November 30, 1817: The Scott Massacre - Bloodiest Battle of the First Seminole War

Site of the Scott Massacre of 1817

On November 30, 1817, a U.S. army boat carrying 40 soldiers, 7 women and 4 children was attacked by Creek and Seminole warriors on the Apalachicola River in Florida. Remembered today as the Scott Massacre, the battle took place 194 years ago today.
A critical event in American history, the battle took place durign the initial days of the First Seminole War. On November 21st and 23rd, Major General Edmund Pendleton Gaines had sent troops from Fort Scott in Georgia to attack the Lower Creek village of Fowltown (Tutalosi Talofa). Located atop a commanding bluff on the Flint River, the fort stood in what is now Decatur County, Georgia. Fowltown lay about 12 miles away at a site also somewhere within the limits of Decatur County.

The chief of Fowltown was Neamathla, a man who would figure prominently in the founding of Tallahassee and the early history of Florida as a U.S. Territory.  In 1817, however, he lived on land that his ancestors had claimed for as long as anyone could remember. The name Neamathla is a corruption of the Hitchiti term "Eneah Emathla" which means roughly "Fat Warrior" or "Large Warror." The chief was not a Muskogee, as many Creeks are called today, but instead spoke the Hitchiti language common among the Lower Creeks. Hitchiti is similar too, but not mutually intelligible, with Muskogee.

19th Century Drawing of the Scott Massacre

Trouble developed when Neamathla told officers at Fort Scott that he had no intention of giving up his land as required by the terms of the Treaty of Fort Jackson. That treaty had ended the Creek War of 1813-1814 and forced upon the Creeks the session of a vast area of territory as reparation for the expense the United States had gone through to wage the conflict. Neamathla, however, had not been a party to the treaty and therefore did not feel himself bound by it.

To overcome his "reluctance," as he termed it, General Gaines had ordered the raids on Fowltown for the purpose of bringing the chief back to Fort Scott. The raids failed to achieve that objective, but sparked two sharp battles that outraged most of the Lower Creek and Seminole warriors living along the border between North Georgia and South Florida.

While these events were underway, a large boat was making its way down and then back up the Apalachicola River under Lieutenant Richard W. Scott. An officer in the 7th U.S. Infantry, Scott had been sent down the river from Fort Scott to assist supply boats then making their way up the river. When Scott reached the supply flotilla, however, its commander took 20 of his able bodied men and then loaded Scott's boat with an equal number of sick soldiers, as well as seven women and four children. The latter individuals were family members of soldiers at Fort Scott.

Apalachicola River at Battle Site

The lieutenant then started back upriver and, despite warnings from Chief John Blunt and others at what is now Blountstown, ordered his men to continue to pull their oars. By the afternoon of November 30, 1817, they were approaching what is now Chattahoochee, just below the confluence of the Chattahoochee and Flint Rivers at the state line.

A strong current was flowing and Scott was forced to navigate his boat close to the east or Gadsden County shore in order to keep making headway. He was unaware, however, that several hundred Creek and Seminole warriors were hiding there. As the boat came close enough, they opened fire.

Later home of Elizabeth Stewart
Fort Gaines, Georgia

The lieutenant and most of his able-bodied men went down in the first fire. The warriors then waded into the river and stormed the boat, slaughtering the men, women and children on board. When the smoke cleared, 44 of the 51 people on Scott's boat were dead. Six of the soldiers escaped by leaping overboard and swimming away under water. Four of them were wounded in the process. The only other survivor was Elizabeth Stewart. She was taken prisoner by the Indians and carried away into the forests.

When news of the battle reached Washington, D.C., outraged leaders ordered Major General Andrew Jackson to Florida with an army. His orders gave him authority to invade Spanish Florida in order to punish the perpetrators of the attack and destroy the power of the Creek and Seminole alliance in what are now the Panhandle and Big Bend regions of Florida.

To read more and to learn what happened to Elizabeth Stewart, please visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com/scottsmassacre1.

Reminders of War at Torreya State Park - Liberty County, Florida

Civil War Earthworks at Torreya State Park

Torreya State Park, located on the Apalachicola River in Liberty County, is best known for its stunning natural scenery and extremely rare trees and plants, but for those interested in Florida's Civil War history, it also holds a hidden treasure.

Located along the trail that leads down the slope from the beautifully restored antebellum Gregory House in the park can be found the earthwork remains of a Confederate fortification. Built to defend the river against invasion attempts by the Union Navy, the battery was one of a series of such fortifications along the river. It is, however, by far the best preserved.

150 years ago the Apalachicola River was a vital avenue of transportation. Paddlewheel steamboats churned up and down the river from Apalachicola, carrying cargo and people as far upriver as the cities of Columbus and Albany,Georgia, located far up its tributaries, the Chattahoochee and Flint Rivers.  Apalachicola at the beginning of the Civil War was one of the most important port cities on the Gulf Coast and the river itself provided access to some of the most successful plantations and farms in the South.

Gun Emplacement at Torreya State Park

When Apalachicola was evacuated by the Confederates in 1862, army engineers began to design a series of fortifications to stop Union warships from coming up the river to devastate inland cities and farming districts.

The battery at Torreya State Park once mounted an array of heavy guns and featured artillery emplacements, rifle pits and heavily reinforced magazines. Despite (and possibly because of) the reclamation of the site by the forest in the years after the Civil War, the earthworks remain in remarkable condition today and provide a rare opportunity to step back in time to the days when Florida desperately tried to defend itself from Northern invasion.

To learn more, please visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com/torreyabattery.

Battle of Ocheesee - Calhoun and Liberty Counties, Florida

From either Torreya State Park in Liberty County or Ocheesee Landing across the Apalachicola River in Gadsden County, it is possible to obtain a good view of the site of one of the most important battles of the First Seminole War.

The Battle of Ocheesee, Florida, was fought December 15-20, 1817, between a force of hundreds of Seminole and Creek warriors and a small force of U.S. troops escorting a flotilla of supply boats up the Apalachicola River.

The warriors were flush from dramatic victories over U.S. and allied Indian forces at Scott's Massacre (November 30, 1817) and the Battle of Blunt's Town (December 13, 1817) and hoped to surprise, halt and possibly even capture the supply vessels then slowly making their way up the river to Fort Scott in what is now Decatur County, Georgia. Taking up positions on both banks of the river, they ambushed the vessels on December 15, 1817, killing 2 soldiers and wounding another 13.

The fighting became so severe that the soldiers could not even show their heads above the bulwarks of their boats to fire back without risking death or serious injury. Pinned down and unable to move, Major Peter Muhlenburg was forced to drop anchor in mid-stream. Heavy firing continued for days until on November 19th, a specially fitted boat arrived from Fort Scott carrying materials that the soldiers were able to better fortify the supply boats. Slowly, in the days that followed, they were able to again make progress and break free of the attack.

To learn more, please visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com/ocheese1.

Scott's Massacre of 1817

On November 30, 1817, one of the most critical battles of the Seminole Wars took place on the Apalachicola River at present-day Chattahoochee, Florida.

A large U.S. Army boat was making its way up the river under the command of Lieutenant R.W. Scott of the 7th U.S. Infantry Regiment. On board were 40 soldiers, roughly 20 of whom were severely ill with fever, 7 women (wives of soldiers) and four children. They were en route to Fort Scott, a U.S. post on the lower Flint River in what is now Decatur County, Georgia, but did not know that war had opened between the United States and an alliance of Seminole and Creek warriors.

On November 21 and 23, 1817, U.S. troops had attacked the Creek village of Fowltown near present-day Bainbridge, Georgia, in an effort to drive its inhabitants from lands claimed by the United States following the Treaty of Fort Jackson. The Indians in the "Big Bend" region of Florida viewed the attacks as unprovoked and unwarranted. They were outraged and several hundred moved to the Apalachicola River where they planned to cut off the shipment of supplies by boats up to Fort Scott, the post from which the Fowltown attacks had been launched.

The warriors took up a position on the east bank of the Apalachicola River just south of today's Chattahoochee Landing. The actual site has been washed away by the river, but its general vicinity can be viewed from the dock at the nearby landing.

When Scott's boat rounded a sharp bend of the river, the current forced he and his men to navigate close to the shore. The warriors opened fire, killing or disabling the lieutenant and most of his able-bodied soldiers with their first volley. They then waded into the river and stormed the boat, killing most of the others with war clubs, hatchets and knives. By the time the brief fight was over, Lieutenant Scott and 34 of his men were dead, along with 6 of the women and all four children. Seminole and Creek losses are not known.

Six soldiers, four of them wounded, escaped the boat by leaping overboard and swimming away underwater to the opposite bank. They made their way to Fort Scott on foot with news of the disaster. The other survivor, Elizabeth Stewart, was taken prisoner and held in slavery until she was freed the following spring by troops under Andrew Jackson.

The attack was a great victory for the warriors, but proved a disaster for them on a larger scale. When news of the slaughter reached Washington, D.C., authorities ordered Major General Andrew Jackson to the frontier. Jackson invaded Spanish Florida, destroyed major Seminole and Creek towns, captured St. Marks and Pensacola and destroyed the power of the northern branch of the Seminole Nation.

To learn more, please visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com/scottsmassacre1.

Memorial Day in Florida - Fort Gadsden Historic Site

This is part of a weekend long series dedicated to Floridians who gave their lives for freedom, liberty, their follow citizens, their state and their country.

Perhaps the deadliest cannon shot in American history was fired in Florida on July 27, 1816. The target was a powerful fort on the lower Apalachicola River and the resulting explosion left an estimated 270 men, women and children either dead or dying.

British forces had built the fort in 1814 as part of their expanding campaign along the Gulf Coast during the closing months of the War of 1812. Its purpose was to serve as a recruitment and training base for a large force of Native American and African American volunteers that had joined the British as they came ashore in what was then Spanish Florida.

At its height, the post provided security and housing for more than 2,000 men and their families. The War of 1812 came to an end, however, before this force could be put into the field for a campaign into Georgia. The British left the lower Apalachicola in May of 1815 and American authorities initially thought the fort had been abandoned. They soon learned otherwise.

When Colonel Edward Nicolls (sometimes misspelled Nichols) left the "British Post on the Apalachicola" with his force of Royal Marines, he left the fortress, its artillery and a massive supply of ammunition, small arms and other military goods in the hands of his former allies. Most of the Indians soon drifted back to their villages, but the African Americans - many of whom had escaped slavery in the United States - remained.

Commanded by their sergeant major, a former slave named Garcon, they continued to conduct artillery drills and flew the English Jack over the fort. When American officials learned of this, they began calling the establishment the "Negro Fort" on the Apalachicola and demanded that Spanish authorities eliminate it. The free colony and fort on the Apalachicola served as a natural beacon to slaves on the plantations of Georgia and the Carolinas.

Ultimately, Major General Edmund P. Gaines (although Andrew Jackson often gets the blame) sent a joint land and sea expedition to destroy the fort. A force of 116 men left Camp Crawford, Georgia, in July of 1816 and dropped down the Apalachicola River by boat. Joined by more than 200 allied Creek warriors en route, they landed and surrounded the land approaches to the fort.

At the same time, a flotilla of U.S. gunboats and supply vessels arrived in Apalachicola Bay. To the outrage of the sailors, several members of a party sent into the mouth of the river to obtain fresh water were ambushed and killed by men from the "Negro Fort." One of the survivors was taken back to the fort were he was tortured and burned to death.

A demand from Lt. Col. Duncan L. Clinch for the surrender of the fort was answered with a cannon shot and on the morning of July 27, 1816, the American forces began their main attack.

Two U.S. gunboats moved to within range of the fort and were greated by artillery fire from its garrison. The sailors responded with their own cannon and to the shock of all involved, fired a heated cannonball directly through the doors of one of the fort's magazines on only their fifth shot. The entire structure disappeared in a massive explosion.

Of the estimated 320 men, women and children in the fort at the time of the blast, 270 died instantly. Most of the rest were wounded. Colonel Clinch, the commander of the American forces, remarked that he shed a tear over the fate of the unfortunate beings and described how he and his men rushed to help the few survivors that remained.

The site of the "Negro Fort" on the Apalachicola is now a historic site within the Apalachicola National Forest. Maintained by the forest service, the park is open daily and also includes the earthwork remains of Fort Gadsden, a U.S. fort built at the site in 1818 by Andrew Jackson.

To learn more, please visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com/fortgadsden.

Confederate Battery at Torreya State Park

Torreya State Park (located in the northwest corner of Liberty County between Bristol and Chattahoochee) is well known for its rugged scenic beauty. The Florida Torreya, one of the rarest trees in the world, grows in the park, and visitors have enjoyed tours of the antebellum Gregory House for decades.

Often overlooked, however, is the park's role during the Civil War.

The commanding bluffs that now draw visitors in search of challenging hikes and scenic views once attracted Confederate engineers for very different reasons. They were tasked with building fortifications to protect the Apalachicola River from an attack by Union warships. The river served as a gateway to a vast area of Northwest Florida, Southwest Georgia and Southeast Alabama. Its tributaries, the Chattahoochee and Flint Rivers, were navigable as far north as Columbus and Albany.

To protect against possible attack, the Confederates build earthwork batteries at Alum Bluff, Ricco's Bluff and the River Narrows, all downstream from Torreya. Another battery was placed up the Chattahoochee at Fort Gaines, Georgia. Troops were also stationed at Fort Gadsden and other locations along the river to provide early warning of a Union attack.

The final battery constructed on the river, and perhaps the most powerful, was the once placed by Confederate engineers at Rock Bluff, now encompassed by Torreya State Park.

Designed for six heavy cannon, the battery consisted of three pairs of two gun emplacements. Positioned below the northern crest of the bluff, which provided protection against a bombardment from down stream, the guns commanded a significant stretch of the Apalachicola from short range.

Today, the cannon are gone but the powerful Confederate earthworks remain. They are located along the nature trail just down the slope from the Gregory House. To learn more, please visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com/torreyabattery.

Andrew Jackson at Alum Bluff - Bristol, Florida

A key site of the First Seminole War of 1817-1818 can be found at the end of a long hiking trail in the Nature Conservancy's Apalachicola Bluffs and Ravines Preserve near the Liberty County town of Bristol.

Believed to be the largest exposed section of the earth's crust in Florida, Alum Bluff towers over the Apalachicola River. The commanding height was on the route of Andrew Jackson's march down the east bank of the Apalachicola when he invaded Florida during the spring of 1818.

The general and his army left Fort Scott, Georgia, on March 10, 1818, marching across the bluffs along the east side of the river in a desperate effort to meet supply boats that were known to be moving up the river. The men were on the verge of starvation and Jackson feared that his planned campaign might fall apart before it got underway if he could not find food for his men.

The men arrived atop Alum Bluff on March 13, 1818, down to just a few handfulls of corn for each man. A celebration erupted there, however, when the soldiers spotted the overdue supply boats in the river below. The army camped on the heights, dubbed "Provision Bluff" by the soldiers, and then continued their march down the Apalachicola the next morning.

To learn more, please visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com/apalachicolabluffs5.

Fort Mitchell: A Site Critical to Florida History

Fort Mitchell is located in Russell County, Alabama, but it is a site that holds great significance in Florida history.

Established in 1813 by Gen. John Floyd and the Georgia Militia, the fort was a key base for operations during the Creek War of 1813-1814. Floyd and his army marched from Fort Mitchell en route to the critical battles of Autossee and Calabee Creek during that war.

After the collapse of Creek forces at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, Fort Mitchell continued to be occupied by U.S. troops to both guard against Indian raids and to serve as an outpost against rumored British activities in Florida. In addition to its war against the Creeks, the United States was then engaged in the War of 1812 against the British and within weeks of Horseshoe Bend, Great Britain began to open a Southern front in the war by landing troops along the Gulf Coast.

U.S. and militia troops passed through Fort Mitchell while on their way to join Andrew Jackson at New Orleans and in early 1815, Col. Benjamin Hawkins (U.S. Indian Agent and veteran of the American Revolution) led a large force of whites and allied Creek Indians down the Chattahoochee River from Fort Mitchell. Hawkins planned to attack two British forts on the Apalachicola River in Florida. On the verge of his first attack, however, word arrived of the end of the War of 1812 and the campaign was ended within site of the enemy.

In 1816, troops would again leave Fort Mitchell bound for the Apalachicola River. Led by Lt. Col. Duncan L. Clinch, a battalion from the 4th U.S. Infantry dropped down the Chattahoochee River from Fort Mitchell on a campaign that would ultimately lead to the destruction of what U.S. officials called the "Negro Fort" on the Apalachicola.

One of the former British outposts on the Apalachicola, the fort had been left in the hands of a large force of African American and Indian allies when the British departed the region. These individuals had been part of a Colonial Marine force raised during the War of 1812 and had extensive military training. They flew the Union Jack over their works and pledged to defend the fort to the last man. They literally did so. The fort withstood a siege by U.S. and Creek forces until a cannonball sailed into its gunpowder magazine. The resulting blast killed 270 of the 320 men, women and children in the fort.

Fort Mitchell also served as an important base of operations during the First Seminole War of 1817-1818. An expedition launched from the post in early 1818 resulted in the destruction of a major Seminole village in Jackson County, Florida.

The fort remained a significant military post into the 1830s and was a key base during the Creek War of 1836. It was from here that Neamathla, a Creek chief famed in the early history of Florida, was sent on the Trail of Tears. According to eyewitnesses, the old chief who had once opposed Andrew Jackson in Florida, was sent away in irons.

The site of Fort Mitchell is now a historic site near Phenix City, Alabama. For more information, please visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com/fortmitchell1.