Page 50 - a-history-of-columbia-county-florida-(1996)-edward-f-keuchel

A History of Columbia County Florida (1996) Edward F. Keuchel 39/340

A History of Columbia Couuty, Florida

the first regular military action occurred when a baggage train
traveling from Jacksonville to Micanopy was attacked by an Indian
force of some eighty warriors under Osceola. Six soldiers were
killed and eight wounded. During the Christmas season of 1835
several sugar plantations in the area east of the St. Johns and south
of St. Augustine were destroyed by Seminoles under the leader­
ship of Mikasuki chief Philip. Richard Keith Call reported that the
whole area from the Suwannee to the St. Johns was becoming
deserted as settlers left their farms for more settled areas.15
On December 28,1835, a force of some sixty Seminole warriors
led by Osceola attacked the Indian agent Wiley Thompson at Fort
King. Only a skeleton force was at the fort as the bulk of the
garrison had been sent to General Clinch’s plantation twenty miles
away. Osceola and his group hid in ambush and killed Thompson
and Lieutenant Constantine Smith when they left the post for an
afternoon walk. Thompson’s body was riddled by twenty-eight
bullets. The Indians next killed the sutler Erastus Smith and his
two clerks at the post store. Chief Alligator (Halpatter
Tustenuggee) later remarked that the Indians had planned the
Fort King attack for more than a year. The Indians particularly
wanted revenge on Wiley Thompson for putting the proud Osceola
in chains.16
On the same day that Osceola killed Wiley Thompson another
and larger force of one hundred and eighty Seminoles under
Alligator, Micanopy and Jumper attacked a relief column headed
to Fort King from Fort Brooke. The column, commanded by Major
Francis L. Dade, consisted of one hundred enlisted men and eight
officers. The ambush commenced early in the morning and the
Indians kept up a heavy fire throughout the day. By late afternoon
only three wounded soldiers were still alive, and only one, Ransome

15 Mahon, History of the Second Seminole War, pp. 101-02.
16John T. Sprague, Origins, Progress and Conclusion of the Florida War,
facsimile reprint of the 1848 edition (Gainesville, 1964), pp. 88-90.
38

www.LakeCityHistory.com LCH-UUID: 02905885-C4E0-4A35-9DAE-804ED8349EC9