SW065 Sword-Swinging General Scolds Soldiers, Steeles Resolve at Withlacoochee River Battle

<p> Jackson Walker painting of the Battle of Withlacoochee</p> <p>In January and February of 1836, the eyes of the United States in the press were concentrated upon the Withlacoochee River, where a relative handful of Seminole and Mikosukee warriors and their families were ensconced to resist the Indian removal policy of the United States.</p> <p>We’ve discussed how the path to the Second Seminole War was paved with tariffs, land grabs, broken treaties – and a fundamental misunderstanding on the part of the US Government about who the Seminole were. For its own convenience, rather than deal with more than a dozen different bands of Seminole tribes, the US Government created the political fiction of a unified Seminole nation. In fact, the Seminole comprised many disparate tribes from different backgrounds and cultures. Although loosely aligned throughout the Florida territory, their primary unity came from opposition to forced removal west to the Oklahoma Territory. </p> <p></p> <p>The commanding general in Florida, Duncan L. Clinch, had dealt with Seminole for more than a decade. Despite unrest and scattered Seminole violence against sugar plantations in East Florida in the last half of 1835, Clinch held out hope to secure an agreement. He amassed a military force to march from Fort Drane to meet the Seminole chiefs in the Withlacoochee River region of Central Florida. He intended to awe the Seminole with his Army’s strength so that the Seminole would, in his view, recognize resistance was futile and they should prepare to pack their bags to leave Florida on waiting transport ships in Tampa Bay. And if the Seminole rebuffed his last peace overture, his Army would crush them and deport the survivors. He failed to recognize the Seminole had a vote in this proposal and that they had other ideas about the removal policy; namely, they would refuse to leave, but would fight by force of arms to the last Indian rather than consent.  The Battle of the Withlacoochee was the first U.S. Army-planned engagement with the