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A History of Columbia County Florida (1996) Edward F. Keuchel 46/340

The Second Seminole War
Colonel Brown to order Captain Cason’s militia company into
active duty and raise additional militia if needed. Call assured
Brown that any force so raised would most likely be under the
authority of the United States and accordingly would receive their
orders and pay from the army. If not the United States, the force
would certainly be payed by the territory emphasized the gover­
nor. Call also informed Brown that a supply of corn would be sent
to Fort White to feed the families who had crowded into that
facility during the current Indian crisis.32

Brown made preparations to follow Call’s instructions and
raise new militia forces, but he met with reversals. Captain
Cason’s company, which had been on duty from December 20,
1837, to April 5,1838, had not received any pay. Brown was unable
to attract new volunteers without some type of authorization more
substantial than the governor’s promises. On April 8,1838, Brown
again wrote to Governor Call emphasizing the Indian danger in
the southern part of Columbia County and noting that General
Abraham Eustis, the commander of federal troops in the area, had
refused to receive any citizen groups into the United States
service. Brown noted with alarm that settlers were again leaving
their farms and crowding into Newnansville. Brown was con­
vinced the county’s citizens would deal with the Indians them­
selves if the national government did not come to their assistance.
As he told the governor: “a country over which our treasure has
been exhausted, and on which lie the last remains of our families,
must at last, after so many difficulties, be abandoned; and for
what, because it happened to be our unfortunate lot to be a
Territory. These difficulties rather animate me than depress me;
and I, for one, am ready to step forward and ask the Government to
relieve us from the army and let us combat the Indians alone.”33

32R. K. Call to Robert Brown, March 26,1838, reprinted in The Floridian, special
supplement, February 9, 1839.
33Robert Brown to R. K. Call, April 8,1838, reprinted in The Floridian, special
supplement, February 9, 1839.
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