Seminole Wars Authority

SW099 Descendant of Black Seminole Maroons Spreads Peaceful Tidings to Diaspora

 
Pompey Fixico, president of the Semiroon Historical Society, is an extraordinary man. One-time amateur boxer and actor, the LA-based Pompey only learned of his Black Seminole Maroon descendant status at the age of 52. Pompey counts Abraham and Bowlegs as forebears. His family fought battles in Oklahoma when the U.S. Civil War broke out. He has documented his lineage on the Dawes Rolls. When he learned of his heritage, which his mother had hidden from him all his life, he vowed to make 300 appearances to raise awareness of Black Seminole Maroons in America.
The Black Seminole descendants who gather in Brackettville, Texas each year, have welcomed Pompey into their fold. He has spoken around the nation, attended the United Nations as a Seminole Maroon member of a Multi-National Maroon Delegation, and today, the now 74-year-old Pompey speaks to us…about his heritage, about his forebears, and about his own story in seeking to spread recognition and harmony as a Black Seminole Maroon descendant.
 
 
 
 
 
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 catcher, 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!

SW098 Fort Cooper Days Replays 16-day Skirmish Between Militia/Seminole on Withlacoochee Cove

 
In the spring of 1836, U.S. Army Major General Winfield Scott unleashed his three-prong campaign to subdue Seminole, end the war, and ship the defiant tribe to the Oklahoma territory. The task of erecting a blockhouse and pickets for defense and observation fell to Georgia Volunteer Major, Mark Anthony Cooper. He built his namesake fortification in the Cove of the Withlacoochee River. The square palisade fort included two redoubts and a two-story blockhouse with a 6-pounder cannon mounted in it. The post was used as an observation and dispatch site, a horse depot, a scouting post, a makeshift infirmary, a watering hole – and a safe spot from which Cooper’s militiamen could venture outside the main gate to repulse the Seminole siege.
Under constant attack for more than two weeks, Major Cooper’s command held its defensive position. It turned out to be the longest single continual battle of Scott’s 1836 campaign.
On March 12 and 13, Fort Cooper State Park holds its annual Fort Cooper Days to commemorate this engagement. The long siege is condensed into a battle spectacle demonstrated twice each weekend day. Living historians – militia and Seminole -- demonstrate their wares and crafts and costumed attires. The park is located near Inverness, Florida.
Joining us to recount a bit of the battle and how the park is commemorating it is Jeanne Messersmith. Jeanne is the treasurer for The Friends of Fort Cooper. The Friends is a citizen support organization that aids the park rangers in carrying out their mission in presenting the park in a family friendly setting with historical accuracy.
 
Fort Cooper Days photos by Andrew Foster
 
 
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 catcher, 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!

SW097 Address by Seminole Nation Chief Highlights 3rd Biennial Convocation of Seminole Wars Historians in Jupiter FL this April

 
This is NOT a trick question. What do you call a Convocation of Seminole Wars Historians in Jupiter Florida in 2022? One word: Historic
The Chief of Seminole Nation, Louis Johnson, is traveling from Oklahoma to Florida to address the gathering. As with members of the Seminole and Miccosukee Tribes still in Florida, his people fought in the Jupiter vicinity in early 1838, two battles on the Loxahatchee River. It is unlikely that any of them once removed ever returned. In April, the convocation welcomes him and his party – including a Seminole Nation color guard – to the site with open arms and a fond embrace.
Chief Johnson’s address may be the highlight of the 3rd biennial Convocation of Seminole Wars Historians but his is not the only one of note. Convocation organizer Dick Kazmar, board member of the Loxahatchee Battlefield Preservationists or L-B-P, has arranged a full-schedule of intriguing speakers and activities, including a battlefield tour.
A former LBP president, Dick Kazmar brings many years of knowledge and leadership to the task. He has been a battlefield docent and has also been spotted a few times portraying Maj. Gen. Thomas Sydney Jesup in full regalia. The former aerospace engineer with Pratt and Whitney brings the type of smarts one would expect to the task of preserving the Loxahatchee Battlefield and the memory of the battles fought here and organizing a convocation of historians who study this episode..
In this episode, he shares the background on the convocation, what is on the schedule, and reminds us that you don’t have to be a credential academic historian to attend. Listen in on how you dear listeners can attend.
 
Register here: https://loxahatcheebattlefield.com/2022-convocation
 
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 catcher, 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!

SW096 Okeechobee Battlefield Friends Commemorate Christmas Day 1837 Clash

We are neck deep now in the season for living history battle interpretations of the Seminole wars. In the last weekend of February, the Battle of Okeechobee takes center stage on the calendar. Fought on Christmas Day 1837 – that is, December 25th --  organizers for this event wisely chose to hold it annually on a later date.
This clash of arms is arguably the biggest battle of the Second Seminole War. It made a hero of commander, Colonel, later general, Zachary Taylor. The Army, the government, and the American people, goaded by newspapers, viewed it as a great victory over the Seminoles. Others, however, viewed it as a wash since the Seminoles did successfully evacuate both their families and themselves before escaping into the Everglades to fight another day.
We will examine this battle itself in a later episode. In THIS episode, however, we are joined by Dowling Watford, the mayor of the City of Okeechobee. He details what the battlefield park is offering visitors for this commemorative event. A life-long city resident and 5th generation Floridian, Dowling knows his town. A soldier-reenactor and member of both the Okeechobee Historical Society and Okeechobee Battlefield Friends, he knows his battlefield and park, and, for our purposes, his event.
 
 
Dowling Watford and Jim Flaherty, both Soldier living historians, stand stubborn and staunch. Courtesy Photo. (below) Dowling Watford, Mayor of Okeechobee and podcast guest, watches and, out of character, photographs a cannon firing at a living history demonstration. Courtesy Photo. 
 
 
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 catcher, 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!

SW095 TwoEggTV is a Good Egg with Historically Compelling Stories of Creek/Seminole Resistance

The battles and events of the Seminole Wars cover fields throughout Florida. Unfortunately, in many cases, other than in some dry official reports and personal letters and diaries, or oral tradition, what happened on those fields is largely lost to history and the public. 
There is a corrective, however. TwoEggTV brings the wonder of travel and the adventure of historical inquiry into these places. Through succinct video reports, Rachael Conrad and Dale Cox, breathe life into stale reports by imagining these battles and events through a visual and audio presentation. These historians hail from Two Egg, Florida, hence their name. It is the small town that brings the big picture to history, especially the Seminole Wars.
In this episode, Rachael Conrad relates the places TwoEggTV has visited to bring an awareness of the Creek and Seminole Wars. Battles at Fort Mims and Horseshoe Bend in the First Creek War, along with the Battle of Negro Fort help explain the stakes on the eve of the First Seminole War. TwoEggTV prepared follow-on video dispatches on the battle with Lieutenant Scott on the Apalachicola River, and on other engagements in that war.
 
 
A sampling of TwoEgg TV productions.
 
Intrepid Historian and Reporter Rachael Conrad gets to test the wares with Civil War living historians (Above series)
(Below) TwoEggTV broke the news of massive underground cave complex in the panhandle region. 
 
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 catcher, 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!
 

SW094 Living History Interpreters Bring to Life Commemorative Seminole War Encampment

https://www.seminolecountyfl.gov/departments-services/leisure-services/parks-recreation/museum-of-seminole-county-history/ and https://seminolecountyhistoricalsociety.com/ for more information. Address is: 300 Eslinger Way Sanford, FL 32773
 
The Museum of Seminole County History is holding a living history encampment commemorating the 185th anniversary of the Battle of Camp Monroe – a rare U.S. Army victory in the Second Seminole War. Joining us to fill us in on the festivities is Bennett Lloyd. He is a long-time soldier re-enactor, having gotten his start with the Micanopy Regulars. More importantly, he is the museum director. As such he is running this living history programming. He’ll describe all he has in store for visitors on the first weekend in February. Bennett will rejoin us for a second episode to explain the to and fro of the actual battle.
 
An entire room is dedicated to the Seminole Wars at the museum. Museum Director, Bennett Lloyd (Below) portrays a dragoon soldier of the era. Courtesy photos. 
 
 
 
Visitors get interactive engagement with the living historians who describe life back in the 1830s in frontier Florida. 
 
 
 
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 catcher, 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!

SW093 Seminole Bruise the Army at Loxahatchee River, But Removal Efforts Continued Unabated

Jackson Walker's painting of General Jesup at Battle of Loxahatchee River in 1838.
 
In January of 1838, the U.S. Army felt they had the Seminole clearly on the run when not pressed against the inhospitable Everglades. Surely, they would surrender before descending into that region. The Army sent out a probe to find them in the vicinity of the Jupiter inlet and Loxahatchee River on the east side of the Florida Peninsula.
Two battles raged, the U.S. Army being the force worse for the wear. They found the Seminole but failed to subdue and capture them. But the Army would not be deterred from the campaign. The battles saw combined warfare with a joint Army-Navy expedition and with a civilian contractor with a West Point pedigree taking charge to save the day. Joseph E. Johnston would be heard from again. 
Here to describe the significance of these two battles in depth is Glenn Bakels. He is a member of the Loxahatchee Battlefield Preservationists, manages their social media accounts, and is a battlefield tour guide at the park. This is Living History Weekend at the Riverbend and Loxahatchee River Battlefield Park. 
 
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 catcher, 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!

SW092 Honored History Storyteller James Bullock Assesses Context Behind Black Seminole Interpreter Abraham’s Controversial Counsel

Independent Historian and Storyteller James Bullock portrays Black Seminole sense bearer Abraham at the capture site of Osceola under a white flag of truce. (Courtesy images)
 
Living historians portray many personas, some historical, some not. The Seminole Wars podcast has invited a number of such reenactors onto this program. Their main task is interpretation without judgement as well as to "fill in the blanks" the history books don't cover. For instance, the Black Seminole translator Abraham enjoys a somewhat checkered reputation. Was he double-dealing the Seminoles in the agreements he brokered with the U.S. Army? What might have been his motivations for acting as he did? Should we analyze his life and reputation based on these key decision points? Do we moderns judge him by today’s standards versus those of Abraham’s time?
To examine this, we are honored to chat with the distinguished independent historian James Bullock. Bullock is an A.S.C.A.P writer and publisher, playwright, and tour guide.  At public events, he has portrayed Abraham, one of many personas the professional actor takes on. James Bullock is the recipient of the 2006 Interpretive Guide Award from the Castillo de San Marcos, U.S. Park Service.  He is also the author of the play Freedom Road.  He has been a speaker for the U.S. Army Reserve and Florida National Guard and has led tours and presentations at Fort Mose for various Florida schools and St. Louis Urban League.  Bullock is also a re-enactor in the Flight to Freedom Program, National Park Service.  He has acted in community theatre in various plays including Majigeen, To Kill a Mockingbird, Omnium Gatherium, Of Mice and Men, and A Raisin in the Sun.
And today he discusses Abraham in historical context.
 
 
1880s illustration of Abraham (Above). (Above and below) Army receipt invoices paying black interpreters for their services. 
 
 
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 catcher, 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!

SW091 Military Exit Necessitates Unregulated Citizen Militia Defense for Florida Homesteads

In the early 1840s, the federal government all but said to Florida settlers, "We have fought the Seminole with soldiers. Now you can take it over." Congress formalized this in the Armed Occupation Act. With the regulars pulling out in 1842 as well as the Florida militia, essentially the task for defending one's homestead fell back to the individual homesteader. How did they fare? What legislation authorized such occupation in Florida? And who were the settlers arming themselves? Called "Crackers" who were they and why did that name attack itself to them. Autodidact Jesse Marshall returns to discuss all of this. 
 
Federal legislation authorized the Armed Occupation Act of 1842 (above) to award grants to individuals. (Below) a roster of citizens' request permits. 
 
 
 
Florida crackers are controversial in that some saw them as benevolent while others depicted them as vile. 
 
 
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 catcher, 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!

SW090 ’Pirate Captain’ Jorge Nunez Plunges the Depths of Seminole Wars’ Enduring Florida Legacy

Jorge Nunez came to Florida with no understanding of English as a language or of the history of Florida. He taught himself both. Then he decided to teach others Florida history using the English he had learned. Assuming the persona of "Pirate Captain Jorge", Nunez places a heavy emphasis on the Seminole Wars in his episode choices. With a small crew in tow, Captain Jorge voyages (or, usually, drives) toward battles and sites of the Seminole Wars. He researches and interviews experts and produces video segments for his YouTube Channel. Episodes include the Dade Battle, Fort King, Camp Monroe, the Bulow Sugar Plantation, the old town and war site of Micanopy, and Camp Cooper. He joins us to fill us on in what he has covered and what he still wants to reveal about the Seminole Wars in Florida history. 
 
Captain Jorge literally plunges the depths to discover Florida's Seminole War 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. 
Subscribe automatically to the Seminole Wars through your favorite podcast catcher, 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!