon the Georgia settlers. The troops were fired upon as they approached the village, before time was had for a parley and statement of their mission. The fire was returned, by which two warriors and a woman were killed. The town was captured, and after a few days was burnt by order of Gen. Gaines. This act kindled into flame at once a bloody and devastating war. The government having obtained the right of passage up the Appalachicola for the better supplying of the forts in this quarter, an opportunity was soon afforded the Semi- noles of wreaking a terrible revenge for their late injury. On the 30th of this month, as Lieut. Scott was proceeding up this river in a large boat, containing forty soldiers of the Seventh Infantry, seven soldiers' wives, and four little children, a sudden fire was poured into the party from the bank, killing and wounding nearly every person on board at the first volley. The Indians then rose from their conceal- ment and, getting possession of the boat, began an indis- criminate massacre. Four men leaped overboard at the first fire and swam to the other bank, two of whom ouly reached it uninjured and got into Fort Scott in safety. One woman, who was uninjured by the volley, was bound and carried off.

The Prophet Francis, one of the leaders in the Fort Mimms massacre and a refugee from his nation since their defeat four years before, soon appeared in the field at the head of the warriors of his tribe who, like himself, had refused to acquiesce in the results of that war. Having captured a Georgia militiaman, he doomed him to the stake, but his daughter, Milly Francis, a girl of fifteen years, being moved to pity at the fearful spectacle about to be enacted, fell upon her knees before her father and begged the prisoner's life. The fierce chief at length relented and granted her prayer. The prisoner was given up to the Spanish commandant for safe-keeping, and by this means regained his liberty.

The news of hostilities having reached the government, Gen. Jackson was ordered to proceed to the South and conduct the war, Gen. Gaines being absent at the time, engaged in ousting a band of filibusters who had taken possession of Amelia Island, on the Florida coast, for the purpose of overthrowing Spanish rule in this province. Gen. Jackson, being directed by the Secretary of War, Mr. Calhoun, to call upon the " adjacent States" for any addi- tional troops he might need, decided to construe the order to mean Tennessee as an adjacent State, in order to get the services of his veterans of the war of 1812. Two regi- ments of over a thousand mounted men assembled at Fay- etteville on his call, and were ready to march in twenty

days after the Secretary's dispatch came. These were com- manded by Cols. Dyer and Williamson. A company of over one hundred men, under the command of Capt. A. Dunlap, went from Nashville as his life-guard.

Profiting by experience, Gen. Jackson ordered supplies to be sent from New Orleans to Fort Scott, and on the 22d of January set out from Nashville on horseback to reach his destination, four hundred and fifty miles distant. On the 9th of March he reached Fort Scott, where he was soon after joined by Cols. Williamson and Dyer, commanding the two Tennessee regiments. About two thousand friendly Creek Indians came also to war upon the Seminoles and their own kindred. The campaign was brief and unmarked by a determined battle upon the part of the hostile warriors, who fled to the security of swamps where it was useless to attempt to follow them. Gen. Jackson set out from Fort Gadsden on the 26th of March for St. Mark's, in the Spanish province of Florida, where he had arranged with Capt. Mckeever, of the navy, to meet him with the gun- boats and transports. With his long experience of Spanish influence and intrigue in the affairs of the adjacent Indian tribes, he had determined on the grave responsibility of an invasion of the territory of a neutral power with his usual firmness and decision. He had two objects in view by this step,-to strike the enemy in his stronghold whence issued the raids on the whites, and to seize and hold the Spanish fort at St. Mark's, and garrison it with his troops as security against the outrages which the representatives of his Cath- olic Majesty acknowledged themselves as powerless to pre- vent. On his way he had an affair on the 1st of April, in which he lost one man killed and four wounded, and killed fourteen Indians and captured and burnt their town, in the square of which were found over fifty fresh scalps hanging from a red pole erected at the council-house. King Hajah's town was also destroyed en route, and one thousand head of cattle and three thousand busliels of corn taken.

St. Mark's was reached on the 6th, and the Governor having stated his want of authority to enter into an agree- ment by which an American garrison would take possession of a fort belonging to his Catholic Majesty, and asked for a suspension of operations until he could get proper in- structions, Jackson entered on the 7th, and lowering the Spanish colors, hoisted the American flag in their place. This was accomplished without any resistance further than a formal protest from the Governor. In the fort was found Alexander Arbuthnot, a Scotchman and Indian trader, who had allowed his " philanthropy" and zeal to right the wrongs of the red man to betray him into undoubted acts of hostility against the United States, and he was ordered into confinement. Before Jackson's arrival Mckeever's fleet had appeared in the lower bay, and on displaying the English colors the Prophet Francis and his next chief, Himmolemmico, came aboard in full anticipation of finding some expected military stores from his friends in England for the prosecution of the war. They were seized and bound, and on arrival of the fleet at anchor, Jackson, mind- ful of Fort Mimms and their present purposes, ordered them to be hung, which sentence was executed the next day. The fate of this brave prophet-chief was greatly deplored even in America, but especially in England, where he had

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SEMINOLE WARS.

made a favorable impression when on a visit after the con- chusion of the late war.

After two days' stay at St. Mark's, Jackson set out for Suwanee, one hundred and seven miles distant. This was the stronghold of the great chief Boleck or Bowlegs, and the refuge of runaway negroes. The march was through swamps a great part of the way, the troops having often to wade for hours through water waist-deep. The Indians, however, got- warning in time to escape without much loss of life. This was a large town, extending for three miles along the Suwanee, and was burned to the ground. During the stay here Robert C. Ambrister, an Englishman and nephew of the British Governor of New Providence, came incautiously into the American camp, and was taken pris- ober. He had been an officer of the British army, but in consequence of a duel had been suspended from his rank, and while waiting the expiration of his sentence his love of adventure and his military tastes had led him to embark in the cause of exciting the Florida Indians to acts of hos- tility against the United States, then at peace with his government.

This expedition virtually ended the war, and on the 26th Gen. Jackson was again back at St. Mark's. A court-martial was at once convened for the trial of Arbuthnot and Am- brister, and at the end of two days the verdict was returned that Ambrister should be shot and Arbuthnot executed on the gallows. The finding and sentence of the court were submitted to the commanding general as he was leaving for Pensacola with his army, and being approved, the execu- tion of the prisoners took place the following day. This execution created a tremendous sensation in England, and but for the firmness of the British ministry would have in- volved the two countries in immediate war. Jackson now returned to Fort Gadsen, which had been erected by him on the ruins of the Negro Fort. This fort had been built and strongly armed by Col. Nichols, a British officer, who had figured in the war of 1812 on the southern coast as friend, patron, and commandant of the hostile Indians in that quarter. He remained several years after the cessation of hostilities actively engaged in the interests of these In- dians, but with what ultimate design is unknown to the historian. He finally departed for England, leaving his stronghold, which was on a bluff of the Appalachicola, seventeen miles from the coast, defended by ten or twelve pieces of artillery and a large store of warlike munitions, including over seven hundred barrels of powder. The In- dians not being suited by nature or habit for garrison duty, the care of the fort was neglected, when it was seized by several hundred free and runaway negroes, under one Garçon, in 1816, and held against all comers. They soon attacked some boats going up with supplies for Gen. Gaines, at Fort Scott, which determined the latter to destroy the place at once. He surrounded it with a detachment of sol- diers and Seminole Indians, who claimed the guardianship of it in Col. Nichols' absence, but was unable to make any impression on its skillfully-fortified walls. In the mean time he had ordered a gunboat under Sailing-Master Loomis to work up the river and co-operate. Loomis finally reached his position and opened fire, which at first proved futile; but having heated some solid shot to redness, a gun was

trained to drop a ball within the inclosure. It was aimed with deadly precision, and alighted in the magazine ; an ex- plosion followed which shook the earth for a hundred miles. Of the three hundred and thirty four inmates of the fort only three crawled from the ruins unhurt, and one of these was Garçon, the negro commander. Two hundred and seventy were killed instantly, and most of the others perished soon after of their injuries.

Jackson rested at this point a few days, when he started westward with a detachment of regulars and six hundred Tennesseeans to scour the country in that direction. He had proceeded but a short distance when he was informed that a large body of hostile Indians, who harbored at Pen- sacola, had recently massacred a number of the Alabama settlers. This was enough ; he instantly turned his march in the direction of the hated place, and Pensacola was again doomed to submit in humiliation to the presence and occu- pation of an American army. The Governor protested and then tried force, but Jackson brought his guns to bear actively on Fort Barrancos and got ready his scaling-lad- ders to storm the place, when it was surrendered. An American garrison replaced the Spanish occupants, and the place was held subject to the action of the United States government. As said before, the acts of Gen. Jackson in this campaign created a tremendous sensation abroad, and involved him at home in conflicts with prominent political leaders, which only ended with the death of the parties concerned; but he was backed by the general approbation of the country, and came out triumphant over all opposi- tion.

SECOND SEMINOLE WAR.

By the treaty of Sept. 18, 1823, at Moultrie Creek, in the Territory of Florida, the Seminoles were put on a re- servation of sufficiently large extent, the boundaries of which, however, were not to approach the coast nearer than fifteen miles. If these bounds were found on survey not sufficiently large to include the necessary farming lands, they were to be extended to a stated line farther north. For the cession of the rest of their lands they were to receive five thousand dollars a year for twenty years. Six of the leading chiefs having shown great reluctance to give up their settlements under the stipulations, new reservations were allowed outside of the general reservation to suit these special cases. The hummock-lands of Florida, being equal in fertility to any in the United States, were quickly appro- priated by white settlers, who in many instances sternly ordered off, rifle in hand, any wandering Indian who hap- pened to be found north of the imaginary line that was intended to keep the two races asunder and preserve them in a state of amity. For some years the agents had their hands full settling disputes and keeping down an open out- break of war between them.

The complaints of mutual and flagrant aggression grew so frequent that the state of affairs in the years 1829 and 1830 was very critical indeed, and likely to end at any moment in a devastating onslaught upon the white settlements. Then came up the question of the removal of these Indians, as had been done with many other tribes, to the Indian Ter- ritory west of the Mississippi, as the quickest and most economical solution of a difficulty that was growing in

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HISTORY OF DAVIDSON COUNTY, TENNESSEE.

gravity every year. The frontier settlers, who were anx- ious to obtain the valuable lands included in the reserva- tion, or solicitous to hold peaceable possession of those already taken, pressed this question of removal upon the authorities, alleging that their slaves, cattle, and other prop- erty were daily stolen, and that there could be no peace possible under the circumstances. Indeed, this was the only wise course left, and the government directed Col. Gadsen to endeavor to engage the Seminoles to relinquish their lands in exchange for good lands in the Creek nation. On this wish being made known, great opposition was manifested, and it was with great difficulty that Col. Gad- sen succeeded in getting a council of chiefs at Payne's Landing. Here, after many vexatious delays, such a treaty was at length concluded on the 9th of May, 1832. One provision of this treaty was that the new country was to be visited by a delegation of chiefs and examined, and if their report was favorable and the Creeks should express a willingness to receive and reunite with them, the ex- change would be made and the migration completed by the end of the year 1835. The delegation was sent at the ex- pense of the government, but the visit being made in the midst of winter, when the country looked drear and unin- viting, and the antipodes of their verdant landscape in Florida at this season, the result was not satisfactory. Still they were induced to sign a favorable report, which thereby bound their nation irrevocably to a removal. In the mean time an opposition party had been formed, headed by the youthful Osceola, who was the animating spirit, but void of a voice in the councils of the nation at this time on ac- count of the obscurity of his station and want of heredi- tary authority as a chief. His mother was a Creek, and became a Seminole by leaving her tribe and taking refuge among these people, the word Seminole meaning runaway. The term thus derisively applied became at length generic.

The hostility soon became so formidable that the offend- ing chiefs either disclaimed their signatures to the late agreement or denied a true knowledge of its nature. The government, being thoroughly persuaded that the only solu- tion of the question was in removal soon or late, insisted on the performance of the contract, and made due prepara- tions to carry through its part of the business, notwith- standing the evident determination of the great majority of these people to the contrary. As the time approached, the love of home and native soil grew so strong in the breasts of the Seminoles that they determined to die to a man rather than submit to the expatriation. Still the gov- ernment disregarded their threats and continued its prep- arations for their removal. By dissembling their feelings and making show occasionally of compliance, the Indians were enabled to purchase extra supplies of ammunition, ostensibly for use in their new hunting-grounds. Even Osceola seemed to grow penitent, although he had been ironed and incarcerated at Fort King for six days for vio- lent and abusive language to the agent, Gen. Thompson.

All things being in readiness for the rising, Osceola repaired with a band of warriors to the vicinity of Fort King, determined to execute his vengeance on the man who had shackled his free limbs with chains a short while before. He lay concealed in a hummock near by for two

days before the opportunity came of gratifying his revenge, the strongest and most enduring feeling of Indian nature. On the afternoon of the 28th of December, Gen. Thomp- son, while taking a walk in company with Lieut. Constantine Smith, of the Second Artillery, came in short range of his ambush, and fell pierced with twenty-four balls, Lieut. Smith receiving thirteen. The assassins then rushed for- ward in eager emulation for the first trophy of their long- anticipated and now unsmothered revenge. The scalps of the victims were cut into small pieces for distribution to gratify the feelings of all the participants. On the same day Maj. Dade, on his way to Fort King with two com- panies of regulars, amounting to one hundred and eight officers and men, was waylaid near the Wahoo Swamp, and his entire command destroyed after an obstinate resistance, with the exception of two privates, who escaped badly wounded and bore the intelligence to Fort Brooke.

Thus began a war which for seven successive years filled Florida with rapine and blood, and cost the government nineteen million four hundred and eighty thousand dollars, exclusive of the expense pertaining to the regular army. Owing to the scattered condition of its regular forces, the government was compelled to call upon the neighboring States for volunteers. Tennessee promptly furnished three regiments of mounted volunteers, which gathered at the old rendezvous, Fayetteville. Of these the First and Second Regiments were received into the service, and the Third discharged. In the Second Regiment were three companies raised wholly or in part from Davidson,-namely, the " Highlanders," commanded successively by Cupts. Wil- liam Washington and John J. Chandler; the "State Guards," by James Grundy and Joseph Leake successively ; and a company from Davidson and Williamson Counties, commanded by Capt. Joel A. Battle. At the organization of the regiment William Trousdale was elected colonel, J. C. Guild lieutenant-colonel, Joseph Meadows 1st major, William Washington (captain of the Highlanders) 2d major. The two regiments were formed into a brigade, to the com- mand of which the President appointed Brig .- Gen. Robert Armstrong, of Nashville, one of the heroes of Enotochapco. The men were enlisted to serve for six months. The brigade marched from their rendezvous on the 4th of July direct for Columbus, Ga., but were detained several weeks on the Tallapoosa, which they crossed by swimming to awe into submission a large body of Creek Indians, then col- lected for emigration across the Mississippi. Some of these Indians were largely in debt to traders, who instigated them to remain in order to made collections. It was feared also that they in their irritated state would catch the spirit of hostility then prevailing in Florida. In consequence of this diversion the Secretary of War ordered the brigade not to enter the sickly region of Florida in the midst of the hot season. Therefore it was about the middle of Sep- tember before the Tennessee troops reached Tallahassee. From this point they soon started for the Indian country. On reaching Suwanee they found the yellow fever prevail- ing, and during their brief stay a number were attacked with the discase and died. From this point they marched south sixty miles to Fort Drane, where on arrival they · broke up a large encampment of Indians without being

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History of Davidson County, Tennessee, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 21

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford) Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Philadelphia, J.W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1013

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford)
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia, J.W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1013