SW056 Unpolished yet Glimmering Gems of Knowledge Await Intrepid Seminole War Scholars

 

This week is the pay off for our time learning about how to research. Chris Kimball has explained how one can search for knowledge on the internet and at libraries. He's talked about how he takes that knowledge and uses it to tell a fuller story of the Second Seminole War. This week, Chris Kimball shares the anecedotes and curious stories about players in the Seminole War -- people and stories he countered in his research.

 

In this episode, listeners will hear about Osceola and the fate of his head and his belongings. They will learn about military inventions or improvements -- land mines and pontoon bridges -- that later came into their own in the American Civil War. They will learn how the Army armed the Seminole by treaty with 2,200 Derringer small-caliber and percussion capped rifles while supply Halls breach-loading musket-rifles that proved easier to reload while horse riding but which tended to break easily or worse, explode. And they will learn about how tempers flare and people die, needlessly and foolishly, and blood fueds are begun...and finished after originating in service in the Seminole Wars. . 

 

Above, Gabriel Rains designed mines (then called torpedoes) that he used in the Second Seminole War and refined later for use in the Civil War. This illustration is a representation of an explosion.

Above, one can find these Jaeger rifles at the Florida Historical Society in Cocoa. They were a coda to a blood fued begun over insurbination and disobedience in the chain of command of territorial militia mobilized for the Florida War. The back story is fascinating and Chris Kimball handles its complexities with aplomb. The Jäger rifle was one the most balanced and compact rifles, very characteristic for its big caliber; equipped with double set trigger, it was very precise, able to shoot big balls having a very high energy. The Jäger rifle was first made in the flintlock version and only afterwards it was transformed to a percussion rifle.

 

Chris Kimball's sleuthing led him to discover that contrary to a headstone in Pensacola (above)that says it contains Major Dade's only daughter, in fact he had another child, a daughter, who died as a toddler. (below)

 

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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