The Seminole Struggle

A History of America's Longest Indian War

John Missall, Mary Lou Missall

• Publisher: Pineapple Press
• Year: 2019
• eBook ISBN: 9781683340706
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

When we published our initial work on the Seminole Wars in 2004, we lamented the fact that such an important series of events was widely unknown to the American public in general and to the majority of Floridians. Not that we should have been surprised: The war was fought in one small corner of the nation and therefore of little concern to Americans as a whole, and most Floridians weren't born in the state and would have had little opportunity to learn about the wars. Yet it shouldn't have been that way. The Seminole Wars were a major conflict for the nation and arguably one of the most formative events for the State of Florida. The Indian Wars of the American West are famous worldwide, yet the Seminole Wars were bigger than any western Indian war. The foundations for most of Florida's great cities are a result of the Seminole Wars, yet few of those cities' residents are aware of the fact. It was an historical oversight we felt was in need of correction.

Table of contents

• Photos and Maps
• Preface
• 1 1500–1800: Florida, Land of Opportunity
• 2 1810–1813: The Plot to Conquer Florida
• 3 1813–1814: The Creek War
• 4 1814–1816: The Fort at Prospect Bluff
• 5 1817–1818: The Invasion of Florida
• 6 1818–1819: Andrew Jackson, Conqueror
• 7 1820–1823: The Acquisition of Florida and the Treaty of Moultrie Creek
• 8 1824–1830: Moving onto the Reservation
• 9 1831–1835: The Treaty of Payne’s Landing and Rising Tensions
• 10 December 1835–March 1836: Seminole Victories over Dade, Clinch, and Gaines
• 11 March‒December 1836: The Failed Offensives of Scott and Call
• 12 December 1836–June 1837: Jesup’s First Campaign and the “Capitulation”
• 13 July 1837–April 1838: Jesup’s Second Campaign and the White Flag
• 14 May 1838–May 1839: Taylor’s Squares and Macomb’s Peace
• 15 June 1839–May 1840: The Caloosahatchee Massacre, Bloodhounds, and Stalemate
• 16 May 1840–May 1841: Armistead’s Offensive and Losses on Both Sides
• 17 June 1841–August 1842: Colonel Worth and the End of the Florida War
• 18 1843–1855: Peace, Panic, and Pressure
• 19 January–June 1856: The Army is Frustrated, the Seminole Attack
• 20 July 1856–May 1858: General Harney, Colonel Loomis, and the Volunteers
• Epilogue
• Abbreviations
• Notes
• Bibliography