The Seminole Nation was able to draw the United States into an untenable situation because they were mindful of their environment. They were able to strike fast at American targets and withdraw into the woods before their more-equipped enemy was able to respond. Moreover, the Seminole were aided in their campaign by the irrational behavior of an old enemy, Sharp Knife. President Andrew Jackson was outraged when he learned that American soldiers had lost several engagements against Osceola’s band of warriors. Replacing one general with another, Jackson was anxious to see Florida pacified. While the majority of Seminole were eventually forced to leave their war-ravaged homeland and resettle in Oklahoma, over 300 members of the tribe remained. The Americans were unable to seek them out and withdrew in 1842. The wages for this folly were $30 million in war expenditures and the loss of 1500 American soldiers. The Seminole went deep into the swamplands surrounding their holdings while white settlers began to pour into the freshly vacated territory.
By 1842, the remaining natives were clustered along the edge of the Everglades. While the Seminole tried to avoid contact with the whites, the granting of statehood to Florida in 1845 and the expansion of white habitations made this impossible. At first, the settlers simply cut off trade with the Indians as a means of isolating them from the white population. However, subsequent years saw the destruction of Seminole homesteads by patrols of Florida militiamen. One victim of these random acts of vandalism was Holata Micco (otherwise known as Billy Bowlegs), Chief of the Oconee band of the Seminole Nation. Holata Micco’s farm had been attacked by one of these roving bands and he had had enough. His people had been pushed out of their domain to the very fringe of habitable land and now they found themselves harassed in the night. The time for action had come.
Though he had only 120 warriors (of a total population of slightly over 300) under his command, Holata Micco went on the warpath. Striking fast in the night, much like the militiamen he pursued, the chief killed six members of the party that had attacked his farm and turned his sword upon the settlements. Panic once again flooded the landscape as white settlers sought sanctuary behind the walls of American fortifications. The winter of 1855 saw state authorities scrambling to raise enough troops to combat this resurgence of native rebellion. A fighting force of 1300 militiamen was raised and placed under the command of Brigadier General William S. Harney, who was well versed in the tactics of the Seminole. Harney dispatched bands of men to comb the deepest regions of Seminole territory in an unsuccessful effort to draw them out. Hidden in the brush and striking in small contained bands, the Seminole proved a cunning adversary. Despite their superior numbers, the militia was unable to bring the native forces to heel. However, Holata Micco was a cautious commander and he knew that his small force could never fully fend off the invaders. Resolving not to see his people die in a futile effort to preserve the last bastion of their territory, he agreed to meet with the whites in 1858. Refusing to sign away Seminole lands, he came to Ft. Myers not as a chief but as an individual. On March 15, 1858, Holata Micco and 165 of his tribesmen agreed to resettle in Oklahoma. He would return nine months later and convince an additional 75 Seminole to join him. Resistance in Florida was officially at an end, but the Seminole were never officially a conquered people.
Sources:
Mark C Carnes, Ed, U.S. History. (New York: MacMillan Library Reference, 1996).
Kenneth C. Davis, Don’t Know Much About History. (New York: Harper-Collins Publishers, 2003).
Nelson Klose and Robert F. Jones, United States History: To 1877. (Hauppauge: Barron’s Educational Services, Inc., 1994).
Gilbert Legay, Atlas of Indians. (Hauppage: Barron’s Educational Services, Inc., 1995)
James M. McPherson, Ed., “To the Best of My Ability”: The American Presidents. (London: Dorling-Kidersley, 2000).
