SW014 Last Roll Call: An 1842 March Carries Fallen Soldiers to Final St Augustine Resting Place

 

In 1842, Colonel William J. Worth, Commanding in Florida, unilaterally "announced" the end of hostilities between the US Government and the Seminole Indians of Florida. He ordered a reburial of many Soldiers who had perished in the seven-year Second Seminole War. Despite its inconclusive ending, the war had been an important proving ground for the Army and its West Point trained leadership. Although falling short of its goal of total Seminole removal to the Oklahoma Territory, the Army had succeeded in forcibly relocating the majority of the approximately 5,000 Seminole who called Florida home when the war commenced It did this at the staggering cost of $40 million and the deaths of some 1,500 military as well as an unaccounted number of civilian and Seminole deaths. In the Everglades, the Army abandoned efforts against the 500 or so remaining defiant and unconquered Florida Seminole. 

 

On August 15^th, then, hundreds of regular Army soldiers marched through St. Augustine. They were escorting seven wagons carrying the remains of the fallen soldiers. These included those of Major Dade's ill-fated column who died in a Seminole ambush on December 28, 1835, which is traditionally marked as the start of the Second Seminole War. The column bore the remains to their final resting place, a garden next to St. Francis Barracks. One finds them in graceful cochina pyramids in the St. Augustine National Cemetery. This subsequent re-interment procession was a solemn remembrance, not a victory march.

 

For more than a decade in today's St. Augustine National Cemetery, The West Point Society of North Florida has organized an annual commemoration of this first event, as a means of keeping faith with those fallen, and to bring attention to all who suffered and sacrificed – soldier, citizen, and Seminole alike – during this long, difficult struggle.  

 

Joining us today is Joseph Naftzinger, a retired Army Colonel and West Point Graduate of the U.S. Military Academy Class of 1960. He discusses the strong ties to the Second Seminole War demonstrated through the outsized role of many U.S. Military Academy graduates -- and how it served as a proving ground for some who went on to command armies in the Mexican and American Civil wars. Familiar names include Joe Johnston, Joseph Hooker, William Sherman, and Braxton Bragg, among others. Worth was a former Commandant of Cadets at West Point, and five of the seven officers who perished in Dade's Command were U.S. Military Academy graduates.

 

Joe also describes the somber 1842 March of the Fallen and how it has been commemorated in recent years with a march led by soldier re-enactors atop two elegant mules pulling a US flag-draped caisson representing the remains brought to St Augustine for interment from temporary burial locations, including the Dade Battlefield. This is an annual living history event held each August 15. First sponsored by the West Point Society of North Florida, in 2020, the Florida National Guard assumed lead responsibility for the event from the Society, and is assisted by the Seminole Wars Foundation, producer of this podcast. With Joe Naftzinger, the late Lieutenant Colonel Greg Moore, then-Florida National Guard historian, spearheaded the first organized effort patterned on the 1842 march to recognize the service and sacrifice of all who perished in the war. Greg authored a book called Sacred Ground: The Military Cemetery at St Augustine that delves into the details of the first march and interment of Seminole War remains and the cemetery's expansion since. 

 

He also promotes the Annual Convocation of Seminole War Historians, first held in St Augustine in 2017, and scheduled for the spring of 2021 in Jupiter, Florida, site of the two battles of Loxahatchee from January 1838. The convocation is open to anyone with an interest in the Seminole Wars and features presentations and activities on topics related to the conflict.  

 

Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. He is a combat veteran and of the U.S. Army, serving in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, and Kosovo, and at the Pentagon after 9/11. A military historian, he holds masters degrees in Public History, Communication, and Homeland Security, and is a graduate of the US Army War College with an advanced degree in strategic studies. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Florida. 

 

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