Andrew Jackson And The First Seminole War

 

Map showing Andrew Jackson's campaign againt the Seminole in 1818

Andrew Jackson came home from New Orleans a hero. He’d beaten the British, saved the city, and given Americans something to celebrate after a war that hadn’t gone particularly well.

 

But Jackson wasn’t finished with the army. He remained a major general, commanding American troops across much of the South. There were forts to maintain, soldiers to move around, and plenty of trouble brewing along the frontier.

 

He’d become one of the best-known men in the country. Newspapers praised him, crowds turned out to see him, and politicians talked about his future.

 

Jackson didn’t have time to think about retiring. The problems along the southern border weren’t going away.

 

One of those problems was Florida.

 

In 1818, Florida belonged to Spain. The Spanish had forts at St. Marks and Pensacola, but not enough soldiers to control much of the country.

 

That left plenty of room for trouble.

 

Seminole Indians lived in northern Florida, along with Creek families who’d fled south after Jackson defeated the Red Sticks in 1814. There were also Black communities, including people who’d escaped slavery in Georgia and other southern states.

Some lived in Seminole towns. Others had settlements of their own. Many had no intention of going back across the American border. That angered slaveholders in Georgia who wanted their runaway slaves returned. They blamed the Seminoles for sheltering them.

 

The Seminoles had complaints of their own. American settlers were moving onto their lands, and soldiers were crossing the border. Raids and killings had been going on for years.

 

Neither side trusted the other.

 

The British had made matters worse during the war. They’d armed Indians and Black fighters in Florida and encouraged resistance. After the war ended, many of those weapons remained in the territory.

Gunboat firing on the Negro Fort

In 1816, American forces attacked a fortified settlement on the Apalachicola River known as the Negro Fort. It had been built by the British during the war and was occupied largely by free and formerly enslaved Black people. American commanders considered it a threat.

 

A naval gunboat fired a heated cannonball into the fort’s powder magazine, killing hundreds of people, including women and children. It was a terrible beginning to what would become a much larger fight.

 

By 1817, American soldiers and Seminole warriors were clashing along the Georgia border.

 

One of the key trouble spots was Fowltown, a village near the Flint River. Its leader, Neamathla, disputed American claims to the land and refused to leave.

 

General Edmund P. Gaines sent soldiers against the village in November. There was fighting, and American troops returned with a larger force, driving off the inhabitants and destroying the settlement.

 

The Seminoles struck back.

Ambush on the Apalachicola River

On November 30, warriors attacked a boat carrying American soldiers and their families up the Apalachicola River toward Fort Scott. Lieutenant Richard W. Scott was in command. His men were caught by surprise, and the attackers killed nearly everyone aboard.

 

The dead included soldiers, women, and children. Americans called it the Scott Massacre.

 

News of the attack spread quickly. People along the frontier feared more raids, and the government decided it was time to send in a larger army. In December 1817, Secretary of War John C. Calhoun ordered Jackson to protect the frontier and stop the attacks.

 

The problem was that much of the fighting was taking place across the border in Spanish Florida. Jackson saw little sense in stopping at a line the Seminoles could cross whenever they wanted, so he called for Tennessee volunteers and brought regular soldiers into the campaign. He also recruited Creek warriors, including men who’d fought alongside him during the earlier Creek War.

 

Some of those Creeks had their own scores to settle with the Red Sticks who’d escaped into Florida. By March 1818, Jackson had an army of over 3,000 men, including roughly 1,500 Creek allies.

 

Getting into Florida wasn’t easy.

 

The country was full of rivers, swamps, pine woods, and muddy trails. Supplies had to be hauled over rough ground, and the soldiers were often short of food.

 

In March, his troops crossed into Spanish Florida. Their first targets were Seminole and Mikasuki settlements in the northern part of the territory.

American army dragging supplies into Florida

Jackson wasn’t looking for one big battle. He wanted to break up the villages that supported the fighters, destroy their supplies, and make it difficult for them to keep resisting.

 

His soldiers marched through the Tallahassee country, where they attacked settlements and burned buildings. Many of the people who lived there fled into the woods and swamps as the army approached. Jackson’s men found villages, fields, and food stores, but few large groups of warriors willing to stand and fight.

 

Jackson kept going.

 

His next target was St. Marks, a Spanish fort near the Gulf Coast. He believed Seminole fighters were getting supplies and protection there. On April 6, Jackson took possession of the fort.

 

This was a serious step. Spain and the United States weren’t at war, and Jackson had just seized a Spanish military post.

 

He wasn’t finished.

 

Two important Native leaders, Josiah Francis and Homathlemico, were captured during the campaign. Francis, also known as Hillis Hadjo, had been a Red Stick leader and had traveled to Britain seeking support.

American Army marching into St. Marks

The two men were taken aboard an American vessel after being lured toward it under a British flag.

 

Jackson ordered them hanged.

 

Their deaths were only the beginning of the trouble at St. Marks.

 

Jackson had also captured Alexander Arbuthnot, a Scottish trader who’d been living in Florida and working with the Seminoles. Arbuthnot had written letters on their behalf and helped them obtain supplies.

 

Jackson believed he was encouraging the Indians to fight the United States.

 

Another prisoner was Robert Ambrister, a former British Marine who’d been working with Native fighters in Florida. Jackson accused both men of helping wage war against Americans, and ordered a military trial.

 

The court heard evidence against Arbuthnot and Ambrister, including letters and testimony about their dealings with the Seminoles. Arbuthnot denied encouraging attacks on American civilians.

 

The court found both men guilty.

 

Arbuthnot was sentenced to hang. Ambrister was originally sentenced to be shot, but the court reconsidered and reduced his punishment to fifty lashes and a year’s confinement at hard labor.

 

Jackson wasn’t satisfied.

 

He approved Arbuthnot’s execution and restored Ambrister’s original death sentence. On April 29, Arbuthnot was hanged and Ambrister was shot.

 

Two British subjects had now been executed by an American general inside Spanish territory.

Robert Armbrister facing the firing squad

The news would cause an uproar.

 

Jackson defended what he’d done. In his reports, he argued that foreign agents had helped stir up the fighting and that the Seminoles had been supplied from Spanish territory.

 

He also believed that the capture of St. Marks had helped end the war.

 

Writing to Calhoun in April, Jackson said the destruction of the Seminole position on the Suwannee River, along with the capture of St. Marks, would “end the Indian war for the present.”

 

He was already looking farther west.

 

Jackson believed hostile Indians were gathering around Pensacola, another Spanish town. He accused Spanish officials of allowing them to receive supplies and shelter.

 

So he marched toward Pensacola.

 

The Spanish governor protested. Jackson had no authority to take the town, and Spain was supposed to be at peace with the United States.

 

Jackson wasn’t persuaded.

 

On May 24, his troops entered Pensacola after overcoming Spanish resistance. The Spanish garrison withdrew to Fort Barrancas, near the entrance to Pensacola Bay.

 

Jackson moved against the fort, too.

 

After a short bombardment, the Spanish surrendered.

 

Jackson now controlled two of Spain’s important positions in Florida. He’d marched into another country’s territory, captured its forts, and executed two British subjects.

American artillery firing on Fort Barrancas

And he’d done it without getting permission from Washington to go that far.

 

By June, the campaign was over, and Jackson returned to Tennessee. The Seminole villages in his path had been broken up, and many of their people had fled farther into Florida.

 

The fighting hadn’t ended Seminole resistance. But Jackson had struck hard enough that the immediate campaign came to a close.

 

Now, he had a different sort of fight on his hands.

 

Newspapers had followed the campaign as reports reached the eastern states. Early accounts praised Jackson’s movements and described the destruction of Seminole towns.

 

The Boston Commercial Gazette of May 21, 1818, carried news of the campaign under the heading “Of The Indian War.”

 

Its report said Jackson had moved on St. Marks and that the Spanish garrison had surrendered. It also reported that Arbuthnot was in Jackson’s possession and “in irons.”

 

At that point, many readers didn’t yet know what had happened to the British prisoners.

 

That changed as news of their executions spread.

 

On June 6, Niles’ Weekly Register carried a report headed “Indian War,” dealing with the executions of Arbuthnot and Ambrister.

 

The affair soon became one of the biggest political arguments in the country.

 

Jackson’s supporters said he’d done what was necessary to protect Americans along the border. They argued that Spain had failed to control its territory and that the Seminoles had been using Florida as a place to launch attacks.

 

His critics saw things differently.

 

They said Jackson had gone beyond his orders, violated Spanish territory, and executed British subjects under questionable legal authority.

Map showing Andrew Jackson's march to the Suwannee River

There were plenty of people in Washington who weren’t happy about it.

 

President James Monroe and his cabinet had to decide what to do with a general who’d won another campaign but created a diplomatic mess.

 

Spain protested the invasion. Britain objected to the executions of Arbuthnot and Ambrister.

 

The United States didn’t want another war with either country.

 

Secretary of State John Quincy Adams took Jackson’s side in the diplomatic argument. He maintained that Spain had failed to keep hostile forces from using Florida as a base against the United States.

 

Adams prepared a lengthy defense of the American position, arguing that Jackson’s actions had been necessary to stop attacks across the border.

 

Monroe took a more cautious approach.

 

In his annual message to Congress on November 16, 1818, he explained why Jackson had entered Florida. But he also clarified that the United States wasn’t trying to start a war with Spain.

 

The president ordered Pensacola returned to Spanish control. St. Marks would also be returned once Spain could provide a force strong enough to defend it.

Seminole and Black families fleeing a burning village

Monroe said the government wanted to preserve peaceful relations with Spain.

 

That didn’t settle the argument at home.

 

Henry Clay, the powerful Kentucky congressman, attacked Jackson’s conduct. He believed the general had exceeded his authority, and that Congress needed to do something about it.

 

The House of Representatives debated the campaign in early 1819. Jackson’s defenders argued that he’d protected the frontier. His opponents questioned the invasion and the executions.

 

Jackson wasn’t about to apologize.

 

He believed he’d been sent to stop the Seminoles and had done exactly that. As far as he was concerned, Spanish officials had allowed the trouble to continue, and he’d taken care of it.

 

The House ultimately refused to censure him.

 

For Jackson, that was enough. He’d survived the political fight, and his reputation remained strong.

 

Florida was changing hands anyway.

 

Spain had been struggling to hold the territory for years. It was expensive to defend, difficult to govern, and a constant source of arguments with the United States.

 

Jackson’s invasion hadn’t created those problems, but it made them harder for Spain to ignore.

 

In February 1819, the United States and Spain signed the Adams-Onís Treaty. Spain agreed to give up Florida, and the United States settled its western boundary claims with Spain.

 

The treaty took time to complete. Florida officially passed into American hands in 1821.

 

Jackson was chosen as the territory’s first American military governor.

 

For the Seminoles, the change brought little good news.

 

They’d already lost villages and farmland during Jackson’s campaign. Now, the country they’d been living in belonged to the United States, a government that wanted more land for American settlers.

 

The Seminoles hadn’t been driven out of Florida, and they weren’t finished fighting for their homes. There would be more trouble in the years ahead, including another much longer war.

 

Jackson, meanwhile, came out of the First Seminole War much as he’d come out of his earlier campaigns.

 

He’d acted quickly, hit hard, and worried about the arguments afterward.

 

 

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