HOSTILITIES CONTINUED.
The Allies in their Camp—News of General Clinch’s advance—Two hundred men volunteer to meet him—His force—The Allies await his approach in ambush—He crosses the river in another place—They attack him—The battle—His intrepidity saves his army—The loss of the Allies—The loss of General Clinch—Escape of Florida slaves—Their blood-thirsty conduct—Families murdered—Dwellings burned—Inhabitants flee to villages—Their suffering—Effects of the War—General Jackson—Members of Congress—General Cass—His views and policy—Orders General Scott to Florida—General Gaines moves upon Florida with his Brigade—Reaches the scene of Dade’s massacre—Buries the dead—Visits Fort King—While returning, is attacked—Ino, the Exile Chief—His character—The Allies surround General Gaines—His position—Is closely invested—Sends for assistance—Provisions fail—Unauthorized Interference of C?sar—Flag of Truce—General Clinch arrives, and fires upon the Allies—They flee—General Gaines returns to Fort Brooks—General Clinch returns to Fort Drane.
The night after the massacre of Dade and his companions was spent in exultation by the allies. Osceola and his friends brought with them from the sutler’s store various goods, with which they decorated their persons; while the numerous scalps taken from the heads of their enemies, were displayed as trophies of victory. They had also found among the stores with which Major Dade’s party were provided, sufficient rum and whisky to intoxicate most of them, and their rejoicings and felicitations continued, for hours, amid the darkness of night.
It was a late hour in the morning when they awoke from the stupor occasioned by severe labors of the previous day, and the night’s debauch. Before they had refreshed themselves with the morning’s meal, their scouts arrived, bringing intelligence that troops were advancing towards the Withlacoochee, in pursuit of Indians and Exiles. General Clinch had been lying at Fort Drane. He clearly saw the evidence of approaching hostilities; and, although wholly unconscious of the danger which had threatened Major Dade, had felt it his duty to raise such forces as he could command, and advance into the Indian country as far as the Withlacoochee. He gathered about two hundred Regulars, from the 1st, 2d and 3d Artillery, and, with some four hundred Florida volunteers, under General C. K. Call, had nearly reached the Withlacoochee before the captors of Dade were informed of his approach.
About two hundred warriors, fifty of whom were Exiles, volunteered to meet this army, of three times their own number, under the command of one of the most able and gallant officers at that time in the service of the United States.
Osceola and Halpatter-Tustenuggee commanded the allies. They hastened to the crossing of the Withlacoochee, and there lay awaiting the approach of General Clinch. Here the water was not more than two feet in depth, and they entertained no doubt that the advancing forces would seek this place for the purpose of fording the stream. Here they waited until the morning of the thirtieth, when they learned that General Clinch, with his two hundred Regulars, had already passed the stream some two miles below. He had effected his passage by the aid of a bark canoe, which carried only eight men at a time.
Having attained a position on the south side of the river with his Regulars, General Clinch was ready for battle; although the four hundred volunteers were yet on the north side of the stream. The Indians and Exiles immediately engaged these veteran troops, although sustained by a heavy force of volunteers, who were yet on the opposite side of the river. At twelve o’clock, on the thirtieth of December, the contending forces engaged, and a severe and deadly conflict followed.
As Osceola now for the first time engaged in battle, he felt anxious to distinguish himself by his intrepidity. His voice was heard on every part of the field, urging on his troops to deeds of daring. Undaunted by the shrill war-whoop, and the constant report of Indian rifles and the whistling balls around him, General Clinch charged his enemy. The allies fell back, and he continually advanced until he drove them from the thick hommock into the open forest. The gallant general coolly passed along the lines during the action encouraging his men, and stimulating them to effort by his presence and bravery. A ball passed through his cap and another through the sleeve of his coat, to which he paid no attention, but continued to encourage his men.
The Exiles also displayed unusual gallantry. Feelings which had descended from father to son through several generations, had been recently inflamed to the highest degree of indignant hatred. Conscious that they were contending for their homes, their firesides, their families, their liberties, they fought with desperation, and their aim was fatal. Unfortunately, Osceola was wounded and disabled early in the contest, and it was said that the Indians did not exhibit that undaunted firmness on the field that was manifested by their more dusky allies. They suffered less than our troops. Two negroes and one Indian were killed, and three negroes and two Indians wounded—the loss of the Exiles being twice as great as that of the Indians, although they numbered but one-fourth of the allied force.
The battle continued an hour and twenty minutes. During this time, the regular troops under Colonel Clinch were subjected to a brisk fire, and their loss was severe. Eight men were killed and forty wounded, of whom about one-third died of their wounds. Several officers were also wounded. The militia consulted their own safety by refusing to expose themselves to the fire of the enemy; while the regular troops lost, in killed and wounded, nearly one-fourth of their number. The allies drew off, leaving Colonel Clinch in possession of the field; but the victory had been won at great expense of blood; and the determined coolness and gallantry of the veteran officer who commanded our forces, saved them from a total defeat.
The blows thus far had fallen most heavily upon our own troops. It became evident, that the carrying out of General Jackson’s policy, of removing the Exiles and Indians from Florida, in order to encourage and sustain slavery, was to be attended with great sacrifice of blood and treasure. But while the Government and people were looking at these unexpected exhibitions of firmness and love of liberty, on the part of the allied forces, other scenes were presented to their view. The fugitive slaves who had recently left their masters in Florida and joined the Exiles, were stimulated with that hatred which slavery alone can engender in the human breast. They thirsted for revenge upon those who had held them in bondage; who had scourged and tortured them. They were acquainted with the location of the small settlements throughout the Territory. Uniting with the more daring spirits among the Indians and Exiles, they proceeded rapidly and stealthily from plantation to plantation, burning buildings, destroying property, and scattering devastation throughout the border settlements; at times murdering whole families, killing and scalping such individuals as fell in their way.
Men who had urged on the war with the hope of seizing and enslaving the maroons of the interior, now saw their own plantations laid waste, and in frequent instances mourned the loss of wives and children, instead of rejoicing over captured slaves, whom they had intended to acquire by piratical force. Farms, and the smaller villages on the frontier, were abandoned to the enemy; and the inhabitants fled to the larger villages, where they banded together for mutual defense. The citizens of Florida who had petitioned General Jackson for the forcible removal of the Indians, because they failed to capture and return slaves, were now compelled to flee, with their families, before the infuriated servants who had left them subsequently to the signing of that petition. Driven from their homes—their property destroyed, their servants fled—many families, who but a few months previously had been regarded as wealthy, were now suffering from the want of bread.[84]
The whole scene was calculated to impress statesmen and people with that religious philosophy which teaches, that every violation of justice or of moral principle, is, by the immutable law of the Creator, inseparably connected with an appropriate penalty. All that the Exiles or Indians had ever asked or desired of the American Government, was to leave them to themselves; to permit them to remain as they were, as they had been for many generations.
The war on our part had not been commenced for the attainment of any high or noble purpose. No desire to elevate mankind, or confer benefits upon our race, had guided our national policy in commencing the war. Our national influence and military power had been put forth to re?nslave our fellow men; to transform immortal beings into chattels, and make them the property of slaveholders; to oppose the rights of human nature; and the legitimate fruits of this policy were gathered in a plentiful harvest of crime, bloodshed and individual suffering.
The great body of the people were ignorant as to the real causes of the war. General Jackson had been popular as a military officer, and was not less so as President of the United States. With his political friends his will was law. The opposing political party were comparatively few in numbers. They feared his power; and no member of either Senate or House of Representatives appeared willing to expose the great moral crimes which the Government was committing against humanity. Hence Congress granted whatever supplies were demanded for carrying on this piratical war, and enabling the President to slay those who refused to be enslaved.
1836.
General Cass, a statesman with whose character the present generation is familiar, was S............