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A History of Columbia County Florida (1996) Edward F. Keuchel 50/340

The Second Seminole War
sage to the senate and house of representatives of the legislative
council of Florida. Call lamented that the special forces of militia
gathered in Columbia County under Colonel Brown and in Alachua
County under Major Garrison had neither been authorized nor
paid by the federal government. The federal government, he
thought, was not interested because General Taylor had deemed
his regular army forces to be sufficient. Call emphasized that they
were not adequate and described the problems the area had faced
since the previous summer. Call believed that the United States
had a “moral obligation to pay the troops of Columbia and Alachua
counties who had served under my orders during the last sum­
mer.”45
In response the legislative council sent an urgent memorial to
the President. The petition noted that the United States did have
troops in Florida actively fighting the Seminoles, but since January
1838, when militia units were mustered out of service, the number
or regular army units had been insufficient to deal with danger.
It was further noted that government officials had encouraged
settlers to reoccupy their farms and many had responded. The
memorial called attention to the plight of the settlers, especially
those in Columbia, Alachua, Madison, and Jefferson counties, who
were lulled into thinking the Indian danger was over and then
faced with the series of “indiscriminate butchery of whole families.”
The legislative council advocated that the President authorize the
organization of local inhabitants capable of bearing arms into
federal service as they would “constitute the best and most
efficient defense of the frontier.” The President was told that the
only force preventing the “entire abandonment” of sections of East
Florida was the militia of Columbia, Alachua and Duval counties,
and they had been serving without pay.46

46Special Message of Governor R. K. Call, February 7, 1839, reprinted in The
Floridian, special supplement, February 9, 1839.
46 Memorial to the President by the Legislative Council, delivered March 2,1839,
in Carter, Territorial Papers, Vol. XXV, pp. 589-93.

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