1835 - Second Seminole War
In 1823, at the Treaty of Moultie Creek, the Seminoles were ordered to live in a reservation, much of which was located in modern day Lake County.
One large tribal camp was located about five miles northwest of present day Groveland in the area of Tuscanooga. The area was named after their leader, Halpatter Tustenugee. Records indicate there were somewhere between 180 to 300 members of the tribe living there.
The Second Seminole War began as a result of the United States, under the presedency of Andrew Jackson, leader of the Democratic Party, voiding the Treaty of Moultrie Creek by instituting the 1830 Indian Removal Act and demanding that all Seminoles relocate to Indian Territory in what is present-day Oklahoma.
Some tribes relented and signed treaties, such as the Treaty of Payne's Landing in 1832, which exchanged portions of Seminole ancestral lands for those in the midwest.
The Seminole tribes began a resistance against the United States' Indian Removal Act.
1835 - Dade Battlefield and Tuscanooga
[1835 Map showing the undefined boundaries of the Seminole Reservation. The eastern boundary can be seen passing through the Clermont/Lake Apopka area. Showing that the Groveland and Mascotte areas were still contained within the Reservation.]
[The site of the Dade Massacre can be seen on this map of Important Sites during the 2nd Seminole War.]
Hostilities led to the Second Seminole War when in December of 1835 the Seminoles successfully ambushed Major Dade and his troops as they marched through the area of modern Bushnell.
The area now known as Tuscanooga (located west of modern Groveland) was once a 900 acre island inhabited by Native Americans.
Led by Halpatter Tustenugee, these Natives participated in the battle against Major Dade in Bushnell, FL.
The site is now known as Dade Battlefield State Park.
Other nearby tribal camps were located at Okahumpka and northwest of Center Hill. It is likely that these groups also took part in the battle.
HALPATTER TUSTENUGGEE (Chief Alligator)
Tustenuggee, translated as "Warrior" or "Grand Chief of War," was a common surname for Seminole war chiefs, while Halpatter was the name for an alligator. Halpatter was born in central Florida in the Miccosukee clan. He vehemently opposed the seizure of Indian lands by whites. He fought at the Battle of Lake Okeechobee on December 25, 1837, along with the aged war chief Abiaka (also known as "Sam Jones"). On April 22, 1839, Alligator and other Seminole leaders met with Maj. Gen. Alexander Macomb, the new military commander in Florida, and received written assurance that their people could indefinitely remain in Florida if they stayed near Lake Okeechobee. Both parties believed that the war was finally over, but attacks by other bands of Indians in south Florida continued and the ceasefire soon ended.
An Eyewitness Account of the Dade Massacre by Seminole Leader Halpatter Tustenuggee (Alligator)
"We had been preparing for this more than a year. Though promises had been made to assemble on the 1st of January, it was not to leave the country, but to fight for it. In council, it was determined to strike a decided blow about this time. Our agent at Fort King had put irons on our men, and said we must go. Osceola said he was his friend, he would see to him. It was determined that he should attack Fort King, in order to reach General Thompson, then return to the Wahoo Swamp, and participate in the assault mediated upon the soldiers coming from Fort Brooke, as the ******* there had reported that two companies were preparing to march. He was detained longer than we anticipated. The troops were three days on their march, and approaching the Swamp. Here we thought it best to assail them; and should we be defeated the Swamp would be a safe place of retreat. Our scouts were out from the time the soldiers left their post, and reported each night their place of encampment. It was our intention to attack them on the third night, but the absence of Osceola and Micanopy prevented it.
On the arrival of the latter it was agreed not to wait for Osceola, as the favorable moment would pass. Micanopy was timid, and urged delay. Jumper earnestly opposed it, and reproached the old chief for his indecision. He addressed the Indians and requested those who had faint hearts to remain behind; he was going when Micanopy said he was ready. Just as the day was breaking, we moved out of the swamp into the pine-barren. I counted, by direction of Jumper, one hundred and eighty warriors. Upon approaching the road, each man chose his position on the west side; opposite on the east side, there was a pond.
Every warrior was protected by a tree, or secreted in high palmettoes. About nine o'clock in the morning the command approached. in advance, some distance, was an officer on horse, who Micanopy said, was the captain; he knew him personally; had been his friend in Tampa.
So soon as all the soldiers were opposite, between us and the pond, perhaps twenty yards off, Jumper gave the whoop, Micanopy fired the first rifle, the signal agreed upon, when every Indian arose and fired, which laid upon the ground, dead, more than half the white men. The cannon was discharged several times, but the men who loaded it were shot down as soon as the smoke cleared away; the balls passed far over our heads.
The soldiers shouted and whooped, and the officers shook their swords and swore. There was a little man, a great brave, who shook his sword at the soldiers and said, 'God-dam' No rifle-ball could hit him. As we were returning to the swamp supposing all were dead, an Indian came up and said the white men were building a fort of logs. Jumper and myself, with ten warriors, returned. As we approached, we saw six men behind two logs placed one above another, with the cannon a short distance off. This they discharged at us several times, but we avoided it by dodging behind the trees just as they applied the fire.
We soon came near, as the balls went over us. They had guns, but no powder, we looked in the boxes afterwards and found they were empty. When I got inside the log-pen, there were three white men alive, whom the ******* put to death, after a conversation in English. There was a brave man in the pen; he would not give up; he seized an Indian, Jumper's cousin, took away his rifle, and with one blow it beat out his brains then ran some distance up the road; but two Indians on horseback overtook him, who, afraid to approach, stood at a distance and shot him down. The firing had ceased, and all was quiet when we returned to the swamp about noon. We left many ******* upon the ground looking at the dead men. Three warriors were killed and five wounded."
He was severely wounded by U.S. troops at a skirmish at Fort King (in present day Ocala) in April 1840. After he recovered, Alligator Tustenuggee went on a bloody rampage in north Florida for two years, leading a series of raids and skirmishes. In January 1842, the army sent the Second Infantry Regiment in pursuit of his warband. They located the camp near Lake George, but the Indians escaped capture. Alligator, with a band of seventy warriors, was finally defeated by Federal troops on April 19, 1842, near the settlement of Peliklakaha Hammock (in today's Lake County, Florida), the last battle of the Second Seminole War in Florida. He was held as a prisoner of war with his people on Cedar Key. On July 14, Tustenuggee and 66 of his followers were transported out of Florida for the west. They arrived at Fort Gibson in the Indian Territory on September 5, 1842.
The War Continues
The war continued for the next several years with a series of engagements throughout the Florida Territory and extending even south to the Florida Keys.
Despite the Seminole fighters being at a tactical and numerical disadvantage, Seminole military leaders effectively used guerrilla warfare to frustrate United States military forces, whose now archaic method of fighting was designed for open fields.
The U.S. forces eventually numbered over 30,000 including militia and additional volunteers.
In 1836, General Thomas Sidney Jesup was sent to Florida to take command of the campaign.
Not wanting to waste his efforts, as previous commanders had done, in pursuing parties of Seminole fighters, who could disappear into the thickets and swamps without a trace, Jesup changed tactics and engaged in a search and destroy campaign.
Instead of fighting the warriors, Jesup targeted Seminole civilians and farms, an immoral strategy, which eventually changed the course of the war.
Jesup also authorized the controversial abduction of Seminole leaders Osceola and Micanopy, by luring them under a false flag of truce.
By the early 1840s, many Seminoles had been killed and many more were forced, by impending starvation due to the destruction of their farms, to surrender and be removed to Indian Territory.
Though there was no official peace treaty, several hundred Seminoles remained in Southwest Florida after active conflict ended.
1842 - War Ends and The Armed Occupation Act
In 1842, at the end of the Second Seminole War, Congress passed the Armed Occupation Act.
It offered 160 acres of land in Florida to any man who would take up arms to protect the area against potential renewed Native hostilities.
So long as he would build a habitable dwelling and live on the property for five years, while cultivating at least five acres of his homestead.
Many American settlers accepted the challenge and joined the blacks and previous settlers who were already engaged in farming the area.
Settlements and small towns began to quickly appear and some vanished just as fast.
The Native Americans left this area following the end of the Third Seminole Indian War.
In 1880, after less than 200 years of the tribe being formed, it is reported that only 208 Seminoles remained in Florida.
[Contributors: Mary Helen Myers, Jason Brown]