Seminole Wars Authority

SW019 Crack Survey Team Sights Forgotten Forts Shrouded in Florida Foliage

Was there a battle here? "Not that I know of. Now get off my property."
Finding Seminole War battlefield sites is hard. We generally know the vicinity but things have, well, developed in Florida since then. 
What the US Army left behind was not exactly buried underground with full military honors. In fact, when it abandoned its wooden- or earthen-structured forts in Florida in the 1830s, the Army usually just burned them to the ground. The Florida climate and the organic nature of the forts themselves has meant little remains in the soil some one-hundred-eighty-five years later or so. Fauna overgrowth has obscured them as well. Then came the pioneers, and after that, the commercial developers, and the subdivision homeowners. Fortunately, all is not lost. Thanks to the, pardon the term, pioneering survey work by the Gulf Archaeological Research Institute, or GARI, from Crystal River, Florida, we are reclaiming these overgrown garrisons.
GARI is the only independent, not-for-profit organization focused on preserving both the archaeological and the natural heritage of Florida. GARI takes a holistic approach to studying the past. This approach includes consideration of natural history, ecology, hydrology, and sedimentology to comprehensively investigate past peoples and the environments they inhabited.  One of its focuses is The Seminole Wars.
 
Joining us today is Sean Norman, GARI’s acting executive director. Sean explains some of what GARI has learned from its battle site excavations over the years; how this has enhanced understanding of how the combatants waged the Seminole Wars; and what benefits the identification of such sites holds for communities that surround them.
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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SW018 Road to Ruin: Retracing the old Fort King Military Road by Strategy

Two researchers, overlaying nineteenth century survey maps, the earliest aerial photos available, and state-of-the-art geospatial imagery, documented notionally and visually the old Fort King Road -- the first purpose-built US military road through the wilderness of central Florida.
Wilderness, that is, to Americans. In fact, central Florida was the home of the Seminole Indians, who knew its environs quite well. They inhabited by treaty what had long been their land in reality.
These researchers’ book, The Fort King Road: Then and Now has been an essential reference on the key path linking Fort Brooke in modern-day Tampa to Fort King, in modern-day Ocala. It was US Army Infantry Captain Francis Langhorne Dade who had a hand in building it and in commuting along its approximately one-hundred-mile length. He did this a decade before he led his Command to its doom from an ambush by Seminole Indians in late 1835 in what became known as the Dade Massacre, near present-day Bushnell.
Called an invaluable reference for information on this long-derelict frontier highway, the Fort King Road lives on in history books and in the minds of those reading about its use in Florida’s territorial years, especially during the Second Seminole War, to which it hosted the opening of active hostilities.
With Jerry Morris, Jeff Hough wrote The Fort King Road: Then and Now. He joins us today to discuss its enduring significance to Florida’s history.
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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SW017 God Willing a Creek Will Rise: Reinterpreting David Moniac's Heroism and Death at Wahoo Swamp Battle

The folk expression, “If God is willing and the Creek don’t rise” traces one lineage to a probably (and sadly) apocryphal letter from an early 19th century Superintendent of Indian Affairs. If true, it would have referred to lingering fears regarding a potential Indian insurrection, not to an overflowing of the banks of a body of water, as is commonly assumed today.  
In this episode, we modify it for a third use: By looking closely at the exemplary heroism of the extraordinary David Moniac in the Second Seminole War, we pray the esteem of this Creek will rise among our podcast's listeners. 
You see, David Moniac was a Creek, one of mixed ancestry. He held the distinction as both the first Native American and the first Alabaman to secure an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy, from which he graduated with the Class of 1822 at West Point, N.Y. Moniac lead a band of 750 Creek warriors (serving alongside a US Army contingent) against the Seminole at Florida's Wahoo Swamp in present-day Sumter County.  Major General Thomas Jesup declared Moniac "as brave and gallant a man as ever drew a sword or faced an enemy." He perished in the fighting.
Generations of historians have attributed Moniac's death to being struck down by a "barrage of galling fire" from Seminoles perched on the other side of a stream that Moniac had been attempting to cross. They draw this narrative from the later recollections of a military officer who was in the vicinity but not actually present at the site of this specific engagement. 
Something did not seem right with this long-accepted report, however, to retired US Army Brigadier General Richard Allen. Why would a West Point-trained officer attempt crossing a stream of an unknown depth to reach a hostile shore in the middle of a fire fight? Allen, an artillery and later ordinance officer who’d commanded troops in Vietnam, knows soldiering and he knows jungle fighting. A graduate of the US Army War College and the US Army Command and Staff College, which he completed first in his class, Allen also knows researching.
For the occasion of the 2019 bicentennial of Alabama’s entry into the Union, Allen began exploring its favorite sons of the era. This is when he first encountered the curious circumstances surrounding David Moniac’s death. Backed by previously overlooked official documents as well as his own common sense about military matters and swamp terrain, Allen makes a most persuasive case that Moniac’s action in this battle was even more heroic than the diarists and historians ever suspected. Allen joins us today to share his revelatory findings. [Art of David Moniac leading Creeks at Battle of Wahoo Swamp by Jackson Walker]
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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SW016 Educator Extols Black Seminole Leader John Horse as Florida's First Freedom Fighter

 
Last week we listened to a fictionalized story about the life of one of the dogs left behind when the Army removed Seminoles to the Oklahoma Territory. Efa, in that tale, belonged to Black Seminole John Horse. This week, we hear of John Horse himself.
The name John Horse should be familiar to listeners. Guests have mentioned him in passing when relating key events of the Second Seminole War. John Horse was one of several prominent Black Seminoles, along with Abraham and John Ceasar, who organized Black Seminoles to fight along with Seminole Indians, against the U.S. Army's removal efforts. 
A Florida educator penned a historical novel about him, entitled John Horse: Florida’s First Freedom Fighter. (Alas, Efa is not part of her account). Betty Turso joins us to discuss how she wove the amiable John Horse's inspiring Florida life story around actual events of the Second Seminole War, and why she wanted her students to see him as a heroic role model. 
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. 
Subscribe automatically to the Seminole Wars through your favorite podcast provider, such as iHeart or Stitcher or Spotify, DoubleTwist, or Pandora or Google podcasts or iTunes, or ...Check it out so you always get the latest episode without delay where and when you want it. Like us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube!
 

SW015 EFA, A Seminole Dog's Life During Wartime

 
The little children’s book with a big heart is called Efa: A Seminole Dog. Jerry C. Morris wrote it and the Seminole Wars Foundation published it in 2015 to give young people an image for what life was like during wartime in Tampa in 1838. Told from the view of a dog, the story recalls a period of Florida history we call the Second Seminole War.
As we have discussed previously on this podcast, from 1835-1842, the United States government attempted to forcibly remove the Seminole people from their Florida homes to reservations in what is now Oklahoma. One of the saddest things in this very sad tale was that the Army would not permit the departing Seminoles to take their dogs with them. As the ships departed, many dogs were left sitting on the shore, watching their masters on ship decks pass out of sight, never to return.
One of those Indians was a Black Seminole who went by the name of John Horse, or Gopher John. After a prolonged and valiant struggle, John Horse surrendered to the Army in April 1838. In this book, Jerry Morris imagines that Efa belonged to John Horse and pines each day for his return. 
Author Jerry Morris is a long-time living historian of the Second Seminole War, who dressed as a soldier of that era, actually hiked the March of Major Dade’s ill-fated column from Tampa to present-day Bushnell. He joins us to discuss everything about Efa. Throughout this podcast, Efa will rejoin us to present his insights on his life as he yearns for John Horse to come back for him. Will he? Spoiler Alert: This IS a children’s book. No one goes away unhappy. [Art by Tyler Thompson. Photo by Angela Rogers. Canine voice characterization by Patrick Swan]
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. 
Subscribe automatically to the Seminole Wars through your favorite podcast provider, such as iHeart or Stitcher or Spotify, or Pandora or Google podcasts or iTunes, or ...Check it out so you always get the latest episode without delay where and when you want it. Like us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube!
 
 
 

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 15th, 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. 
 
Subscribe automatically to the Seminole Wars through your favorite podcast provider, such as iHeart or Stitcher or Spotify, or Pandora or Google podcasts or iTunes, or ...Check it out so you always get the latest episode without delay where and when you want it. Like us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube!
 

SW013 Sturdy yet Supple Chickees Symbolize Seminole Removal Defiance

The wars of Indian removal in Florida placed enormous stress on Seminole families, forcing them to often live life on the run. Even so, they still needed a place to rest and recover. But, constructing shelters risked detection by soldiers. They knew there was little point in dedicating exorbitant time and resources to building elaborate structures, only to have to abandon them when soldiers arrived (and who subsequently burned Seminole homes to the ground anyway). They needed a sturdy yet supple structure amenable to both the Florida climate and to available resources. They needed something that didn't require nails, either, as available lead went to making rifle rounds for combat against soldiers. They needed something that could be constructed quickly with little effort  from available materials. They needed a flexibly employed building called a chickee. It was multi-purpose, able to serve as home, workshop, or kitchen for its mobile Seminole owners. Although this unique structure has evolved over the decades, many Seminole still call it home, in one fashion or another. 
In this episode, we examine the Seminole chickee. We describe chickees in architectural terms. We document their prevalence and use on a major Seminole reservation. We explore their changing roles over the last two centuries, especially during the Seminole Wars period. And we discuss the economic, cultural, social, environmental, and political meanings of chickees in Seminole communities and across South Florida. 
Joining us to provide her cultivated insights about chickees is Carrie Dilley. Carrie is the Visitor Services and Development Manager for the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum as well as the architectural historian for the Seminole Tribe of Florida. She is author of Thatched Roofs and Open Sides: The Architecture of Chickees and Their Changing Role in Seminole Society, the first systematic study of chickees. Carrie furnishes us with an informative and detailed exploration of chickees "at the intersection of architectural history and cultural analysis." 
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. 
Subscribe automatically to the Seminole Wars through your favorite podcast provider, such as iHeart or Stitcher or Spotify, or Pandora or Google podcasts or iTunes, or ...Check it out so you always get the latest episode without delay where and when you want it. Like us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube!
 
 

SW012 Florida Historical Society Sources Seminole Wars Studies

If something has been written related to the Seminole Wars, whether that be a memoir or letter, or a first-edition history, one can likely find a copy -- and sometimes an original! -- at the Florida Historical Society in Cocoa. 
In this episode, we speak about such written materials with Ben DiBiasse. Ben is the Florida Historical Society’s archivist and director of public outreach. He shares his insights on the key place the Seminole Wars hold in Florida’s overall history. He regales us with fascinating tales extracted from Seminole Wars documents in the Society’s collection, and how interested listeners can easily access them.
For instance, Ben reads a passage from a first-hand chronicle describing joyous citizen reactions when the Army paraded the famed Seminole War leader Osceola down the streets of Saint Augustine as a prisoner -- and his composed, manly forbearance with the ordeal. He also relays a gripping account from an Army's surgeon's journal of the grim and bloody task of cutting and sawing off limbs at the Second Battle of Loxahatchee. These are just two of the many compelling recollections contained in the Florida Historical Society's vast primary- and secondary-source collection on the Seminole Wars. Have a listen now to learn about what else beckons the public to explore in Cocoa. 
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. 
Subscribe automatically to the Seminole Wars through your favorite podcast provider, such as iHeart or Stitcher or Spotify, or Pandora or Google podcasts or iTunes, or ...Check it out so you always get the latest episode without delay where and when you want it. Like us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube!

SW011 Ambush and Anguish in Alachua County

 
In war, death plays few favorites, making little distinction whether one is wealthy or poor; civilian, soldier or Seminole; pretty or plain; male or female. Take one example: On the fifth anniversary of the Dade Massacre, December 28, 1840, the daughter of the richest businessman in Cincinnati, the beautiful 19-year-old wife of Army Lieutenant Alexander Montgomery, took what she thought would be a pleasant Sunday coach ride out from Fort Micanopy only to arrive at a violent death, when a Seminole party waylaid her Army escort.
This week we examine the incalculable human cost to war, at least, on the American side. In Alachua County, Florida during the Second Seminole War, ambush and anguish exacted a heavy price. Lost voices of individuals long gone speak to us speak of their tragic tales in Chris Kimball’s Alachua Ambush. Through a compilation of stunning personal accounts, recounted from graphic eyewitness testimony in letters, newspapers, and official reports, he resurrects these sorrowful stories to remind us that war yields more tragedy than triumphs and treasures.
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. 
Subscribe automatically to the Seminole Wars through your favorite podcast provider, such as iHeart or Stitcher or Spotify, or Pandora or Google podcasts or iTunes, or ...Check it out so you always get the latest episode without delay where and when you want it. Like us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube!

SW010 They're Still Standing: Monuments, Markers & Statues of Florida Seminole Wars

We spend a great amount of time on this podcast exploring various aspects of the Seminole Wars. And Rightly So. In this episode, however, we spend time exploring how to find some of the places we have discussed. 
Joining us today to help us is historian John Missall. John, you may recall, was our inaugural guest to kick off the Seminole Wars podcast.  He and his wife Mary Lou hit the road a few years back, driving to identify where all the sites, markers, and monuments from the Florida Wars. These identify where all the battles, skirmishes, and roads are that feature so prominently in our discussions. They represent Florida history -- the good, the bad, and the ugly -- a history that no one can erase or cancel but which can serve to teach us lessons in human conduct. The result of their odyssey is the Florida Seminole Wars Heritage Trail Guide. They compiled, edited, and contributed articles to it – and solicited complementary articles from Seminole War scholars as well. The Seminole Wars Foundation packaged it and the State of Florida published it.
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. 
Subscribe automatically to the Seminole Wars through your favorite podcast provider, such as iHeart or Stitcher or Spotify, or Pandora or Google podcasts or iTunes, or ...Check it out so you always get the latest episode without delay where and when you want it. Like us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube!