Page 60 - a-history-of-columbia-county-florida-(1996)-edward-f-keuchel

A History of Columbia County Florida (1996) Edward F. Keuchel 49/340

A History of Columbia County, Florida

and two children were murdered in early August. About a week
later the Faircloth house was burned but there were no deaths.
Even the well-defended Waukeenah plantation of John Gamble
was raided and six mules stolen.42
The army increased its build-up during the fall of 1838, but
could not cope with the guerilla tactics of the Seminoles. Five
infantry companies of the regular army were stationed in the
region extending from Fort White up to Camp Gilmer in southern
Georgia, but the Indian raids continued.43
In Columbia County the most savage attack, believed to have
been made by Tiger Tail and a Mikasuki band operating out of the
Okefenokee Swamp, took place on November 19, at about eleven
o’clock in the morning. Colonel Brown reported that John Tiffins,
his wife and two children had come to Florida to visit Mrs. Tiffin’s
parents, Mr. and Mrs. David Mizell who lived near Ocean Pond.
Within a few miles of the Mizell house the family was attacked by a
band of about seven Indians. Only one child survived the attack.
Tiffins was shot from his horse while his wife and children were
tomahawked with their skulls fractured in several places. Mrs.
Tiffins died in her father’s arms after lying unconscious for forty
hours. The Indians successfully escaped back to their sanctuary in
the Okefenokee Swamp. Brown noted that Columbia County was
serving as a “gateway” for those Indians traveling from the swamp
to their areas south in the peninsula. Moreover, the presence of
regular army troops operating in the area since June had not
helped significantly because the extension of the war into the
Okefenokee Swamp spread them too thin and increased their
duty.44
On February 7, 1839, Governor Call delivered a special mes­

42Shofner, History of Jefferson County, pp. 78-79.
43Niles Register, Vol. LV, October 13, 1838, p. 102.
“The Floridian, December 1,1838; Robert Brown to R. K. Call, November 24,
1838, reprinted in The Floridian, special supplement, February 9, 1839.
48

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