War Years: the U.S.

The Wars of Indian Removal in Florida were national, rather than merely regional events.  Americans who early in the war supported forcing the Indians out of the path of white settlement, lost interest as fighting dragged on with no clear victories or defeats.  The cost of the war mounted steadily, with only relatively few prisoners to show for the efforts.  Reports to families from husbands, brothers, & uncles in the field were very mixed.  Some saw the hills, hammocks, & richness of the foliage and thought Florida an Eden.  Most could barely stand it.  One soldier wrote home, “If the Devil owned both Hell and Florida, he would rent out Florida and live in Hell.”  Even the scenic beauty of Fort Brooke could not compensate for the heat, mosquitoes, snakes, & the maddening humidity.  Enlisted men earned only $5 per month.  Desertion was a constant problem.  Besides the Indians & the climate, the terrain was the enemy as well.  Much Florida coastal land was still swamp & dense undergrowth.  Marching quietly & easily was impossible.  Fighting was suspended during the summer “sickly season”, but malaria & dysentery shadowed the soldiers nonetheless.  This situation was only worsened by the fact that the Indians had the distinct advantage of fighting on their own territory.  European linear tactics were of little use against a enemy that appeared & disappeared at will, fighting hit & run style  & melting into the trees and swamps.  U.S. soldiers at Fort Brook were fighting America’s first guerilla war.

Years of Removal

 The entire U.S. watched the Florida struggle, & the names of the war leaders became household words.  Today, towns, cities, & landmarks across the nation, for example, as well as numerous individuals, are named for Osceola (Asse yahóla) one of the young firebrands of the resistance.  But Micanopy (Mikkó anópí”, Philip, (Emáthla), Billy Bowlegs (Holata mikko), and Sam Jones (Abiáka), were among the more powerful official leaders of the wars.  Micanopy & Philip were captured & sent West in 1838, along with the family of Osceola, who had died in a prison at Fort Moultrie, SC.  Bowlegs, the last to give up, left Tampa bay on the steamer Grey Cloud, bound for New Orleans & on to Indian Territory in 1858.  Old Jumper (Oti emáthla), & the younger warrior Wildcat (Cowacochi) were sent West also.  Jumper died en route, at New Orleans Barracks, but Wildcat lived to increase his fame as a warrior.  Sam Jones, a powerful medicine man & the backbone of the resistance, told the U.S. that he would never give up, as long as he had “A single ball and charge of power.”  When he could no longer shoot, he declared, he would “live on fish” & when his lines were worn out, he would “make others of horse hair” & when his hooks were worn out, he would “cut up his old tin pans & make others.”  Sam Jones & his followers found safety in the Everglades & he died there, true to his word never to give up his fight.  To this day, the Florida Seminoles pass these names down among the warriors’ descendents, & name children with words from the old war-medicine songs.

Years of Conflict

Throughout its existence, Fort Brook retained its prominence in the U.S. military’s offensive operations in Florida.  Below present-day Whiting St., there were horse sheds, a bake house, a carpenter’s shop, a Quartermaster’s store, a “pen” for Indian prisoners, a hospital, & a cemetery.  Nine overall commanders would take the field in Florida, & most of them would visit the fort at one time or another.  Among them were Gen., later President, Zachary Taylor, Gen. Thos. S. Jesup, & Lt. Col. William Harney.  Solders of all ranks, from privates to generals, would gain military experience here that would propel them to advancement in their nation’s later 19th century wars: the Mexican War, the Civil War, & the U.S wars against the western Plains Indians.  The Fort Brooke reservation, 4 miles square, reached the zenith of its occupation in late 1837, when 65 officers & 1596 enlisted men were in garrison.  Over the last year, 450 Indians had been gathered at the fort, awaiting transport to the West.  Others continued to come in or be captured.  On June 2, 1837, Osceola & Abraka & a war party of about 200, released the prisoners.   Gen. Jesup was disheartened.  “This campaign, so far as relates to Indian migration,” he wrote, “has entirely failed.”  In Oct. 1837, a number of Indian war leaders were captured, & the fort’s garrison was reduced, even as the war dragged on for another five years.  The U.S. withdrew from Florida in 1842, ending the 2nd Seminole War, & Congress pased the Armed Occupation Act, encouraging white settlement of the Florida frontier.

Fort Brooke & Tampa

Throughout the 2nd & 3rd Seminole wars (1835-42; 1856-58), Fort Brooke served as the nucleus of a small but growing community that included not only soldiers of many ethnic backgrounds & languages, but also settlers, slaves, & Freedmen lured by the military economy, as well as by all of the excellent features of terrain & climate that continue to attract residents & visitors today.  Among the troops were man foreign-born men for whom military enlistment provided fast & east entry into the new society;  although service in the heat, mosquitoes, & snakes of Florida would not seem easy at all.  An Englishman, John Bemrose, who served as a hospital orderly at several Florida forts, recorded that he met Germans, French, Scots, Polish, Swedes, Canadians, & Nova Scotians,  Their languages seemed to him “like the chatter of Babel.”  The Indians visited the fort to obtain supplies.  Indian prisoners & emigrants encamped there, awaiting transport.  The long shoreline of Cotanchobee also made a fine meeting place for Cuban fisherman who secretly brought arms & ammunition to support the Indian resisters  In Jan, 1834, Hillsborough became Florida’s 18th county, & its seat was named for Tampa, the settlement that had taken root a  round Fort Brooke. The fort remained active until it was formally abandoned by the U.S. government on Dec. 21, 1882.  It was occupied regularly until 1860 & thereafter, was a seasonal camp for soldiers from Key West Barracks.

“Today’s Tampa was a war town, born of the conflict between the bold, young United States & the Native peoples for control of the land & its tremendous resources.  The Spanish Crown relinquished control of La Florida for the first time in 1763.  The British, overlords for a short 21 years between the 1st and 2nd Spanish Occupations, created two Floridas, East & West, for administrative purposes.  Then, they left in 1784, with the end of the American Revolution, & returned the land to the Spaniards.  But, by 1810, partly as a result of the Louisiana Purchase, the northern & western border of “the Floridas” had been defined & the new United States wanted the area, with its long, strategic shore line.  In 1821, “Florida” became a single U.S. Territory, with the shape that we know so well today.  The numbers of Euroamerican & African American settlers & slaves streaming into Florida began to increase rapidly.  In 1813-14, the Native peoples of Alabama had risen up against the white settlers & had been defeated badly by Andrew Jackson.  Several thousand of those warriors & their families moved southward & joined their cultural kinfolk, whom English speakers called the Seminoles & Miccusukees, across the interior & along the shores of what Americans now called Tampa Bay.  Once again, the stage was set for conflict over Florida’s vast land & resources, & Tampa would have yet another name – Fort Brooke, as well as a central role in the coming drama that would be played out across Florida.”