Seminole Wars

Twenty volunteers entered the shuttered Fort Foster at Hillsboro River State Park May 6. They ripped out rotten planks from a boardwalk encompassing the inside of the palisade walls confines. This brings the replica post one step closer to re-opening when state officials re-certify it is safe to the public to do so. In this episode, Louie Bears Heart, a living historian portraying a Seminole of the period, witnessed the operation and joins with his observations and assessment. But first, some background on the fort. Fort Foster Historic Site is part of the Hillsborough River State Park (HRSP), located 9 miles south of Zephyrhills, Florida, on U.S. 301 across from the park. The fort is a reproduction of a fort originally built on the same grounds in 1836 by Col. William S. Foster and his 430 men. It is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. Fort Foster was utilized during the Second Seminole War to defend the bridge crossing at the Hillsborough River and served as a resupply point for the soldiers in the field. The fort was garrisoned on and off from December 1836 through April 1838 In recent years, park staff and re-enactors provided living history demonstrations of life at Fort Foster. Each year the site has presented living history events: Fort Foster Rendezvous in January and the Candlelight Dinner experience at Fort Foster during the winter months. The park staff has also conducted weekly tours of the park, allowing visitors the opportunity of touring the fort and grounds. The HRSP Preservation Society set up a site for citizen donations to cover restructuring costs. https://www.gofundme.com/f/restoration-of-fort-foster Hillsborough River State Park Preservation Society Inc. is a volunteer citizen support organization founded in 1993 to support the needs of Hillsborough River State Park and Fort Foster Historic Site. For more information on them and to contact, go to http://www.historyandnature.org/  and contact@historyandnature.org Hillsborough River State Park's Fort Foster Rendezvous is a living history reenactment featuring military, Seminole, and civilian re-enactors, sutlers, traders, and craft demonstrations of the time during the Second Seminole War (1835-1842) in Florida.           Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Fla.  Subscribe automatically to the Seminole Wars through your favorite podcast catcher and "like" us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube! 

In our last episode, we reviewed how three years of the Seminole Wars Authority podcast have told the story of Seminole resistance to U.S. Government removal efforts. In this episode, we place the podcast in the context of the Foundation's Frank Laumer Library for Seminole Wars Studies, the Laumer Library for short. We will discuss the themes presented – Black Seminoles, Crackers, Soldiers, Seminoles – among the collection's two thousand five hundred titles. We also investigate opportunities for scholars and students scouring these shelves and among the several filing cabinets of Frank Laumer's primary-source research materials. Seminole Wars Foundation President, Steve Rinck, once again takes hosting duties to interview Patrick Swan, caretaker for the Laumer Library as well as our regular host. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Fla.  Subscribe automatically to the Seminole Wars Authority through your favorite podcast catcher and "like" us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube!        The Seminole Wars Foundation houses 2,500 titles in book, magazine, and journal form, plus thousands of digital images and scans of key Seminole Wars documents and living history event activities.          Researchers can conduct high resolution scans of 1800s art and illustrations (above) pulled from the library shelves or the filing cabinets (below) at the Center.          Awaiting patrons are roughly 300 novels, from the 1830s to the present, all related in some way to the Seminole, Crackers, and Seminole Wars. This fiction ranges from wholesome to pulp and everything in between.           One can see a selection of themes on the shelves, from Black Seminoles to War, to Firearms, to Osceola, again and everything in between.                              The Seminole Wars Foundation has a book store with popular Seminole Wars titles (above) and features a host of Seminole Wars-related cultural ephemera to view (below).        

This episode marks an anniversary for the podcast: Three full years' worth of the Seminole Wars Authority. We have done as we said we would do when we set out on this long march. We canvassed far and wide for authorities in possession of the knowledge about the Seminole Wars. Some are historians, John Missall and Jesse Marshall and Chris Kimball. Some are professors, Dr. Jim Cusick and Dr. Joe Knetsch, among many others. Some are artists, such as Johnny Montgomery and Jackson Walker. Some are just self-described regular guys with an interest in living history presentations of this conflict, fellows such as citizen-scholar Jeff Snively and truck driver and surveyor Jerry Morris. Oh yes, we've also interviewed a long list of re-enactors – never call it cosplay, if you value your life. All have something interesting to say and meaningful to contribute to the conversation. Chris Kimball, whom along with Jesse Marshall knows everything, understands everything, and recalls everything about the Seminole Wars tells me he always learns something new and useful from listening to a Seminole Wars podcast. That's a gold medal to my chest. Steve Rinck, Seminole Wars Foundation president, helms this episode with longtime host Patrick Swan. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Fla.  Subscribe automatically to the Seminole Wars Authority through your favorite podcast catcher and "like" us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube!          Above, Andrew Foster icon image used for first two years on the Seminole Wars podbean splash page. Podcast Mission Control.      

In the middle of August each year at St. Francis Barracks in St. Augustine, two elegant mules pull a caisson symbolically carrying the remains of the soldiers who had died in the Second Seminole War. The procession they lead commemorates the first re-interment of soldiers in Aug. 15, 1842. The commanding officer in charge of military operations in Florida, U.S. Army Col. William Worth, declared an end to hostilities and called for the remains of the fallen to be gathered together and transported to St. Augustine. He detailed that the caissons be pulled by Elegant Mules. Emmitt and Tater are the two mules with whom Thomas F. and Denise Fitzgerald provide to offer “solemn pride” for fallen military veterans today. In this episode, Tom Fitzgerald joins us to discuss what he and his wife do for deceased veterans as well as everything you might want to know about caring for two elegant mules who lead funeral processions.   Denise and Tom Fitzgerald take great care to ensure their presentation honors the fallen to the utmost. Courtesy photos from Andrew Foster and Tom Fitzgerald.            Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Fla.  Subscribe automatically to the Seminole Wars Authority through your favorite podcast catcher and "like" us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube!   

In our previous episode, Jesse Marshall gave listeners an overview of newspaper coverage of the Seminole Wars, reviewing their accuracy given the physical and technical constraints of the era. In this episode, Jesse relates the value of these newspapers' accounts for informing the American public about what actions and activities their government engaged in on their behalf in the Seminole Wars. Jesse lays out a mixed bag: some newspaper articles offered first-hand accounts of battle that hold up surprisingly well as part of the historical record. Others conveyed the gist of a battle but were wildly inaccurate about casualty details. Jesse explains how historians collate such reports -- often using reprints from the congressional record -- to attempt to arrive at an accurate assessment of what happened in a given encounter. In addition, printer capabilities improved to run woodcut illustrations, thereby presenting images, some accurate, some fanciful about the war.        Newspapers often often full congressional debates about the war and, when the technology permitted, illustrations of the contentious points being  debated.         Late in the 3rd Seminole Wars period, printer technology advanced to the state where Harper's Weekly could run a spread illustrating Billy Bowlegs' story through text and art. Frank Leslie's Illustrated Weekly brought consistent images to its readers, but began too late for the Seminole Wars.                Chris Kimball presents an index to Seminole War Articles in the Army-Navy Chronicle. Below, David Fowler present full articles, in edition to an index, for war coverage in the Nile's Weekly Register, a national newspaper of the time.        Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Fla.  Subscribe automatically to the Seminole Wars Authority through your favorite podcast catcher and "like" us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube!   

A popular conceit for a newspaper is that it is the purported “first draft of a history.” Newspapers informed the public. But they also tended to reflect the public's opinion. And that opinion for waging the Seminole Wars waned overtime, as did newspaper coverage. How did local and national newspapers present the Seminole Wars in print? Was the war always front-page news? How did the war's placement compare to other events of its time? What did newspapers get right in what they reported from the field of battle and the fog of war?  And what constrained newspapers from offering a fuller treatment of the war? How did the war's placement compare to other events of its time? In the first of a two-part episode, Jesse Marshall returns to the Authority. He has reviewed a stack of 19th century newspapers from the Seminole Wars Foundation's archives and assesses how much of their war reporting has stood the test of time.     Before an improvement in printing technology allowed for regular use of printed illustrations, newspapers until the 1940s were relatively drab in layout. Text alone conveyed the news.             One could follow the war in the newspapers, if one read carefully.           Newspapers listed military officer assignments and ran editorials and letters to the editor for -- and below, against -- the Florida war. They also sold ads for returning runaway slaves to their owners as well as various sundry items.         Some websites let researchers read thousands of U.S. newspapers online.     Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Fla.  Subscribe automatically to the Seminole Wars Authority through your favorite podcast catcher and "like" us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube! 

In 1812, during the East Florida Patriot War incursion against Spanish territorial rule, 15-year-old Louisa Fatio barely escaped when Seminole attacked and partially burned her family's beautiful New Switzerland plantation on the St. Johns River. Louisa was the granddaughter of Francis Philip Fatio, co-founder and later sole owner of the 10,000-acre New Switzerland plantation, west of St. Augustine. Frantically searching for safety throughout the wilderness of Florida, her family first endured the bloody Patriots' War only to see their new house destroyed by a hurricane. Next, they sought haven in Fernandina until invading pirates burned that property to the ground. Fleeing once more, the Fatios returned and rebuilt New Switzerland Plantation between 1822 and 1824, where Louisa becomes its charming hostess. The New Switzerland plantation was torched a second time by Seminole during the Second Seminole War, which began in 1835. The next year, 1836, Louisa Fatio moved to St. Augustine, where she remained for the rest of her life. The city was filled with military personnel and refugees from the war, and she found work managing boarding houses with her sister Eliza. There, she used her keen business sense and hospitality to create a career as an innkeeper - one of the few respectable occupations available to a woman of her standing in her day.  Under her management, the house on Aviles Street became known as Miss Fatio's. Soon Miss Fatio's lovely and famous boarding house began to offer the best lodging and the finest table in tropical Florida. The establishment was a fixture in St. Augustine until her death in 1875. Louisa Fatio is the subject of a one-woman performance by Florida thespian, Dianne Thompson Jacoby.  In this episode, Dianne slips into her impression of Louisa to tell the story of East Florida in the St. Augustine vicinity during the Seminole Wars period. Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Fla.  Subscribe automatically to the Seminole Wars Authority through your favorite podcast catcher and "like" us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube!       Louisa Fatio (in first floor window) with guests at her St. Augustine boarding house. Below, an artist rendering of a younger Louisa.          She managed New Switzerland Plantation, where she was born, after her father died.    St. Augustine thespian Dianne Thompson Jacoby portrays Louisa Fatio in one-woman performances around Florida. Photo screen capture courtesy St. Augustine Record.     Dianne Thompson Jacoby also portrays a Cracker lady, Martha Jane, at various venues. Martha Jane makes an uncredited visit in this episode.    One can learn more about Diane and the characters she portrays by visiting her webpage at www.mrsflagler.weebly.com or by her Facebook page: Diane Thompson Jacoby.    She performs with Double Trouble Theatre Company. 

A soldier of the Second Seminole War would have led an austere life at remote Army outposts in Florida. Among the few pleasures in his life might have been playing with a deck or cards or dice and getting square meals. What might have had the greatest impact on his morale, however, was the ability to receive and send mail to loved ones back home. If he was stationed at Fort King, near present day Ocala, he might have sent his personal mail through the nearby Seminole Agency post office. How did it travel from there? Turns out, there was an intricate operation behind the postage for a soldier's letter. In this episode, we'll find out just how they did it. Thomas Lera, a director of the Florida Postal Society, researches postal history from throughout the state of Florida. Postal history collects the envelopes, the history of the envelopes used, and the stamps and markings placed on them. Tom is co-editor of the book, Florida Postal History, 1763-1861. In researching that book, he discovered the Seminole Agency. Given its prominence in the era of Seminole removal, Tom decided to explore it it in more depth.   The Seminole Agency was based in Alachua County near Fort King, on the main military and post road connecting Micanopy and Tampa Bay. In August 1835, U.S. Army Private Kinsley Dalton, mail courier between Fort Brooke and Fort King, fell victim to a Seminole retaliatory attack. The Army continued to send mail, however, either on the Fort King road or via other trails or the sea around the Florida Peninsula.        The Agency's House was positioned on the northern edge of the reservation. The house included a scaled floor plan and frontal view. The building was spacious at over sixty feet square. It included four large meeting rooms, wide hallways, and large porches.                           All Charts courtesy Tom Lera Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Fla.  Subscribe automatically to the Seminole Wars Authority through your favorite podcast catcher and "like" us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube! 

Listeners to this podcast already know that Fort Pierce is a reservation for the Seminole Tribe of Florida. Previously, guest Rollie Gilliam told us about its origins as a home for Black Seminole. In this episode, living historian Jim O'Dell joins us to describe the military origins of Fort Pierce, his hometown. A U.S. Navy veteran, Jim stepped into the part of playing U.S. Army Brevet Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin Pierce to present public impressions of the fort's namesake and first commander during the Second Seminole War. What role did Fort Pierce play in the war? Who were its later famous commanders? And what became of the troops' payroll in gold that was lost when the schooner carrying the paymaster sank near the fort's inlet. We'll find out.       U.S. Navy veteran Jim O'Dell portrays Brevet Lt. Col. Benjamin Pierce at living history events. He stands here with his six-pound cannon, King David.        Jim O'Dell, Dowling Watford, and Jim Flaherty portray soldiers from Second Seminole War. Courtesy photo by Allen. Below, Jim O'Dell and his friend from Okeechobee, Dowling Watford, moving out to battle.          Jim O'Dell related the story of this shipwreck in his discussion. Below, the plot for Fort Pierce still exists. The fort itself is in St Lucie's County, Fla.              Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Fla.  Subscribe automatically to the Seminole Wars Authority through your favorite podcast catcher and "like" us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube! 

The annual Fort Cooper Days battle commemoration returns March 18 and 19 at Fort Cooper State Park in Inverness. This battle featured militia and volunteers fighting off a Seminole attack in the second of those wars. A militia captain, rising from the ranks of private to sergeant and then officer, is Howard “Butch” Nipper Junior. He is a proud third generation Florida Cracker and he portrays a Florida Cracker who picks up his musket and answers the call of duty to muster. Butch tell us all about a militiaman's life in the Second Seminole War and how modern living historians present impressions to educate, inform, and entertain the public.   Butch Nipper command a small squad during a demonstration at the Florida Pioneer Museum in Dade City, Fla. He then joins with Matt Milnes, who portrays a regular Army officer, in calling for the men to fire a salute.        Butch Nipper's parade dress is based on the Uniform of the Macon Volunteers, which served with Major Cooper's 1st Battalion of Georgia Foot in Florida in 1836. Daguerreotype circa 1845. Below, illustration of a militia officer commanding the unruly militia at a muster.      Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Fla.  Subscribe automatically to the Seminole Wars through your favorite podcast catcher and "like" us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube! 

This podcast has featured numerous living historians describing life of Florida's forebears in the 19th century, whether they be soldiers of the Seminole Wars era, or Seminole, or sutlers, settlers, or crackers. More than one young person witnessing this spectacle has wondered, how can I do what they are doing? In this episode, Kathleen Ramirez and Will Baker-Palenik tell us how. At a special event Saturday, April 15, Fort King park is holding the “School of the Soldier”. It is an all-day, free event where the public can learn about 1830s soldiering and join in the instruction in the manual of arms for the musket. Kathleen is the Outdoor/Historical Resource Program Coordinator, at Fort King in Ocala. Will is a military reenactor of nearly half a century, starting with Civil War and gradually migrating to Seminole Wars times as well. They have arranged for wooden rifle drills for kids, hard tack cooking, canvas tent construction, along with cannon and musket firing demonstrations by period-accurate re-enactors of the 1830s U.S. Army soldier. Fort King's address is 3925 East Fort King Street in Ocala.                    Will Baker-Palenik provides impressions of pioneers, militia, and soldiers from the 1830s in Florida. When not ensuring programs run without a glitch, Kathleen Ramirez portrays pioneer women.      Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Fla.  Subscribe automatically to the Seminole Wars through your favorite podcast catcher and "like" us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube! 

Last week, John and Mary Lou Missall joined us to discuss the novels they've written with the Seminole Wars as its setting. In this week's episode, they return to discuss The Seminole Struggle, their comprehensive general history of the U.S. Government's near half-century determination to remove Seminole permanently from Florida in the 1800s. Spoiler alert: the Seminole struggled to resist but in the end the government failed to remove them all from Florida.  A stalwart few remained behind in South Florida, where, set to their own devices, they have prospered and have ultimately become a valuable partner with state officials in protecting their Everglades sanctuaries.    Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Fla.  Subscribe automatically to the Seminole Wars through your favorite podcast catcher and "like" us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube! 

Over the past quarter century, John and Mary Lou Missall have published a number of books, both histories and novels and some soldier letters about the Seminole Wars. These have been well received. The Seminole Struggle – or as some call it, a reckless waste of blood and treasure -- may be the definitive one-volume history of that long conflict between 1817 – some say even earlier – and 1858. Along the way, they've published a book of poetry, This Torn Land, about the wars from that era, and three novels. Hollow Victory, Elizabeth's War, and What We Have Endured approach this period with a historical foundation but a novel's flair and punch. In this episode, they join us to tell about the struggle and the suffering both sides endured as presented in these novels, in which historically, the Seminoles bore the most egregious examples.                            Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Fla.  Subscribe automatically to the Seminole Wars through your favorite podcast catcher and "like" us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube! 

The sands of time, nature, and settlement have ravaged the terrain where Soldiers and Seminole battled each other in Florida in the 1800s. In South Florida, of course, this is true -- but with a twist. In some cases, modern buildings have been constructed atop archaeological sites that had not been previously excavated -- and without disturbing the ground foundation intrusively. That provides the opportunity for archaeological investigation. For decades, Bob Carr has been Digging Miami, as his new book states. Bob is the director of the not-for-profit Archaeological And Historical Conservancy in Davy, Fla. He has also worked extensively outside of Miami, in the South Florida region at both the Big Cypress Reservation and at the Okeechobee Battlefield. He joins us to discuss how he has teased out the truth from the south Florida soil, what he has found, and why it is important.        Robert S. "Bob" Carr's latest book is Digging Miami. This book traces the rich 11,000-year human heritage of the Miami area from the time of its first inhabitants through the arrival of European settlers and up to the early twentieth century. This the Seminole presence and the US Army's wartime removal efforts feature prominently in his story. Bob Carr was Dade County's first archaeologist, later historic preservation director, and held the position at a time when redevelopment efforts unearthed dozens of impressive archaeological sites, including the Cutler Site, discovered in 1985, and the Miami Circle, found in 1998. Digging Miami presents a unique anatomy of this fascinating city, dispelling the myth that its history is merely a century old.     Bob's work in downtown Miami led to his being featured in cover story for American Archaeology magazine. He has also excavated on islands in the Florida Keys, some as pictured in courtesy image above, featuring Seminole and Miccosukee grave sites.  Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Fla.  Subscribe automatically to the Seminole Wars through your favorite podcast catcher and "like" us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube!   

We continue our discussion with “new recruits” to the Seminole War living history hobby. Marcus Acosta is a buddy of Ethan Parks, last week's guest. The two portray Army privates of the 1830s and have “fought” and “died” together on the reenactment stage – but all for a good cause. That cause is honoring the people who fought -- and some who perished -- on these Florida battle sites. Both do this through service representing young soldiers, thereby raising awareness of the humanity of the participants back in those days. They present a neglected history to the public. In this episode, Marcus gives us his impression on the importance of what he does.        Marcus Acosta with the more formal soldier uniform of the 1830s era. He stands guard at the recreated log breastwork at the Dade Battlefield during the annual park commemoration of the Dec. 28, 1835 battle along the Fort King Road. Below, Ethan Parks, in US Navy JROTC service uniform, joins his friend Marcus Acosta at the commemoration.       Jesse "Archie" Marshall drills the raw recruits. Marcus Acosta is in uniform in the rear; Ethan Parks is in uniform in the front rank.  Below, they both "died" together at a living history program at the Pioneer Florida Museum in Dade City, Florida. But, as Marcus notes, he died knowing Scott's Infantry Manual and so all is good. Next photo, Archie Marshall "died" too. Okeechobee Battle Event photo courtesy of Heather Burney.       Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Fla.  Subscribe automatically to the Seminole Wars through your favorite podcast catcher and "like" us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube! 

In the 1830s, the US Army actively recruited young people from ages 16 up to 23 or so as privates to fill its ranks. In time, the duty that service entailed led to assignment in Florida. It was a miserable duty, where there was a war raging between the US government and the Seminole Indians. Soldiers barely able to shave became the instrument to fight the Seminole and remove them to the Oklahoma territory.  Jump ahead two centuries, one will still find the sky-blue uniforms of those soldiers at living history events, but they are mostly filled out with old timers to the community. Although the regular Army had older troops back in the day, they weren't really this old.  Now, as a means to infuse some young blood into this history hobby and to more accurately represent the youthful ages of the troops from that period, the informal company of Seminole War reenactors is actively recruit new members. Those who would like to explore these possibilities should contact Ross Lamoreaux  rlamoreaux@tampabayhistorycenter.org with Dade Battlefield Society, or Bill Gruber with the Dade park Bill.Gruber@dep.state.fl.us . One new member with the history bug is Ethan Parks. He is a junior at South Sumter County High School in Bushnell, Fla. He joins us this week to discuss the ins and outs of getting outfitted and trained up in this specialized martial hobby. He tells us everything one needs to know about suiting up and moving out on the march as part of the spectacle that re-enacts for the public the military conflict between soldiers and Seminole.      Ethan Parks with his sky-blue 1830s soldier uniform and kit. Below, Ethan donned his modern US Navy JROTC uniform and carried the US Flag in the color guard at the annual commemoration of the Dade Battle of Dec. 28, 1935 in Bushnell, Fla.        Above and below, Jesse (aka "Archie") Marshall takes recruits under his wing to prepare them for soldier life. Here, he gives the troops a much deserved rest after drilling in General Winfield Scott's infantry tactics. He then orders them into a line march. Mentors such as Jesse Marshall, Matt Milnes, and George Webb, among many, many others take the time to help recruits get outfitted, often by loaning their own extra accoutrements.     Amber Lamoreaux, president of the Dade Battlefield Society, and Bill Gruber, park manager at Dade Battlefield Historic State Park, are two key players who help young historical hobbyists enter the soldier living history community.    Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Fla.  Subscribe automatically to the Seminole Wars through your favorite podcast catcher and "like" us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube! 

This week we explore cultural art depicting Gullahs, Seminoles, and Black Seminoles or Seminole Maroons. Our guest is artist Johnny Montgomery, a descendant of Gullahs who were forcibly removed from West Africa and shipped in bondage to America.  He is a proud American with no hyphens. But he is also quite proud of the Gullah people he descended from, growing up eating healthy portions of eel, crab, and grits. He said eating alligator and racoon was not out of the norm. A retired Army paratrooper with time in Vietnam's jungle, Johnny is a veteran of the defense of Saigon during the Tet Offensive of 1968. He wore jump boots for three decades of military service that took him around the world. And then, upon retirement, he exchanged that life for a more leisurely pursuit with a brush and easel of a painter. His artwork is a rich and deeply personal exploration of the Seminoles and Black Seminole. Johnny uses his practical knowledge and his heritage to paint history onto his canvases. Johnny Montgomery's art is important. Single-handedly, he has given us a vision of what the Seminole of many different hues may have looked like during the Seminole Wars period. He paints robust characters with vibrant colors.   Most importantly, he does this from perspective of a Black man. His Seminoles are not depicted stereotypically and erroneously as “savages” or “slaves.” Instead, he presents them as a real people, who were strong, fierce, brave, and resilient. A major presentation is his Battle of Okeechobee, which hangs at the Seminole Nation Museum in Wewoka, Oklahoma. He has also presented at the annual Seminole Negro Indian Scout Association's gathering in Brackettville, Texas.                               Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Fla.  Subscribe automatically to the Seminole Wars through your favorite podcast catcher and "like" us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube! 

Here's a little known fact: A Seminole was responsible for the request that brought the British military into the Gulf Coast region during the War of 1812 and set the stage for the famous Battle of New Orleans. [see video series here: https://twoeggflorida.com/1812 or https://youtu.be/t7_dfEWBNYc] Then Chief Thomas Perryman was the Seminole. You remember that battle, right? General Andrew Jackson and a ragtag force established impregnable defensive positions at New Orleans and whacked back the British on January 8, 1815. Someone later  made a hit single about it in the 1950s, too. I chanted that one as an Army cadence decades later while marching in formation up and down the square. It was a decisive tactical, operational, and strategic American victory. Tactical since the Americans held the field. Operational since they thwarted British attempts to take New Orleans and thus control of the Mississippi River as part of what we might call the New Orleans battle campaign. And strategic because, well, you'll just need to keep listening as historian Dale Cox returns to provide the perspective.  Dale discusses how the American victory nearly led the Congress to reject the peace treaty – and how that might have been a strategic disaster for the Americans. The British were secretly hoping for that outcome. Why? Dale explains why. Also, how if the British had won the battle and overall campaign, their Parliament may very well have rejected the peace treaty as well – or demanded substantial revisions before ratifying it and thereby ending the war. Westward expansion might have been stopped dead in its tracks in the Mississippi River Delta had the British prevailed. As it was, this battle ensured the peace treaty would be ratified and that its provisions would prevail. The most pressing of these for our studies is that it meant the British left the region and left their Native American allies behind to fend for themselves with the Americans. That spelled bad news for the Seminole.                No image exists for Thomas Perryman and his grave is unmarked. His biographical entry is sketchy. Below, The TwoEggTV video feature series is on Roku and other streaming services and at https://twoeggflorida.com/1812 or https://youtu.be/t7_dfEWBNYc        Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Fla.  Subscribe automatically to the Seminole Wars through your favorite podcast catcher and "like" us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube! 

Digging deeper. If there is one central element that binds this community of Seminole Wars historians, it is the passionate desire to dig deeper to find the truth. We examined this with recent guests. Jim Flaherty, Rick Obermeyer, and Jeff Snively are long-time practitioners of this historical craft as citizen scholars. And so is Chris Kimball. In the early days of the public internet – the long-past 1990s -- Chris set up a site to share knowledge about these wars. He even assembled a county-by-county listing of Florida sites where the wars were fought. When blogs and video uploads became available, early technology adopter Chris dove in, presenting more knowledge and more history about these wars in one place than had existed anywhere else on the internet up to that time. He wove his knowledge with the Florida park service into entertaining and education vignettes about the war, the people, and the environment. For example, Chris created a series of episodes for YouTube on the clothing of the Seminole, based on the work of Rick Obermeyer, his fellow living history reenactor. This research material supplied fodder for his three books on Seminole War battles, related newspaper articles, and of letters and diary accounts from people who lived and died during those wars. Today, Chris returns to the Seminole Wars Authority to tell us about those olden times when pickings about the Seminole Wars were few and far between…until he weighed in.        Chris Kimball, son of a Florida ethnologist, spent great time growing up around Seminole. He later chose to portray a Seminole warrior at living history events. On Right, for Chris, his college football team passions are clear but took some challenges when he attended classes at the University of Oklahoma -- Seminole West, as he calls them. Seminole East -- Florida State University -- prevailed in a 2022 bowl game.   Chris Kimball dug into the paper archives to discover and document the dates for every Seminole War battle and skirmish. He then designed and created this poster board exhibit display.        This travel guide, edited by John and Mary Lou Missall, founds its origin in Chris Kimball's old internet page that listed sites around the state with Seminole Wars links. The guide remains free to travelers and tourists.  Screen captures of that site are below, followed by Chris's YouTube channel on this subject.                  An original 1836 map of the Seat of War in Florida hangs in the visitor center at the Dade Battlefield Historic State Park in Bushnell, Fla. On right, Chris Kimball holds a framed reproduction map received for Christmas 2022.  Below: Books Chris Kimball has published based on his research as a citizen scholar.              Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Fla.  Subscribe automatically to the Seminole Wars through your favorite podcast catcher and "like" us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube! 

As we close this year of 2022, lest old acquaintances be forgotten, we look back at those who were part of the Seminole Wars living history community but who are no longer with us or able to be active. This close-knit community of interest comprises academic historians, for sure. It also hosts large numbers of public historians, the people we call citizen scholars. No paper chase for them to publish or perish. They research for the pure joy of discovery and the ability to share that discovery with like-minded individuals. With that criteria in mind, we can think of no one better to chat with today than Jeffrey Snively. Jeff is an everyman; that is, he is a spectator who comes out to the Seminole Wars living history events. He could be anyone. In his case, he might be a representative of the audience given that he has been coming to these events for four decades. Let's just say, he knows where the bodies fell and can even tell you how! He grew up in Florida, the son of a Marine who fought at the Battle of Okinawa and who earned the Silver Star. A navy veteran himself, Jeff is neither an academic historian nor a living history interpreter. He's just – as he says, a regular guy, one with a deep passion for interest and desire to dig deeper to find out the whys in history, in our case, the Seminole Wars. Jeff has been attending commemorative events at the Dade Battlefield Historic State Park since 1983, before battle reenactments were introduced even. For forty years, Jeff has met and observed everyone who has been part of raising awareness of these wars. And he's here to tell us what he recalls. We're in for a treat and it is not even Halloween.     Citizen Scholar Jeff Snively has attended Dade Battle commemorations at the park before they even introduced the living history spectacle in the mid-1980s.        Jeff Snively recalls Frank Laumer, author and living history reenactor of Pvt Ransom Clark.      On left, Frank Laumer's signature and inscription to Jeff for Massacre!  On right, Jeff Snively with the memorial wreath at the reconstructed soldier breastworks at Dade Battlefield Historical State Park.  He regularly attends the annual battle commemoration, which is separate from the battle reenactment, and is held on the actual day of the battle, Dec. 28.           The late Seminole Billy L. Cypress is the second recipient of the Frank Laumer Legacy Award. Billy Cypress was a Seminole tribal historian who directed the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum and spent a lifetime educating children and adults in the ways of Florida's largest Indian tribe. He appeared opposite Frank Laumer and presented the Seminole side to the Dade Battle of 18354 during living history battle reenactments. Below, his wife Carol accepts the award on his behalf at a Convocation of Seminole Wars Historians in Okeechobee in 2019.            Jeff Snively unearthed a letter from a wounded officer, Richard Bland Lee, a cousin of Robert E. Lee, in the Battle of Welika Pond. An Army adjutant attests to Lee's wounding. This letter provided key information about the battle and its contents had been previously neglected by historians.  At Fort Foster, which Dr. John K. Mahon told Jeff was accurate down to the last nail, Jeff made friends with U.S. Navy reenactor Greg Centanne, who has portrayed a sailor of the Seminole Wars-era who served at Fort Foster.        Jeff Snively examined one of the Navy books Greg presents and found a photo inside of his own father, a Marine in combat at the Battle of Okinawa.         Below are some of the books Seminole Wars Foundation members have published on the Seminole Wars and Seminole. In this episode, Jeff Snively recalls the late Dr. John K. Mahon, the late Dr James Covington, and the very-much-still-with-us Dr Brent Weisman. Seminole Wars Foundation carries these books for sale.              Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Fla.  Subscribe automatically to the Seminole Wars through your favorite podcast catcher and "like" us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube! 

The Seminole Maroon diaspora returns to Jupiter, Florida in January for a family reunion January 11 to 15. To bring them together, the Florida Black Historical Research Project, Inc accepted a federal grant – “Telling the Full History”. Attendees hail from within Florida, but also from Oklahoma, Texas, Mexico, The Bahamas, and Trinidad. They will take a day-long bus tour of South Florida sites that reference and/or honor Seminole Maroon history and listen to a day of presentations featuring history and life of Seminole Maroons in the Western Hemisphere. They will also screen a film, The story of the Seminole Negro Indian Scouts of Texas. Attendees will hear oral histories of Seminole Maroon history and autobiographical and personal stories of descendants. They will cap off their visit with a spiritual remembrance, featuring sacred presentations by various religious faiths to honor the fallen on both sides—the U.S. military and the Seminole-Seminole Maroon warriors and family members. One can learn more by visiting this website: https://flblackhistoricalresearchproject.org/ Joining us to fill in the details for this, yes, historic assembly are organizers Wallis and Gene Tinnie. Dr. Wallis Hamm Tinnie is President of Florida Black Historical Research Project, Inc., an organization founded by her cousin, the late Isa Hamm Bryant. Isa, a Seminole Maroon descendant, was one of the driving forces behind the reclamation of Loxahatchee River Park as a battlefield site. Dr. Tinnie is the granddaughter of the late Seminole descendant Florence Ealer Jones Hamm. Florence left her native home in the village of Mikasuki on the edge of Tallahassee, Florida. Dr. Tinnie has worked diligently for the last 15 years to continue the work of honoring the sacred site of her ancestors in and around Loxahatchee River Battlefield Park. Gene Tinnie is a retired educator as well. Gene, a Fulbright scholar, is an activist in historical preservation and cultural affairs. He has an academic background in foreign languages, linguistics, and literature. He is founder and co-director of the Dos Amigos/Fair Rosamond Middle Passage Ship Replication Project. Among the many boards on which he sits is the historic Loxahatchee Seminole Maroon Battlefield in Palm Beach County.        Dr. Wallis Tinnie and her husband Gene with Seminole Nation Chief Lewis Johnson and his security aide in 2022 at the Convocation of Seminole War Historians at Loxahatchee River Battlefield State Park.                  The Mission of the Florida Black Historical Research Project Inc is to research, collect, and disseminate knowledge of significant contributions Blacks have made in the State of Florida.    Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Fla.  Subscribe automatically to the Seminole Wars through your favorite podcast catcher and "like" us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube!

The US Government spent millions of dollars and incurred thousands of casualties attempting to remove the Seminole from Florida in the first half of the 1800s. Today, the Seminole are still here – and they are thriving; they are integral to a study of Florida's history. And they are the subject of fascination in popular culture. A 1950s Greyhound busline booklet features iconic sites to visit around the United States. For Florida, that meant no Disney park – had not been built yet; no NASA space center– again, not built yet. THE tourist attraction of Florida were the Seminole! Doug Alderson returns to discuss how he presents the Seminole in his books, one of which is on such old Florida attractions. Seminole are also portrayed in vintage art around the Sunshine State, and no study of American alligators is complete without an exploration of Seminole wrestling of the ancient creatures. Doug even explores the Seminole in spooky ghost stories. Topping it off is his compelling historical novel, Seminole Freedom. It traces the tale of a self-liberated black teen and her adventures and contacts in the first two Seminole wars. We will discuss all this and more with Doug.          Greyhound Buslines featured Seminole as the Florida attraction in the 1950s.                   Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Fla.  Subscribe automatically to the Seminole Wars through your favorite podcast catcher and "like" us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube!    

There is fresh blood in the living history community for the Seminole Wars. Two reenactors, Stephen and Paulette Dennis, entered the hobby in November at Florida Heritage Day at Dade Battlefield Historic State Park in Bushnell, Florida. When we say “fresh blood”, we are somewhat facetious. Stephen retired from the U.S. Navy after a quarter century and Paulette kept the home fires burning at the Dennis house. What they don't have in youth, they make up for with experience, knowledge, and a Florida heritage. Stephen dresses as an Army private of the 1830s, along with his wife, Paulette who takes on the appearance of an 1830s Pioneer matriarch. The Dennis' display the rations that Soldiers would have eaten on the march. They assiduously followed the recipe compiled by our own Jerry Morris, who penned a short booklet, An Army Moves on Its Stomach, for the Seminole Wars Foundation some years back. Stephen and Paulette have tailored their interpretation based on their own ancestors who fought in the Seminole Wars. Stephen joins us today to share what he knows about all this.   Above, Stephen and Paulette Dennis in 1830s period attire kneaded and baked regulation-specific hard bread of the type that soldiers carried on the march. Below, Matt Milne and Stephen Dennis presented at 1830s Soldiers for Florida Heritage Day at the Dade Battlefield Historic State Park in November, 2022. Here, they convince two wary visitors, Molly and Iris Eldridge, into trying a sample. Moments before, the two Bushnell sisters had received red ochre Seminole facial war paint from Gunpowder Warrior (Steve Creamer). The presentation table of ingredients is based on Jerry Morris' booklet, An Army Moves on Its Stomach, a Seminole Wars Foundation publication.        Stephen did not warn them about potentially losing any teeth. Oops.    Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Fla.  Subscribe automatically to the Seminole Wars through your favorite podcast catcher and "like" us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube!

We have devoted several episodes in our podcast the Fort at Prospect Bluff, known best as the “Negro Fort” on the Apalachicola River in Florida's panhandle. During the War of 1812, the British also built a smaller fort, which historians dub Nicolls' Outpost. They and their Seminole allies used this as a base to conduct offensive operations into Georgia and Alabama during that conflict. Seminole Indians later used it to stage attacks on the US Army in the First Seminole War.  And Historian Dale Cox is here to tell us all about it. His new, hardback edition of Nicoll's Outpost, is expanded from the softcover, with additional chapters and revised content. It is now available from booksellers.                Map sketches of vicinity in 1815 and 1817 Painting of British Royal Marine Edward Nicolls, whose name became permanently associated with the outpost when historian Mark Boyd tagged it as Nicolls' Outpost in the 1950s.    Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Fla.  Subscribe automatically to the Seminole Wars through your favorite podcast catcher and "like" us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube!

Listeners to our last podcast enjoyed a discussion about 19th Century Seminole Men's Clothing – and what an enterprise it is to recreate them. Unfortunately, the 1991 spiral-bound book is out of print and hard to obtain. That is, until now. Enter living history enthusiast and researcher James Flaherty. Jim is a friend of the key individuals behind the Seminole Men's clothing book – Rick Obermeyer and Pete Thompson. He has attended and participated in various Seminole War reenactments and events since the 1980s. Jim is also an artisan who hand crafts period accoutrements, leather items and clothing. Hence, Jim's new book is Seminole Wars-era Clothing. He and fellow historical enthusiasts penned entries featuring everything one needs to know about crafting period-appropriate clothing. This includes Seminole men and women; American civilian men and women; and military service members from the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, and U.S. Marine Corps. Jim tells why he wrote this book and why this book needed to be written. He dedicates it to living history reenactors, hobbyists, and students of the trade. But any general reader will find it fascinating how he takes one on a journey from written accounts and painted images to obtaining materials and piecing together the clothing items one by one. Jim Flaherty is a member of the Loxahatchee Battlefield Preservationists, the Seminole Wars Foundation, the Dade Battlefield Society, and the Morse Telegraph Club. Image captures are below.                        Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Fla.  Subscribe automatically to the Seminole Wars through your favorite podcast catcher and "like" us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube!

When you see someone portraying a Seminole in a battle reenactment today, you can pretty much rest assured that the attire is authentic if not original. This was not the case 30 and 40 years ago. Many had good intentions but simply got the clothing wrong. Enter Seminole reenactor Rick Obermeyer. He took both an interest and launched a campaign to portray 19th century Seminole Men's Clothing as accurately as feasible. He published selections from the top craftsman in the field for such items in 1991. It has served as handbook for Seminole reenactors ever since. Although Rick had no special academic training for the task, he did have a passionate desire to portray Seminole warriors as they presented themselves back then. Listen now as he details just how he assembled that knowledge into a simple manual of instruction.         Getting Seminole plumes and feathers right was possible because the Army acquired specimens not long after the Dade Battle. Photos courtesy Rick Obermeyer.     Although the handbook is hard to find and even then re-selling for $150 in paper copy form, the good people at Nativetech.com took Rick's book and published it in whole on line! See below.            Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Fla.  Subscribe automatically to the Seminole Wars through your favorite podcast catcher and "like" us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube!

SW0133 Soldiers Adapted and Innovated Amidst A Climate of Hostility in Florida In the Second Seminole War, probably every soldier complained about the hostile Florida climate. But, only a few ever did anything about it. In this episode, Professor Jacob Hagstrom of The Citadel joins us to discuss the climate of operations for soldiers in that war. Jacob examines and assesses disputed overall casualties; whether the climate was uniquely inhospitable; whether it was indeed so hostile that the Army could not successfully remove the Seminole from Florida; and how soldiers -- and Seminole -- adapted and innovated within its confines. To increase soldier mobility or to slow down Seminole escape, Gabriel Rains fashioned land mines. John Lane fashioned rubber pontoon bridges so soldiers could more easily cross streams and rivers. And Hezekiah Thistle crafted a saddle that could aid evacuation of casualties who would ride “comfortably” in the prone position. This culture of innovation became so well known that it reached the consciousness of one Edgar Allen Poe, late of the US Military Academy at West Point, who penned a satirical account, The Man That Was Used Up, about service in Florida at the time.   The Seminoles, for their part, innovated as well, switching from labor-intensive log cabins to easily constructed chickees. And they modified their diets to adapt to available produce in the Everglades. They also used the environment to take cover and to conceal themselves from advancing soldiers.  Take a listen to learn how this all panned out.   Seminole adapted to their new south Florida Everglades climate.      Hezekiah Thistle improvised a litter that could be attached to a horse's back for medical evacuation of casualties.     John Lane's rubber bridge pontoons increased the Army's mobility and saw later use in the US-Mexican War and the U.S. Civil War (above). (Below) Edgar Allen Poe wrote a satire on the Army's war innovation. Jacob Hagstrom summed it all up in Florida Historical Quarterly.        Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Fla.  Subscribe automatically to the Seminole Wars through your favorite podcast catcher and "like" us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube!

This week, Andy Warrener returns to discuss the Seminole War-themed Saturday living history event -- Oct. 29 -- at the Florida Pioneer Museum and Village in Dade City, Pasco County, Florida. Besides presenters discussing and sharing anecdotes from all three Seminole Wars, an afternoon battle skirmish is set featuring pioneers, Florida Territorial Militia, Regular Army soldiers, and Seminole Indians. All will be available throughout the day prior to this battle to explain and show how they lived in the 1830s. In addition, five-time champion alligator wrestler Pharoah Gayles makes his first appearance off a Seminole Reservation to display his skills and to teach about the environment that alligators and Seminole have occupied together.  Artist Terry Smith presents on The Real Florida as portrayed with nature and Seminole in his paintings.  Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Fla.  Subscribe automatically to the Seminole Wars through your favorite podcast catcher and "like" us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube!   See full schedule below images.     Oct. 29, 2022: Living History - Seminole War, 10am.- 4 pm.  Schedule of Events: Florida's Seminole Wars 10:00am – Event begins 11:00am – Opening remarks, introduction to Seminole history and alligator wrestling 11:10am - Alligator wrestling with Pharaoh Gayles 12:00pm – Indigenous Peoples presentation by Jim Sawgrass 1:00pm – Alligator wrestling with Pharaoh Gayles 1:30pm – (gazebo) Presentation on Seminole canoe building and culture by Daniel Tommie 1:45pm – (gazebo) Presentation on black Seminole history by Matt Griffin 2:00pm - Indigenous Peoples presentation by Jim Sawgrass 2:15pm - (gazebo) early 19th Century Florida and native history by James Bullock with special call-in guest Dale Cox to discuss a recent archeological discovery at the Prospect Bluff or Negro Fort site on the Apalachicola River 3:00pm – Battle/skirmish reenactment 4:00pm – Event ends The Museum Concession Stand will be open with Burgers, Hotdogs and more. Also, other vendors CASH ONLY Alligator Wrestling  11 am and 1 pm  (Video) "Pharaoh (Gayles) of Pharaoh's Animal Kingdom" https://www.pharaohgayles.com/pharaohs-wildlife-kingdom Pharaoh Gayles is a professional wildlife handler, educator and conservationist, a performer, and an artist. Pharaoh is a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission-licensed handler who loves to pass on his knowledge and expertise. Pharaoh is a five-time Freestyle Alligator Wrestling Competition champion.  The only five-time champion in the history of the competition. Pharaoh has appeared on national television programs, including Animal Planet's “Gator Boys,” and was a featured performer on FOX's “Game of Talents.” THE SHOW AND HISTORY: For as long as native Americans have been living in Florida, they have been utilizing alligators for their meat and other body parts. In the early 1900's when tourism started to explode in Florida there were more people witnessing native Americans jumping in the water and catching alligators. Spectators called this alligator wrestling. It is a barehanded capture technique developed by the Native American people as well as other handlers to bring an alligator back home alive. You always wanted to bring the alligator back alive because the meat would spoil very quickly in the Florida Sun. As time went on spectators would pay to see native Americans handle alligators and learn more about the culture. This became one of the 1st forms of revenue for the native people in Florida. The name alligator wrestling is a name that has always stuck, it draws people in from all over the country to observe. The alligators in the demonstrations you see are ALL RESCUED alligators that will be able to live out the rest of their lives in a sanctuary instead of being put down.  Battle Reenactment 3 pm Lawn Chairs welcome        Terry Smith, local artist, will be doing a demonstration in the Lockey Room, in the main Building, during the Saturday event. Recent Awards 2021 Florida Wildflower Studio, Frostproof, FL – 2nd Place Acrylic 2020 Art in the Park, Brooksville, FL – First Place in Fine Arts 2019 Lutz Art Festival, Lutz, FL-Best of Show and First Place Painting "My goal is to paint as much of “The Real Florida” as I can.  Future generations need to see what has been and is being lost. There is a need to encourage others to speak up to protect our most valuable treasure.  Many things in life can be replaced or rebuilt, but not our greatest possession.  It is my hope that by recording the natural Florida now, people will realize the importance of saving Florida's natural resources, to avoid being left with just memories." – Terry Smith   Fliers for upcoming events mentioned in the podcast            

SW0131 How Well Regulated Must a Militia Be to Ensure Security of a Free State...or Florida Territory? In our eighth installment in Martial Matters of the Seminole Wars, Jesse Marshall returns one more time. He explains in detail one more aspect of the 2nd Amendment: the purpose of a militia being “well regulated” and what exactly “well regulated” entails at the federal, state, and individual levels. How did this "regulation" ensure a capable militia could muster to defend the security of the free Florida territory during operations to remove Seminole from the peninsula. Jesse Marshall spells it out.      Living history interpreters portray Florida militia assembled for duty for territorial defense during the Seminole Wars, at Florida Pioneer Museum in Dade City. (Below) The militia would form and often assemble next to active duty "regular" troops. (Photos by Andrew Foster)     Militia mustered with and without uniforms -- and with and without fire arms. Jesse Marshall, as a living history interpreter, conducts an inspection of some citizen soldiers assembled at Founder's Day November 2021 at the Dade Battlefield Historic State Park. Below are some firearms they might have mustered with in the Florida Territory.      Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Fla.  Subscribe automatically to the Seminole Wars through your favorite podcast catcher and "like" us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube!  

SW0130 Martial Matters 7: Army Uses Duplicity, Settlers to Subdue Seminole When Decisive Battle Fails After the Battles of Okeechobee and Loxahatchee, the Seminole changed their strategy to avoid any confrontations that could potentially cause mass removal to Oklahoma Territory. In response, the U.S. Army adapted as well, and engaged non-kinetic means in an attempt to subdue Seminole in Florida.  Jesse Marshall returns to discuss how the Army employed parlay, bribery, cheating, and duplicity in its attempts to force the Seminole to capitulate. In the end, the Army gave up and left the task to the well-regulated militia -- often homesteaders with a stake on "free" land that they defended with a musket or rifle. This was codified in the Armed Occupation Act of 1842.    Courtesy Illustration by Adam Hook       The U.S. Army employed duplicity when it detained Osceola, who was carrying of a white flag to parlay. It also imported bloodhounds from Cuba in an attempt to sniff out the Seminole. It failed but not before public opinion turned on the service for using the dogs in this fashion. Popular illustrations of the time ridiculed the bloodhound use.              Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Fla.  Subscribe automatically to the Seminole Wars through your favorite podcast catcher and "like" us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube!  

SW0129 Martial Matters 6: Army Pursuit of Decisive Battle Proves Futile In the Second Seminole War, Army commanders had an expectation that if they could just fix the Seminole in battle, they could settle the conflict right then and there. The Seminole, however, had other ideas and greatly frustrated Army leaders in this endeavor. Considering this, what was it in the U.S. Army's past that gave these leaders the idea that they had the capability for waging and winning one decisive battle to end a war.   Jesse Marshall returns to provide the context and history.  Withlacoochee Abyss by Jackson Walker   Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Fla.  Subscribe automatically to the Seminole Wars through your favorite podcast catcher and "like" us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube!

     SW0128 Martial Matters 5: Great Scott! Feuding Commanders' Stubbornness Risked Catastrophe, Annihilation   In our fifth installment in Martial Matters of the Seminole Wars, Living Historian Jesse Marshall returns as we cast a critical eye on Feuding Commanders. In its early stages, it was clear the soldiers were fighting the Seminole. But, what was not so clear, is that the generals were fighting amongst themselves. In this episode, we will explore the animosity, anger, and asinine stubbornness that led two generals to undermine each other's actions, in such a way, that the entire campaign may have failed. This is the story of Generals Scott and Gaines.         It is also the story of Militia General Richard C. Call and regular Army General Duncan Clinch.       And, it is the story of regular Army colonel William S. Foster who put pride in his back pocket and supported whole heartedly the volunteer colonels appointed above him -- despite believing he should have had the job commanding troops. He served ably under capable Militia Volunteer Col. Persifor Smith from Louisiana.             Jackson Walker painting of Regular Army Col. William S. Foster in battle and an uncredited illustration of Militia Volunteer Col. Persifor Smith   Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Fla.  Subscribe automatically to the Seminole Wars through your favorite podcast catcher and "like" us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube!

Militia were not formally uniformed as were U. S. soldiers nor were they necessarily armed by the federal government or state or territory when mustered for service. Many brought their own arms as codified in the 2nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Living historians at Pioneer Museum of Florida in Dade City December 2021. Photos by Andrew Foster   In this fourth week of Martial Matters, we continue our discussion on the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution -- with Jesse Marshall. We do this by further examining the words of the amendment to understand what the words meant and the right secured as addressed in the Seminole Wars. Three levels of Federalism are involved. The right secures the Free State. Shall not be infringed means...shall not be infringed. Using law cases, commentary, and military and civil history, Jesse Marshall outlines the case for why the people chose to codify this as an enumerated right in the U.S. Constitution and what it would mean if there was no such amendment.            Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Fla.  Subscribe automatically to the Seminole Wars through your favorite podcast catcher and "like" us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube!

  Militiamen brought whatever arms they had to muster for use against the Seminole. This image is a  re-enactment at Fort Cooper State Park in Inverness, Fla. Photo by Andrew Foster   In this episode, our Martial Matters guest, Jesse Marshall, gives us the ins and outs on the right to keep and bear in territorial Florida during the Second Seminole War and how that included militia service. Specifically, we will examine how US citizens used that right for their own protection and for service in the militia when called upon.   Living Historian Jesse Marshall "inspects" a militia formation at Dade Battlefield Historic State Park in Bushnell, Fla. Various weapons a militia soldier might take to a muster include rifles, muskets and even swords.    Quality and motivation among militiamen varied.  Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Fla.  Subscribe automatically to the Seminole Wars through your favorite podcast catcher and "like" us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube!  

Welcome to Week Two: Martial Matters of the Seminole Wars with our long-time guest, Jesse Marshall.  In the 1830s, the politicians set the policy, often based on the law. The generals set the strategy. Officers set the tactics. And the troops? They focused on the Manual of Arms so they could fight as a coherent force. They practiced and drilled on everything associated with carrying, loading, and displaying their arms. They left out marksmanship firing, based on government parsimony and the muskets' inherent deficiencies that made target practice all-but futile.  In this episode, Jesse Marshall discusses mechanical and tactical differences between muskets and rifles. He explains why the Hall's breech-loading rifle was a stillborn game changer in the war. And he'll address the ultimate weapon in wars of that era -- the bayonet, and why it was so.      The Hall's 1818 breech-loading rifle was billed as a game change for combat precisely because of its breech-loading capabilities. Its offensive punch did not outweigh problems with extended field use in Florida. It did provide adequate defensive firepower to protect a fort or blockhouse. Courtesy images   Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Florida.  Subscribe automatically to the Seminole Wars through your favorite podcast catcher and "like" us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube!    

This week we begin a series, Martial Matters, to discuss various soldierly aspects of the Seminole Wars. When it came to waging war in the first half of the 19th century, the unresolved question focused on whether  the American Republic better defended and its interests advanced by a standing army or by militia called forth from the several states. The Congress established the Army and Navy, but, as for the militia, it pre-dated the Constitution and simply existed. The U.S. Constitution gave Congress power to provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia. But the militia always existed, whether Congress acted or not. No authorizing legislation, similar to that used for the Army and Navy, was required.   And so the battle began as to which entity should defend the nation and the Constitution for the short and long haul. It pitted the competing interests of those who favored a standing army versus those who preferred an well-regulated militia.  In this episode, autodidact and Seminole Wars historian Jesse Marshall explains why this distinction mattered when the Federal Government ordered the U.S. Army to forcibly remove the Seminole from the Florida Territory. Militia from Florida and volunteers from the several states aided the Army in carrying out this controversial task. Which was more effective in its operations? Which fielded better marksmen? Which employed better military tactics? Which had better all-around training. Which supplied their soldiers better? We'll find out.       Courtesy image   Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Florida.  Subscribe automatically to the Seminole Wars through your favorite podcast catcher and "like" us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube!

The 1500+ book collection comprises the cornerstone of research materials at the Frank Laumer Center for the Study of the Seminole Wars. Other items include hundreds of paper files that supported Frank Laumer's accounts of the Dade Battles, microfilm, tens of thousands of print and digital images, thousands of digital records, and assorted comic books and movie posters that put Seminole front and center.    At the time of his death in late 2019, Frank Laumer had amassed a library of roughly 350 Seminole Wars-related books. In addition, his compendium contained another 450 books on American presidents and American history related in some way to these wars. This included donations from the late Dr. John Mahon, author of The History of the Second Seminole War. These legacy books are the cornerstone for the Seminole Wars Foundation's Frank Laumer Center for the Study of the Seminole Wars. Since Frank Laumer's passing, and through aggressive, savvy canvassing, the Foundation has doubled its collection, to nearly 1,600 with some ties or references to the Seminole Wars. Some of the books are in-house purchases, but the vast majority are donations from members and friends of the Foundation, which provides a professional permanent home for the titles.  Today, the Frank Laumer Center features scores of non-fiction, biographical and historical books on the Seminole – including dozens more with Osceola as a central character. It also carries shelves of titles on the Seminole Wars, Black Seminoles, the U.S. Army of the time, crackers, pioneers, militia, and even Florida's environment. This library also carries many adventure novels -- featuring boys or girls avoiding, encountering, or working with Seminoles – as well as adult stories with a war setting that includes mystery and passion as key components. There are even several manuscripts of poetry with a Seminole Wars theme.     The Seminole Wars Foundation media collection includes a separate antiquarian book section with fragile or old volumes published during the Seminole Wars about those unfortunate conflicts. Open on display in this image (left) is a first edition of John T. Sprague's The Florida Wars. (Right) The war, although obscure, nevertheless resonates in American popular culture. This wall at the Foundation homestead sports posters and programs from a number of 1950s Hollywood productions that showcase Seminoles. On the half-book shelf below it are comic books that use Seminole in their story narratives.   In an interview with the Florida Historical Society, Frank Laumer himself said he wanted his collection of research files AND his books to be available for scholars to peruse. This is all well and good. The challenge, however, became cataloguing, labeling, and sorting the collection into a recognizable and standardized order so titles can be found and reviewed easily on the shelves. That is where three generations of librarians come in. Eileen Goodson and her adult daughter Erin Lewis have experience in Sumter County as librarians, media specialists, and school teachers. Erin's daughter Jayley, a high school student, mature and insightful beyond her years, brought online savvy and tenacity to the endeavor. Each brought special skills to this project and together they've created and refined a most valuable search tool for accessing this collection just as Frank Laumer desired. In this episode, Eileen, Erin, and Jayley describe their organizing process and reveal, because of the breadth and depth of this library -- what they learned about the Seminole Wars. They explain how they used LibraryThing.com, a social cataloging web application. It permits the Foundation to store and share its extensive book catalog for public inspection and review before they make an appointment to visit the Center in Bushnell to see the physical books themselves.     Jayley Lewis and Eileen Goodson crosscheck spreadsheet entries. Eileen said the library presents ample space to spread out. At Eileen's feet is the enormous Foundation floor logo that caught her eye (and in a good way).  (Right) Eileen Goodson and Erin Lewis discuss how best to line up spreadsheet catalogue numbers with the computer-printed multi-label sheet.  (Below left) Researchers can stretch out (or relax) on this work bench directly below a Jackson Walker painting, The Battle of Camp Izard. To its right is a display Halls rifle 1817, mentioned frequently in newspaper- and book-published accounts of the Florida War as they called it at the time. (Below right) By popular demand, the Foundation floor logo amidst the library shelves.       Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. He is a combat veteran and of the U.S. Army, serving in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, and Kosovo, and at the Pentagon after 9/11. A military historian, he holds masters degrees in Public History, Communication, and Homeland Security, and is a graduate of the US Army War College with an advanced degree in strategic studies. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Florida.  Subscribe automatically to the Seminole Wars through your favorite podcast catcher, such as iHeart or Stitcher or Spotify, DoubleTwist, or Pandora or Google podcasts or iTunes, or ... Check it out so you always get the latest episode without delay where and when you want it. Like us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube!  

State of the gravesite of Ransom Clark and (left) his father, Benjamin Clark in 1977 before the exhumation.    The trope that dead men tell no tales is demonstrably false -- at least, when applied to a document archive. Letters, diaries, and hand-written notes tell many tales.  This summer, two graduate students from the University of Central Florida learned this first hand when they paid a visit to the Frank Laumer Center for Seminole Wars Studies, at the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Florida.  The Public History interns learned one big tale here -- and a series of smaller ones -- from a long-dead soldier from the Second Seminole War and his more recently deceased muse. The soldier was Private Ransom Clark, one of only three soldier survivors of the Dade Battle of December 28, 1835. His muse was Frank Laumer, a land developer with a sideline as Seminole Wars historian and a dedicated chronicler of Clark's life and military service.   In his dogged research to tell Clark's story, the late Frank Laumer followed the trail wherever it took him. That led him to a cemetery in upstate New York and permission from Clark's descendants to see if he could verify the wounds that Clark said he sustained in the battle. How did Frank Laumer go about this? Well, he is no longer with us but his copious correspondence tell his tale for what he was looking for and why. In this episode, Lisa LaPenna and Olivia Aldrich, the two UCF Public History grad students, join us to discuss the revelations they found in the Foundation's archives about the exhumation of Ransom Clark. They tell what they learned about the Seminole Wars via Clark's story, and how they went about examining this scholarly first-hand source.      Frank Laumer helped with the exhumation.          Forensic Pathologist Amir A. Djavaheri exhumed and examined Clark's remains.  Skull of Ransom Clark. (below) One of dozens of photographic slide images of the process.                The late Frank Laumer wrote a novel about Ransom Clark, Nobody's Hero (and an unpublished sequel, Somebody's Hero). He petitioned the Veterans Administration to install a new military-standard headstone for Ransom Clark's grave. He also purchased the legacy headstone from Clark's descendants and donated it for display at the Tampa Bay History Center to help tell the tale of a Seminole War Survivor. At his request, Laumer, who died on the same day as Clark, November 18, requested his ashes be scattered on Clark's grave. His request was granted one year to the day after his 2019 death.      Olivia Aldrich and Lisa Lapenna, two public historian grad students from University of Central Florida in Orlando set out to catalog the paper archives of the Seminole Wars Foundation collection, in Bushnell. The archives consist of the research files of the late Frank Laumer, who dedicated more than half of his life to raising awareness of the Seminole Wars. They briefed their UCF Public History assessment panel via Zoom call in this screen capture.        Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. He is a combat veteran and of the U.S. Army, serving in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, and Kosovo, and at the Pentagon after 9/11. A military historian, he holds masters degrees in Public History, Communication, and Homeland Security, and is a graduate of the US Army War College with an advanced degree in strategic studies. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Florida.  Subscribe automatically to the Seminole Wars through your favorite podcast catcher, such as iHeart or Stitcher or Spotify, DoubleTwist, or Pandora or Google podcasts or iTunes, or ... Check it out so you always get the latest episode without delay where and when you want it. Like us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube!      

The Forlorn Hope of the Fort King Road and Do Your Best depict the Dade battle of Dec. 28, 1835.   In a previous episode, Florida-born artist Jackson Walker described how he makes his living with careful craftsmanship and a burning desire to paint the best and most historically accurate work of which he is capable. His paintings span the length of Florida history since first European contact. In this episode, Jackson Walker hones in on his Seminole War collection of paintings. What went through his mind as he gazed at an empty canvas to begin his big battle scenes, such as those at Okeechobee, Camp Izard, Prospect Bluff, Micanopy, the Wahoo Swamp, and of course that with Major Dade's Command? How has Jackson Walker depicted Seminole as subjects in their own right? What inspired his moving The Capture of Osceola canvas and what problem did The Gentry Line unexpectedly create? Jackson Walker tackles all these questions and more.   Jackson has been most generous with his time and paintings to the Seminole Wars Foundation, of which he is both past president and life member.     Seminole Wars scenes include Battle at Camp Izard (which hangs at the Seminole Wars Foundation homestead) and Withlacoochee Abyss.       Eyes to the Okeechobee (above) and The Americans at Barrancas portray Col. Zachary Taylor and Maj. Gen. Andrew Jackson.       The Capture of Osceola and the Return to Big Cypress display Jackson Walker's prowess in painting Seminole.      Jackson Walker's The Gentry Line, portraying Col. Richard Gentry and his Missouri Volunteers at the Battle of Okeechobee, stirred controversy for unexpected reasons.    See more from Jackson Walker at thejwstudio.com and find his wearable art at seminolewars.org       Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. He is a combat veteran and of the U.S. Army, serving in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, and Kosovo, and at the Pentagon after 9/11. A military historian, he holds masters degrees in Public History, Communication, and Homeland Security, and is a graduate of the US Army War College with an advanced degree in strategic studies. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Florida.  Subscribe automatically to the Seminole Wars through your favorite podcast catcher, such as iHeart or Stitcher or Spotify, DoubleTwist, or Pandora or Google podcasts or iTunes, or ... Check it out so you always get the latest episode without delay where and when you want it. Like us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube!

The Flower Hunter, naturalist and traveler William Bartram in late 18th century Florida.    Since the 1980's, native-born and self-taught artist Jackson Walker has gathered subjects from the long saga of Florida history. With thorough research, consulting with historians and experts on any given subject, and with painstaking attention to detail, he renders stories in his traditional realistic style. Jackson Walker pays particular attention to the Seminole Wars (1818-1858) through which his many depictions represent the terrible human cost of those conflicts. However, his interests range wider, leading him to tell Florida's history with paintings portraying Ponce de Leon's landing 500 years ago, the free black forts at Fort Mose and Prospect Bluff, and continuing through the 20th century.    In this episode, Jackson describes the process he employs to paint his stunning artwork. And he explains the concept behind his series of "wearable art" t-shirts featuring his most compelling canvases and available exclusively from the Seminole Wars Foundation at seminolewars.us  Jackson has been most generous with his time and paintings to the Seminole Wars Foundation, of which he is both past president and life member.     Jackson Walker's interests and subjects range wide and includes iconic Florida writers Zora Neale Hurston and Marjorie Rawlings (above) and a U-123 submarine attack off the Florida coast during World War II.     See more at his website: https://thejwstudio.com/       Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. He is a combat veteran and of the U.S. Army, serving in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, and Kosovo, and at the Pentagon after 9/11. A military historian, he holds masters degrees in Public History, Communication, and Homeland Security, and is a graduate of the US Army War College with an advanced degree in strategic studies. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Florida.  Subscribe automatically to the Seminole Wars through your favorite podcast catcher, such as iHeart or Stitcher or Spotify, DoubleTwist, or Pandora or Google podcasts or iTunes, or ... Check it out so you always get the latest episode without delay where and when you want it. Like us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube!    

  Sean Norman, acting director for the Gulf Archaeological Research Institute, returns to the podcast to discuss the history of Chucochatti and what GARI found during their excavations and survey.   More than 250 years ago, a displaced group of Muscogee-speaking Upper Creek Indians established a settlement just outside present-day Brooksville, located north of Tampa. Chucochatti, which means red house or red town, was a prosperous, self-sustaining Native community of deer hunters, traders, farmers and cattlemen. It was one of the first settlements of the Creek people in Florida. The town was so prosperous that Americans erroneously considered Chucochatti the seat of the Seminole Nation. With the American demand for removal, its chief, Blackdirt accepted federal payments and relocated his band to the Oklahoma Territory in 1836. During subsequent removal operations, the U.S. Army burned the abandoned down. Its location vanished into history. Marker image courtesy of Tampa Bay Tribune In May 2014, Seminole Tribe of Florida representatives cut a ribbon to unveil a roadside marker on the side of State Road 50 commemorating Chucochatti. In 2019, Brooksville City Council, seeking to pinpoint the exact location of the long-gone town, approved access to the city-owned, 56-acre Griffin Prairie. With support from tribal leaders, the institute and the Historic Hernando Preservation Society secured federal grant to delineate Chucochatti. Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. He is a combat veteran and of the U.S. Army, serving in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, and Kosovo, and at the Pentagon after 9/11. A military historian, he holds masters degrees in Public History, Communication, and Homeland Security, and is a graduate of the US Army War College with an advanced degree in strategic studies. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Florida.  Subscribe automatically to the Seminole Wars through your favorite podcast catcher, such as iHeart or Stitcher or Spotify, DoubleTwist, or Pandora or Google podcasts or iTunes, or ... Check it out so you always get the latest episode without delay where and when you want it. Like us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube!

Warriors from Bondage by Jackson Walker portraying the attack on the Fort at Prospect Bluff, or as the Americans called it, the Negro Fort. In previous episodes, we have examined the history and activities surrounding the Fort at Prospect Bluff and then its destruction and its grim aftermath. In this episode, published on the anniversary of the fort's destruction, July 27, Historian Dale Cox returns to give us the rest of the story on many of the key figures involved. While the Americans executed the fort's leaders, how did Abraham fare? What became of the survivors? Who was the Forbes agent who treated the maroons whom the Americans had deemed too injured to treat. Who was the Coweta leader who captured some 100 maroons outside the fort? What was the brutal fate that awaited the British officer who removed any remaining maroons in the fort's vicinity to a Black Seminole town further inside Florida?  What does a long overlooked letter from Lt. Col. Duncan Clinch tell us about American intentions for the self-liberated blacks within Spanish Florida's borders? And who was Mary Ashley, a black maroon who hoisted the British flag each morning, helping with firing artillery, and who was buried in dirt by the explosion? She lived a harrowing life afterwards but was redeemed some years later by the British officer responsible for overseeing the fort's operations. Dale Cox discusses all this and more.   A British flag flies over the former grounds of the British (or Negro) fort at Prospect Bluff. A marker on site details the devastation. Below, the British evacuated blast survivors to Nero's Fort on Suwannee River.    American officers submitted an inventory of the stores captured from what they dubbed the Negro Fort. Secretary of War John C. Calhoun submitted a report to the Congress on the battle at Negro Fort.  Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. He is a combat veteran and of the U.S. Army, serving in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, and Kosovo, and at the Pentagon after 9/11. A military historian, he holds masters degrees in Public History, Communication, and Homeland Security, and is a graduate of the US Army War College with an advanced degree in strategic studies. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Florida.  Subscribe automatically to the Seminole Wars through your favorite podcast catcher, such as iHeart or Stitcher or Spotify, DoubleTwist, or Pandora or Google podcasts or iTunes, or ... Check it out so you always get the latest episode without delay where and when you want it. Like us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube!

In a previous podcast, Historian Dale Cox set the stage for the American attack on the Fort at Prospect Bluff. In this episode, Dale recalls the actual determined American campaign and the fort's stubborn resistance between July 10 and July 27, 1816. This was not rag-tag defense by desperate self-liberated former slaves. These were well-trained British colonial marines who were black. Some indeed were former slaves, but all considered themselves free men and women. The fort's defense was an all-hands operation with the wives and children filling bags with gun powder that the marines used to fire artillery rounds that kept the Americans at bay on the Apalachicola River in Spanish Florida. The marines successfully warded off continued American naval barrages until the Americans' very last shot, when everything changed in a flash. Reenactors portray British Colonial Marines of the 1816 era.   When open, visitors can walk the grounds of the fort. The National Park Service teamed with the US Forest Service to conduct a non-invasive above-ground survey of the fort's former confines. (Below) Pompey Fixico, a Seminole Maroon descendant from Los Angeles, spoke at the 200th Commemoration of the Battle of the Fort at Prospect Bluff, in 2016.  Amidst the rubble, the Americans landed unopposed at the fort at Prospect Bluff. Authorities interviewed and executed some. And, regardless of previous manumission, the Americans condemned free, self-liberated maroons back into slavery, whether that was in the United States or in Spanish Florida. A few months later, in the late fall of 1816, the British finally returned, only to find the fort destroyed and its occupants dead or re-enslaved. Then-Captain Woodbine picked up stragglers who had fled into the woods after the explosion. He resettled them at Nero's Town on the Suwannee River, still, in Spanish Florida.   The Secretary of War forwarded to Congress a report on the Destruction of the Negro Fort, wholly "justifying" US action in the Spanish Florida territory, based on military reports.  Dale Cox examines the fighting, the explosion, and the grim aftermath for the fort's defenders. TwoEggTV produced a video feature that can be used as a supplement to this podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Uq8tl0tZBc   Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. He is a combat veteran and of the U.S. Army, serving in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, and Kosovo, and at the Pentagon after 9/11. A military historian, he holds masters degrees in Public History, Communication, and Homeland Security, and is a graduate of the US Army War College with an advanced degree in strategic studies. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Florida.  Subscribe automatically to the Seminole Wars through your favorite podcast catcher, such as iHeart or Stitcher or Spotify, DoubleTwist, or Pandora or Google podcasts or iTunes, or ... Check it out so you always get the latest episode without delay where and when you want it. Like us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube!

  In July 1816, the so-called year without a summer, the U.S. military made war on an Apalachicola River outpost in Spanish Florida. It wasn't the Spanish who were attacked, however. It wasn't their fort. It also wasn't the British who were attacked. The Treaty of Ghent ended the US war with Britain the previous year. So who was in this Fort at Prospect Bluff, which stood in defense and defiance against any intruders? Historian Dale Cox author of, appropriately enough The Fort at Prospect Bluff, returns to the Seminole Wars podcast to explain who was in the fort and why the U.S. government viewed it as a threat, even though it operated in internationally recognized Spanish territory. Note a sketch of the area (above) versus an above-ground LIDAR view of the outline today.   Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. He is a combat veteran and of the U.S. Army, serving in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, and Kosovo, and at the Pentagon after 9/11. A military historian, he holds masters degrees in Public History, Communication, and Homeland Security, and is a graduate of the US Army War College with an advanced degree in strategic studies. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Florida.  Subscribe automatically to the Seminole Wars through your favorite podcast catcher, such as iHeart or Stitcher or Spotify, DoubleTwist, or Pandora or Google podcasts or iTunes, or ... Check it out so you always get the latest episode without delay where and when you want it. Like us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube!  

David Fowler published five volumes taking Florida's U.S. history from pre-territorial to territorial to statehood.    It is a reporter's conceit that journalism is the so-called first draft of history. When it comes to the Seminole Wars, it takes some digging into that first draft to determine what information people read at the time of newspaper publication. Chris Kimball has scourged the pages of the Army-Navy Chronicle to identify all references to the Seminole Wars. That was a great task but it was somewhat easier in that the ANC concerned itself with military news. But an even more monumental task comes from examining what other newspapers of the era with a “national” reach reported. Take the Niles Weekly Register. The NWR was a general interest publication that included military news. A collection of just the Florida news comes from scholar David Fowler's five (!) volume Niles' Florida.  Niles' Florida provides a comprehensive analysis of the dramatic and, often times, violent history of Florida, beginning with the role it played in the War of 1812, moving through an in-depth view of the Seminole Indian wars, and culminating with the admission of Florida into the American Union. Niles' Florida contains numerous anecdotes and narratives on events that played a key role in the transition of a wild territory, as described by Andrew Jackson, to become 27th state in our American Union. Detailed information is available on the activities of the Seminole Indians, Africans, British, Spanish, and Americans. Living the experiences of Florida's birth through the eyes of the people who were there, is the best history lesson you may ever get. This project began for David Fowler when he visited an Indian mount in Fort Walton Beach, Florida and picked up a pamphlet that referenced a Black Seminole called Abraham, sense keeper for Micanopy. He was intrigued by this Abraham and sought to find more; David had caught the research bug. In due time, he volunteered for a task of not only identifying but also republishing every single article or reference about Abraham as presented in the Niles Weekly Register. He expanded it to cover all of Florida history referenced in the Register, including great coverage of the long Seminole Wars.   Newspaper illustration from a photograph of Abraham In a series of volumes, David comprehensively traces and recovers what then-contemporary readers learned in real time about the progress of those regrettable conflicts. He combined his professions as a reporter, a librarian, and a historian to paint a unique picture of the birth and development of the Sunshine State. Its history unfolds like current events leading readers to turn the pages and discover even more. David Fowler joins us to discuss the monumental undertaking. Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. He is a combat veteran and of the U.S. Army, serving in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, and Kosovo, and at the Pentagon after 9/11. A military historian, he holds masters degrees in Public History, Communication, and Homeland Security, and is a graduate of the US Army War College with an advanced degree in strategic studies. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Florida.  Subscribe automatically to the Seminole Wars through your favorite podcast catcher, such as iHeart or Stitcher or Spotify, DoubleTwist, or Pandora or Google podcasts or iTunes, or ... Check it out so you always get the latest episode without delay where and when you want it. Like us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube!

Marines in the Second Seminole War served on land at and around Fort Foster in central Florida as well as in the Everglades where some dubbed them as swamp sailors.  Visitors on the Fourth of July, American independence day, call at the Tampa Bay History Center to learn more about our heritage. Built on the site of the old Fort Brooke military reservation, the center invites distinguished guests to present on a number of topics. Marine Living Historian Dave Ekardt is one of them. He has been a perennial at the center over the years, presenting talks and demonstrations about the Marines in the Second Seminole War. He also presents at various recreated forts and commemorative battle events.   Dave Ekardt in a summer and temperate U.S. Marine Corps uniform from 1830s.  He joins us today to share how in seven years of war, the Marines in Florida suffered nary a blemish to their reputation during their tour of duty. While an often futile assignment for the Army, Marines made the best of their presence and demonstrated without a doubt their great value to the nation's leaders when the nation needed them for pressing business. Dave shares stories and anecdotes about the Marines contributions to the Second Creek and Seminole Wars. The old man of the Marines, Commandant Archibald Henderson, proved a daring, brash, brave, and professional in running the Corps and in bringing them to Florida. Dave examines that deployment, as well as the Marines' uniforms and chow, and how his natural curiosity helped him to acquire invaluable records on Marines. These covered the Seminole War but they also provided slices of life about Marines who served later, such as in Nicaragua. Dave pulled information from a variety of resources to eventually pen a book on that Marine's service there. Dave Ekardt has published three non-fiction books relating to the the Marines in U.S. military history.  Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. He is a combat veteran and of the U.S. Army, serving in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, and Kosovo, and at the Pentagon after 9/11. A military historian, he holds masters degrees in Public History, Communication, and Homeland Security, and is a graduate of the US Army War College with an advanced degree in strategic studies. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Florida.  Subscribe automatically to the Seminole Wars through your favorite podcast catcher, such as iHeart or Stitcher or Spotify, DoubleTwist, or Pandora or Google podcasts or iTunes, or ... Check it out so you always get the latest episode without delay where and when you want it. Like us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube!

Regular Army soldiers were seen as professional in all manners of appearance and countenance. In 1835, with the Federal Government tasked the U.S. Army to forcibly remove the Seminole from the Florida Territory, militia from Florida and volunteers from the several states, aided the regular Army in carrying out this controversial task. In this episode we will assess how the militia, volunteers, and regular Army performed.  Jesse Marshall returns to talk with us about the militia and the regular Army in the Second Seminole War. He explains what it took to field, equip, train, and employ them in combat action.  In contrast to the regular Army, popular representations of the militia as mustered were often less than flattering to the militia who were mustering. (above and below).  Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. He is a combat veteran and of the U.S. Army, serving in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, and Kosovo, and at the Pentagon after 9/11. A military historian, he holds masters degrees in Public History, Communication, and Homeland Security, and is a graduate of the US Army War College with an advanced degree in strategic studies. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Florida.  Subscribe automatically to the Seminole Wars through your favorite podcast catcher, such as iHeart or Stitcher or Spotify, DoubleTwist, or Pandora or Google podcasts or iTunes, or ... Check it out so you always get the latest episode without delay where and when you want it. Like us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube!

Pace Ringo Starr, confirmation of the site of the Okeechobee Battlefield did not come easy. By 1985, local memory was hazy, having been handed down for several generations from 1837. In addition, hand-drawn maps from various sources contemporary to the battle did not necessarily match each other or the actual geographic features they represented, in whole or in part. Consultants hired by land developers literally dug up dry holes through a subsurface that should have yielded artifacts from the clash. Oh, and the developers didn't want any pesky outside archaeologists nosing around the property to prove them wrong and hold up, well, land development. Enter Bob Carr and Bill Steele on one end. We've podcasted with Bill Steele, who shared his recollections. On the other end was Steve Carr, no relation to Bob. The Lake Worth, Florida-native knew something was amiss. The self-described History Hunter put on his thinking cap to assess the anomaly of the land yielding no artifacts on a site that had to be the battlefield. Steve learned that the overall battlefield, while swampy in 1837, was many decades later covered with up to five-feet of dirt to fill in the swamp and let cattle graze. It is no wonder a shovel test showed no presence, the consultants were not digging deep enough because they did not know to suspect anything so far underneath. When the development began, excavation began and bulldozers soon carved out land fill that reached the level of battle artifacts. Dumped in a pile on public land – and out of legal recourse from the developer – Steve dug into the accumulating landfill hills to release the mountain of artifacts confirming through physical presence that this was indeed the battlefield. The precise context was lost but Steve salvaged the artifacts and since he witnessed the dirt transported from the battlefield, he knew he could associate anything he found with that site.   A sample of artifacts on display at the annual reenactment of the battle of Okeechobee.   In this episode, Steve Carr joins us to tell how he used those artifacts to recover an important site and battle from the national memory hole. Steve was an excellent candidate to do this. He studied archeology with world famous D Porter Dawson at the University of Georgia in 1978. In a stint with the U.S. Army, Steve served with both the 5th Special Forces and 24th Infantry Divisions, making three deployments to Central America. Palm Beach County was fortunate to enjoy his services as a paramedic for 27 years. In a sense, this was most apropo. Steve patched up people as a paramedic and he patched up our understanding of the Okeechobee Battlefield with his salvage archaeology efforts. Now, despite his primary avocation, Steve continued to pursue his archaeological interests on the side, as demonstrated with his mid-1980s work at Okeechobee. In 1993, he started salvage archeology projects with Preserving Our Heritage director Mike Crane. He has conducted numerous mound, ceramic, and civil war site recovery projects. And for our specific interest, he has surveyed or examined 24 Seminole Wars battle sites, including Okeechobee and also the Locha Hatchie surveys. He shared what he discovered during his 17 years teaching pioneer history at Barry University.       Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. He is a combat veteran and of the U.S. Army, serving in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, and Kosovo, and at the Pentagon after 9/11. A military historian, he holds masters degrees in Public History, Communication, and Homeland Security, and is a graduate of the US Army War College with an advanced degree in strategic studies. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Florida.  Subscribe automatically to the Seminole Wars through your favorite podcast catcher, such as iHeart or Stitcher or Spotify, DoubleTwist, or Pandora or Google podcasts or iTunes, or ... Check it out so you always get the latest episode without delay where and when you want it. Like us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube!

  We've known of the Okeechobee Battle and its site since that encounter on Christmas Day 1837, near that great lake's northern shore in the southern Florida peninsula. But then, we forgot. We forgot the battle and we forgot the site, other than a marker from the Daughters of the American Revolution. Instead, by the 1980s, we knew the vicinity of the battle but didn't have any artifacts or other archaeological evidence to definitively say the battlefield was there. When a housing developer canvassed the area in 1985, the consultants hired came up with “dry holes.” Still, a handful of history hunters and friends of the site and event, pulled out their own shovels – and smarts – to settle the matter. One of those stalwarts is Willard S. Steele, or Bill as we know him. He researched and rushed out a book on the Battle of Okeechobee in 1985, so the public could be informed better about the battle and why the site deserved to be preserved. Bill's work has centered around many of the most significant battle sites and villages associated with the history of the Seminole Tribe of Florida. As a contractor for the Archaeological and Historical Conservancy from 1982 to 2012, he scoured the area for signs of the battle and then performed gumshoe research work by identifying contemporary accounts of the battle so he could pinpoint locations on the actual battlefield.  At the roughly the same time, Bill managed operations at History Miami from 1984 to 1990.  In 2002 the Seminole Tribe of Florida hired Bill as their tribal Archivist and, shortly thereafter, appointed him as the Tribal Historic Preservation Officer, a position he held for 10 years. Even after 35 years and more on the case, Bill continues to discover new facets of the battle and the battlefield. He joins us to discuss all of this. Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. He is a combat veteran and of the U.S. Army, serving in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, and Kosovo, and at the Pentagon after 9/11. A military historian, he holds masters degrees in Public History, Communication, and Homeland Security, and is a graduate of the US Army War College with an advanced degree in strategic studies. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Florida.  Subscribe automatically to the Seminole Wars through your favorite podcast catcher, such as iHeart or Stitcher or Spotify, DoubleTwist, or Pandora or Google podcasts or iTunes, or ... Check it out so you always get the latest episode without delay where and when you want it. Like us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube!

  This week we look at the replica Fort Foster -- the history of the original fort and the story of how its replica was built. Today, the fort is closed to the public because of serious maintenance concerns with the wooden platform along its inside walls. In this episode, Louie Bears Heart, a re-enactor of Seminole life [and in his day job, Hillsborough County park ranger] brings the Fort Foster story to life. He also reminds visitors that if they want to help with the restoration of Fort Foster, an account is available for donations: Hillsborough River State Park C/O HRSP Preservation Society 15402 US-301 N Thonotosassa, FL 33592     Louie Bears Heart      This platform inside the fort requires maintenance to ensure the safety of visitors. (Photos by Andrew Foster)       Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. He is a combat veteran and of the U.S. Army, serving in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, and Kosovo, and at the Pentagon after 9/11. A military historian, he holds masters degrees in Public History, Communication, and Homeland Security, and is a graduate of the US Army War College with an advanced degree in strategic studies. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Florida.  Subscribe automatically to the Seminole Wars through your favorite podcast catcher, such as iHeart or Stitcher or Spotify, DoubleTwist, or Pandora or Google podcasts or iTunes, or ... Check it out so you always get the latest episode without delay where and when you want it. Like us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube!

  We cover a great deal of terra firma in this podcast, but not so much as on of the rivers and streams of the Panhandle and Florida peninsula along with the outlying islands. These bodies of water had an outsized impact on the conduct and campaigning of the Seminole Wars. As fortune has it, Doug Alderson has that covered for us. He podcasted with us previously about his Seminole Trail of Florida smart travel guide. He returns this week to connect river composition and range in its various arteries, veins and cataracts, to use by Seminoles and Soldiers in this long conflict. In Florida's Rivers: A Celebration of Over 40 of the Sunshine State's Dynamic Waterways, Doug examines the big rivers, the clear streams and the muddy waters of Florida.   In Florida's Rivers: A Celebration of Over 40 of the Sunshine State's Dynamic Waterways, Doug examines the big rivers, the clear streams and the muddy outcrops. In this podcast, he takes us to the rivers that featured so prominently in this war. We discuss the Apalachicola River and the hot shot that destroyed the Negro Fort at Prospect Bluff. We consider the Hillsborough River, where Major Dade and his men forded the waters after Seminole burned the bridge across its span, and travel to the peninsula's tip to where Colonel Harney encountered Spanish Seminole Indians at the Miami River. He does this and still finds time to cover battles and skirmishes for most everything else in between. Then, Doug teases a look at the Florida coastline for further exploration on this topic.   Courtesy photos from Doug Alderson   Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. He is a combat veteran and of the U.S. Army, serving in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, and Kosovo, and at the Pentagon after 9/11. A military historian, he holds masters degrees in Public History, Communication, and Homeland Security, and is a graduate of the US Army War College with an advanced degree in strategic studies. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Florida.  Subscribe automatically to the Seminole Wars through your favorite podcast catcher, such as iHeart or Stitcher or Spotify, DoubleTwist, or Pandora or Google podcasts or iTunes, or ... Check it out so you always get the latest episode without delay where and when you want it. Like us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube!