Page 63 - a-history-of-columbia-county-florida-(1996)-edward-f-keuchel

A History of Columbia County Florida (1996) Edward F. Keuchel 52/340

The Second Seminole War

operations in Florida in April 1839. Macomb invited the chiefs to
meet with him at Fort King. He hoped to make peace with the
Indians by offering them a reservation south of the Peace River.
John Warren, president of the senate of the legislative council and
a colonel in the militia, stated in a letter to Macomb that the people
of Columbia, Alachua, Duval and Nassau counties “hail with great
satisfaction” the proposal to move the Indians out of the area.
Warren thought that some type of peaceful settlement was essential
for the moment, and that later the government would be in a
strong position to move the Indians out of the territory if neces­
sary.19
Macomb was convinced that the Indians no longer had the
strength of organization to attack fortified settlements or regular
army units. He believed that unless peace was secured they would
continue to engage in guerilla warfare and regarded the region of
the Suwannee as most susceptible to small Indian raiding parties.
The general noted that the Suwannee area with its sparse popula­
tion and dense swamps and hammocks made it difficult for the
army to pursue the Indians. Macomb proposed that the federal
government offer three hundred and twenty acres of land to armed
settlers who would live in the area and supplement the protection
given by the army and militia.49 50
Macomb’s peace policy did not work. Indians in the area south
of the Peace River, where the temporary reservation was to be
located, attacked government officials trying to arrange the settle­
ment. Macomb retired from the field and left the leadership to
General Zachary Taylor who stayed at the position until sickness
forced him to leave the territory on May 11,1840. Taylor incurred
the wrath of northern reform groups by importing bloodhounds

49 John Warren to General Macomb, reprinted in Niles Register, Vol LVI, July 6,
1839, p. 289.
“Macomb to J. R. Poinsett, Secretary of War, May 6,1839, in Carter, Territorial
Papers, Vol. XXV, pp. 608-10.
51

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