The Second Spanish Period

1784-1821

Part Ten

First Seminole War – Battle of Fowltown and the Scott Massacre

Chief E’ne’he’maut’ly (Neamathla)

General Edmund P. Gaines, now at Fort Scott on the Flint River, having sent Lt. Richard W. Scott down the Apalachicola River to see Major Muhlenburg and the supply vessels safely to the fort, dispatched a friendly “Indian runner to notify the foul-town Chief E’ne’he’maut’ly (Neamathla) of my arrival, and, with a view to ascertain whether his hostile temper had abated, requested him to visit me – he replied that he had already said to the Commanding officer here (Major David E. Twiggs) all he had to say, and that he would not come.”[1] Neamathla was not happy that the Americans had built a fort so close to his land. He was also extremely angry about the destruction of Fort Prospect, as some of his friends and relatives had been killed in the explosion. To the Americans, the Treaty of Fort Jackson ceded all Creek land in Georgia to the U.S., but the people of Fowltown did not consider themselves Creek, and therefor did not abide by the treaty.

 On November 20, fed up with Neamathla, Gaines ordered a force of two-hundred and fifty soldiers under the command of Major David Twiggs to march to Fowltown and arrest the chief. Gaines wrote to Jackson on the 21^st of November, “I yesterday detached [2]50 men (supposes to be the strength of the town) under the Command of Major Twiggs, with orders to bring me the Chief and warriors and in the event of resistance to treat them as Enemies.”[2] Twiggs and his troops left Fort Scott on the evening of November 20, marching and crossing the Flint River in the cover of darkness, arriving at Fowltown around sun rise on the morning of November 21. The residents of Fowltown were just waking up and were sitting around their campfires, wrapped in blankets, when the troops began to attempt to surround the village, to try to prevent an escape. Some of the town’s warriors noticed what was happening, and opened fire on the Americans. The villagers began to flee in panic, and Twiggs ordered his men to fire, and with a single volley, they sent the Indians into the surrounding swamp.

Gaines wrote to Jackson, “the fire was briskly returned by the detachment, and the Indians put to flight, with the loss of four warriors slain…It is with deep regret I have to add that a women was accidently shot with some warriors in the act of forcing their way through our lined formed for the purpose of arresting their flight. The unfortunate women had a blanket fastened round her (as many of the warriors had) which amidst the smoke in which they were enveloped, rendered it impossible as I am assured by the officers present, to distinguish her from the warriors.” After the attack, American troops discovered a British red uniform coat in Neamathla’s house, as well as a letter from Lieutenant Colonel Edward Nicolls, stating that the chief “has always been a true and faithful friend of the British.”[3] Twiggs marched his men back to Fort Scott, arriving back on the night of November 21.

Gaines was not happy with the outcome of Twiggs’s sortie. As he saw it, Neamathla had openly engaged with American troops on American soil. As far as the United States was concerned, Neamathla had just started a war. Gaines decided to attempt to end this war quickly. The next day, November 22, General Gaines sent Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Arbuckle, now with three-hundred men, to again try to arrest Neamathla. The Americans again crossed the Flint River and followed the path to Fowltown. After daybreak on November 23, the troops reached Fowltown, this time discovering the village completely abandoned.

Angry at the prospect of failing yet again to arrest Chief Neamathla, Arbuckle ordered his men to load up a wagon with corn found stored in the town. The men were loading the corn, when suddenly war cries were heard, as musket after musket discharged in the direction of the troops. Neamathla and about sixty of his warriors emerged from deep in the woods and began defending Fowltown. Arbuckle had his troops return fire. This situation continued for about twenty minutes, when suddenly the warriors fled the village as quickly as they had appeared. It is thought Neamathla gave up because they ran out of ammunition. Gaines wrote to the Secretary of War on November 26, 1817, “…I a few days past detached Lieutenant Colonel Arbuckle with three hundred officers and men. The colonel reports that the Indians had placed themselves in a swamp, out of which about sixty warriors made their appearance near the town, and, with the war-whoop, commenced a brisk fire upon our troops, which they returned in a spirited manner. The fire continued but for fifteen or twenty minutes, when the Indians were silenced, and retired into the swamp with a loss which the colonel estimates at six or eight killed, and a greater number wounded. We had one man killed and two wounded.”[4]

As the smoke cleared, eight dead warriors were discovered, while American casualties were only one killed, a young man named Aaron Hughes, and three wounded. Now a bit rattled after the surprise attack, the men were ordered to continue loading the wagon. The troops soon left Fowltown, heading back to their crossing at the Flint River. Once they reached the river, Arbuckle felt that it was a good idea to construct a small fort on that side of the river, to keep an American presence in that area. In three days, the troops constructed a small blockhouse surrounded by a small palisade. Arbuckle named it Fort Hughes, after the first American slain in the Seminole wars, and the young man was interned there.

 The Americans managed to force the Red Sticks out of Georgia, and into Spanish Florida, some traveling to Lake Miccosukee and what the Seminoles called Tallahassee Taloofa, or “Old Field Town”, present-day Tallahassee. At the Miccosukee Towns, along the western shore of present-day Lake Miccosukee, Neamathla and his people explained what happened at Fowltown to Chief Kinache, as well as well-known chiefs from the surrounding areas, such as Peter McQueen, Homathlemico, and Josiah Francis who had villages along the Wakulla River. Red Stick Creeks and the Seminoles in Florida were outraged about the attack on Fowltown, and large war parties from Lake Miccosukee to the Suwannee River, and villages in between including Francis Town, or Prophet Town as some called it, began to walk to the Apalachicola River to cut off the U.S. supply route to Fort Scott. The First Seminole war was underway.

Nine days after the American attack on Fowltown, angered Red Sticks, Seminoles, and their maroon allies, attacked Lieutenant Scott’s vessel as it was rowing back up the Apalachicola River towards Fort Scott. A few days before, General Gaines had sent Lt. Scott down the Apalachicola River with a detachment of men to assist Major Muhlenburg in bringing supplies up the Apalachicola River to Fort Scott. When Scott finally found Muhlenburg at the mouth of the Apalachicola River, Muhlenberg was disappointed that Gaines had only sent one boat, as the major wanted to lighter his load on them. He had been unable to ascend the river because his ships were too heavy and the water was too low. During the voyage from Mobile Bay to Apalachicola Bay, several of Muhlenberg’s men aboard his ships came down with a sickness, and desperately needed to reach Fort Scott soon to get some medical attention. Unaware that the First Seminole War had just began, Muhlenberg ordered Scott to load his boat with the sick, and take them immediately to Fort Scott.

The major replaced the twenty of the lieutenant’s able-bodied men with sick, unarmed soldiers. Also on board Scott’s boat were seven of the soldier’s wives and four children, as well as regimental clothing for the garrison. Before Scott began to ascend upriver towards Georgia, Muhlenberg gave him a letter to deliver to General Gaines, requesting more boats to help him get the supplies to Fort Scott. Scott’s party on the Apalachicola River rowed past the landings of friendly Creek towns on the western shore of the river. They spotted some Indians on the eastern shore, but they did nothing. Major Muhlenburg had ordered Scott to make a stop at Spanish Bluff, near present-day Blountstown, where the Forbes Company employees Edmund Doyle and William Hambly lived. When the U.S. destroyed the Prospect Bluff Fort in 1816, the Red Sticks and Seminoles blamed William Hambly for pointing out to the Americans where the fort’s powder magazine was located, allowing the U.S. to turn the fort into a crater. To the Red Sticks and Seminoles, Hambly was an enemy and a wanted man.

Chief John Blount

Hambly’s and Doyle’s homes were located in present-day Bristol, Florida, across the Apalachicola River from Chief John Blount’s town, now present-day Blountstown. John Blount was a chief from an Upper Creek town who escaped the Creek War of 1813-1814, by leaving Alabama and settling along the Apalachicola River in Spanish West Florida. At first, Blount allied himself with the British at Prospect Bluff, but when the British left Florida after the War of 1812, Blount allied himself with the United States, but also tried to keep good relations with Red Stick leaders such as the Prophet Josiah Francis, Homathlemico, Peter McQueen, and Neamathla. When Lieutenant Scott’s party arrived at Spanish Bluff, Doyle and Hambly summoned Blount to cross the river and meet with Scott.[5]

Blount arranged for Major Muhlenberg’s letter to be delivered on foot to General Gaines at Fort Scott. Lieutenant Scott had no idea that a war had begun with an attack on Fowltown, and was surprised when Doyle, Hambly, and Blount informed him. They urged Scott to wait at Spanish Bluff for the messenger to reach General Gaines at Fort Scott, and for the reinforcements to arrive at Spanish Bluff. They told Scott that Red Sticks, Seminoles, and their black allies were converging on the Apalachicola River, and were determined on not allowing American vessels to pass. Scott decided to send a message of his own with Muhlenberg’s letter to Gaines, writing from Spanish Bluff on November 28, 1817, “Sir, Enclosed you will receive Major Muhlenberg’s communication, which he directs me to forward to you express from this place. Mr. Hambly informs me that Indians are assembling at the junction of the river, where they intend to make a stand against those vessels coming up the river; Should this be the case, I am not able to make a stand against them. My command does not exceed forty men, and one half sick, and without arms. I leave this immediately… Note – The bearer of this is entitled to three dollars on delivering this letter. The Indians have a report here that the Indians have beaten the white people. ”[6]

For reasons we will never know, Lieutenant Scott decided to go against Doyle, Hambly, and Blount’s warnings to wait for reinforcements at Spanish Bluff. Instead, he got back on his boat, and continued up river. It is believed by some that perhaps Scott thought they would meet Gaines’s reinforcements on the river way before he reached the junction, where the Indians were waiting to attack him.[7] Nevertheless, on November 28, 1817, Scott sealed his fate, and the fate of his men, by continuing upriver against all warnings.

On November 30, 1817, nine days after the attack on Fowltown, the supply boat under the command of Lieutenant Richard W. Scott was sailing up the Apalachicola River, in route to Fort Scott. A large number of Indians had fanned out for 150 yards along the Apalachicola River, about a mile below the juncture of the Chattahoochee and Flint Rivers that form the Apalachicola. Seeking revenge for Fowltown, a force of Creek and Seminole warriors, under the leadership of Chief Homathlemico, attacked the boat, which contained forty soldiers, seven women, and four children. Only six soldiers survived the attack, four of them were wounded, but they managed to make it to Fort Scott. The women were taken and executed by the Indians, except one, Elisabeth Stewart, who was taken to the Suwannee River villages, called Bowlegs Towns. All four of the children were grabbed up by their heels, and had their brains smashed out by Indians banging their heads on the side of the boat.[8] When news of this tragedy reached Washington, General Gaines was ordered to lead an incursion into Spanish Florida to pursue hostile Indians. However, Gaines was in no way authorized to attack any Spanish installations. When the order came in, Gaines was away from Fort Scott because he was in East Florida helping to fight off pirates who had occupied Fernandina, and was not available.

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[1] Gaines to Jackson, Nov.21, 1817, The Andrew Jackson Papers V.4, p150

[2] Ibid. p150

[3] Remini. p.76

[4] Gaines to Secretary of War, Nov. 26, 1817. ASPIA,v2, p.160

[5] Cox, Dale. The Scott Massacre of 1817, p

[6] Scott to Gaines, Nov.28, 1817. American State Papers, Military Affairs, Vol1. p.688

[7] Cox, Dale, The Scott Massacre of 1817, p

[8] Remini, p.139