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A History of Columbia County Florida (1996) Edward F. Keuchel 45/340

A History of Columbia County, Florida

retaliation could be made. During the late winter and early spring
of 1838 the situation worsened.
On March 16, 1838, the farm of George Gillitto in the southern
part of Columbia County was attacked by a raiding party. Gillitto,
his wife and two children, and a neighbor boy staying with them
were all killed. Robert Brown led a force of local residents in
pursuit, but the force was too small to penetrate safely the “dismal
swamp” where the Indians had fled. On March 19, Brown, who
was a colonel in the Twelfth Regiment, Florida Militia, wrote to
his commander, territorial governor Richard Keith Call in
Tallahassee, to apprise him of the situation in Columbia County
and request assistance. Brown noted that several citizen com­
panies had been raised, but thought that the system of depending
on local citizen volunteers to give protection was “poor protection.”
Brown told the governor that it took a considerable amount of
trouble and time to organize the units, and, moreover, such groups
were unwilling to operate beyond their immediate area.30
Brown believed, as did most frontiersmen, that the national
government was responsible for controlling the Seminoles. In
response to the raids in Columbia County and adjacent areas
during the spring of 1838, a special combined Alachua, Columbia
and Hillsborough County grand jury was held. This grand jury
was presided over by Judge Robert Raymond Reid who would
replace Call as territorial governor in 1839. The jury reached the
verdict that the United States and not the territory should deal
with the Indians, and Judge Reid approved the verdict.31
On March 26, 1838, Call responded to Brown’s urgent appeal
and told him that he would “request” General Jesup to send an
army contingent to Columbia County. The governor also told

30 Robert Brown to R. K.Call, March 19,1838, reprinted in The Floridian, special
supplement, February 9, 1893.
31 George C. Bittie, “In Defense of Florida: the Organized Florida Militia from
1821 to 1920,” unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Florida State University, 1965, p. 132.
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