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. 

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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. 

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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).

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. 

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  Above, Andrew Foster icon image used for first two years on the Seminole Wars podbean splash page. Podcast Mission Control.    

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. 

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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. 

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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. 

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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. 

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   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. 

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. 

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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. 

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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. 

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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. 

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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. 

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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. 

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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. 

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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. 

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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. 

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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. 

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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. 

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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. 

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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. 

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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. 

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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. 

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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. 

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  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. 

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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. 

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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. 

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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. 

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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

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. 

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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. 

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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. 

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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. 

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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. 

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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. 

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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. 

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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. 

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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. 

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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!

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!

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:

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!

One hundred eight-five years ago, at Camp Monroe, the Seminole nearly scored a second rout of soldiers akin in decisiveness to the Dade Battle of late December 1835. Nearly. But the fierce battle on February 8, 1837, produced a more favorable outcome to the Army.  The Seminoles amassed a huge armed contingent to attack the U.S. encampment on Lake Monroe. It was a close-run battle. Had the troops obeyed their commander to replace their flints with wooden chips for training purposes the next day, had the troops NOT obeyed their commander to construct a breastworks the day before, had the men shown less discipline in their firing, had an Army lieutenant not manned a six-pound gun on a nearby Navy riverboat, the day might have belonged to the Seminole.

Instead, the U.S. Army repulsed the Seminole for one of its rare clear-cut victories in the Second Seminole War. The Museum of Seminole County History is commemorating the 185th anniversary of the Battle of Camp Monroe. Bennett Lloyd, museum director described the commemoration for us in a previous podcast. In this podcast, he rejoins to narrate a chronology of the battle and how the Army fought off the Seminole advance.

(Above) The innovative Cochran Repeating Turret Gun kept Seminole at bay in this battle. But design flaws causing an accidental chain-firing from all chambers with one pull of the trigger led the Army to adopt the Colt revolving chamber gun over the repeating turret gun. (Below) Three books and pamphlets cover the battle and forts at Lake Monroe: Camp Monroe, Camp Mellon, Fort Mellon. 

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!

Paul Westermeyer, Historian with Marine Corps University in Quantico, Virginia, returns for the second episode of our two-part program on the Marines in the Seminoles Wars. The Marines Corps suffered from a contentious relationship with President Andrew Jackson, who wanted the Corps absorbed into the U.S. Army. A timely suggestion from the Marine Corps Commandant, A. Henderson, led to Marines employment on land in the Second Creek and Seminole Wars. and "firmly" on Florida swamp in the Second Seminole War. The views Paul Westermeyer presents are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of any government organization.

Courtesy art (left) and Don Troiani art (right) The Marines wore a blue uniform but in Florida were more likely to don the white summer dress the Corps offered. This was a more bearable uniform for duty in the swamps and in the humid environment. 

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 earned grudging respect from the British for their defense of the Capitol in the Battle of Bladensburg, Md., in 1814.

We know from the Marine Corps Hymn that the Corps has traveled to the hall of Montezuma and the shores of Tripoli. Many of our listeners may not know that the Marines also sloshed around in the swamps of Florida in the Seminole Wars. Joining us for this episode, the first of two parts, is Paul Westermeyer, historian at Marine Corps University in Quantico, Virginia. He weaves the story of how the Marine Corps established a permanent institutional footing after a false start in the Revolutionary War. The Marines then performed heroically at sea and on land in the Barbary Pirate Wars and the War of 1812. They came ashore again along the gulf coast in the First Seminole War. Paul Westermeyer returns for the second part of this podcast series to look at the Marines in the Second Creek and Seminole Wars. The views Paul Westermeyer presents are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of any government organization. 

Marines performed heroically at sea aboard U.S. Navy frigates, helping capture prize ships and counter the British navy's offensive operations off American coasts. Future Marine Corps Commandant Archibald Henderson served with distinction aboard the U.S.S. Constitution in the War of 1812. 

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!

Women clustered around a laundry station for bleaching clothing in potash. Mia Goodwell, Hailey Orr, Brigitte Stephenson, Jaime Svendsen

Pioneer life was tough all around. In Florida in the 1830s and 40s, it was doubly hard because the US Government was at war with the Seminole Indians and the pioneers lived on the same grounds as the Seminole. Eventually the soldiers left and the pioneers themselves were called upon to defend their lands and themselves. Defending the home fell to the matriarch back on the homestead.

That became just one more task for the women of the time. In addition, they cooked and cleaned and spun and sewed and washed and raised the children. How did they do it? What did they wear and why? And how did they keep the family intact when a drunken husband threatened to drink all their savings away. Some took to the good book. Others joined temperance movements, the 1830s being the time of the greatest per capita consumption of alcohol in the nation’s history.

Joining us to explain the role of women in Florida pioneer society is Brigitte Stephenson, curator of the City of Sanford Museum. She is an expert in clothing and social mores of the era.

Brigitte Stephenson, Sanford Museum Curator

Above, shivering under a blanket by the campfire. Darya Greenstone, Mia Goodwell. Below, most laundresses in this period were the wives of soldiers deployed in service. Brian and Brenda Burback

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. 

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A nagging legacy of the Seminole Wars has been the poor educational opportunities available to tribal members on and off the reservation. That’s changing today. The Seminole Tribe of Florida has made it official. Its Center for Student Success and Services, or CSSS has renamed itself to more clearly show its intent. Hence, the tribe’s CSSS is now simply the Education Department. More customer-service oriented and data-driven than previously, the department is striving to develop and maintain a trust relationship within the Seminole Tribe community. This can be difficult to establish or maintain because seeking assistance or guidance from non-tribal members can be off-putting. More tribal members are being hired to staff the department and all of its members are having conversations with tribal members about educational opportunities through face-to-face engagements. This was difficult during the Covid-19 pandemic but is now a high priority for the department as the tribe emerges.

The Education Department serves about 900 students in K-12; 210 in higher education; 200 are in tutoring programs; and about a dozen are currently under the Tribal Professional Development (TPD) umbrella. The department itself has about 50 staff members.

The Department’s quality assurance analyst, tribal member and Black Seminole Rollie Gilliam III, is overseeing overreach for staff to meet and greet tribal families with information about programs and services the tribe makes available. Outreach, Gilliam states, is more than handing out scholarship applications.

Rollie Gilliam III joins us this week to discuss how the department is managing its outreach, what programs are available to members, and what it means to him to be a black Seminole from Fort Pierce, Florida, within the Seminole Tribe of Florida as he ensures quality in the programs used to educate all members of the tribe.

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. 

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The Florida coastline has long been dotted with concrete or stone behemoths pointing to the sea to protect a designated port or area. These are a legacy of Old Spanish and Modern American times. In between, there are the wooden forts from the territorial and early U.S. statehood period in Florida. These were Army forts and they sprouted up quickly from the landscape before quickly wilting when no longer needed. Today, replica forts replace some of these but overall the forts are gone and even their former locations are suspect.

In this episode, the author of Florida Forts: On the Edge of Empire, Zach Zacharias, presents a stirring tale of some of the state’s great fortifications still standing, everything from Pensacola to the Dry Tortugas. How many forts?, you ask. Zach tells us that Florida had approximately 400 forts! His book, blessedly, details only the roughly 13 forts you can still visit as a tourist. Zach is the Senior Curator of Education and History at the Museum of Arts and Sciences in Daytona Beach, Florida and has taught Florida history topics for over 25 years.

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. 

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Jake Tiger is featured on the cover of a new book on the Seminole for school-age children. 

The Seminole Wars podcast goes West today. We cover Seminole resistance to removal, of course. But we owe it to the memory of those Seminole removed to keep their story alive. For many, that story continues in Oklahoma. What became of those Seminoles? How are they faring today? How do they maintain their unique cultural identity?

Joining us is Jake Tiger. Jake is a cultural outreach specialist for the Seminole Nation in Wewoka, Oklahoma. He hand-sews traditional Seminole garments and wears them to public events to promote Seminole culture and to remind everyone the Seminole are still around. He has the heart of a true living historian, willing to speak to even only one person at an event if it furthers awareness of the Seminole. Usually, of course, he speaks to many, many more. He is young, full of charisma, and he is our guest 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!

To be a pirate it almost goes without saying that one must be flamboyant and charismatic – at least if one is the captain of the swashbuckling enterprise. In the pre-Seminole Wars era, few were as flamboyant as William Augustus Bowles. He was a pirate, a leader, and an organizer. He was a charming con man who earned the ears of leading Seminole and Creek leaders and their bands.

This April 1 and 2 at Three Rivers State Park, the first Pirate and Heritage Festival is being held near the city of Sneads, Florida. To produce this family-friendly spectacle, the park teamed up with the Jackson County Tourist Development Council, the city of Sneads, and Dale and Rachael Cox’s TwoEggTV.

The park overlooks beautiful (and appropriately named) Lake Seminole. Families will learn the fascinating history of pirates in Sneads. Who knew, or even suspected, after all? Then they can witness a boat regatta, stare into an Aux Arc (pronounced Ozark) keel boat, inspect antique firearms and weapons, attend lectures and living history presentations, and see a live living history demonstration. There is even a “dress like a pirate contest” involved. And, of course, the festival brings to life the story of William Augustus Bowles, the loveable rogue with the big ambitions for Seminole and Creek Indians.

Joining us to promote the event and explain the details is historian Dale Cox, author of numerous books on the 1st Seminole War and the unpleasantness that preceded it in the Florida panhandle region prior to Spanish cessation of the land to the United States in 1819.

(Above) William Augustus Bowles was a colorful character. Dale Cox portrays colorful characters at living history events.

(Above) Darrel Hager being an American from the early 1800s. (Below)  Farris Powell aka Blue Heron portrays Seminole leader Thomas Perryman with Bowles State of Miccosukee flag. 

(Above) Rachael Conrad Cox on the Aux Arc (pronounced Ozark) Keelboat with Ed and another friend. 

(Below) Rachael Conrad Cox with Three Rivers State Park officials Jessy Kinnett (Three Rivers Park Service Specialist), Philip Skyckboer (Three Rivers Park Manager) and Sneads City Manager Lee Gardner, who are thrilled to showcase their park at this event. 

Antonio Wright, portrays a member of Bowles' crew. Dale Cox portrays a Native American. (Courtesy photos)

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!

I invoke host’s privilege this week to invite Steve Rinck, President of the Seminole Wars Foundation, to discuss the many things the Foundation is doing to raise awareness of the Seminole Wars. The Foundation does this by, among other endeavors, publishing printed materials and, yes, digital ones as well  online with this podcast.

But the Foundation is much more than that. The not-for-profit Foundation is operated for charitable, educational, and civic purposes. Steve, a retired educator and long-time Seminole Wars living historian and aficionado, informs us of just what the Seminole Wars Foundation is all about – and how listeners can join our circle to march with us.

Most immediately, Steve explains the Convocation of Seminole Wars Historians coming up in Jupiter April 1-2-3. Dick Kazmar spoke with us about the Convocation. Steve brings us to the history of the convocation and what the Foundation aims to achieve by holding them every other year.

Seminole Wars Foundation supports reenactments, such as Battle of Okeechobee. SWF works with reenactors to preserve historical memory of the battles and those who fought in them (below, photo by Andrew Foster)

Steve Rinck (above) often appears as a 1920s citizen at the time the Dade Battlefield Historic State Park was acquired by Florida.  Debbie Harper, Foundation treasurer, discusses the Foundation's "wearable art" tshirt featuring images painted by Jackson Walker. (Photo by Andrew Foster)

Foundation members received a discount on books purchased from the Foundation Book store at seminolewars.org

Membership levels are listed 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!

Pompey Fixico, president of the Semiroon Historical Society, is an extraordinary man. One-time amateur boxer and actor, the LA-based Pompey only learned of his Black Seminole Maroon descendant status at the age of 52. Pompey counts Abraham and Bowlegs as forebears. His family fought battles in Oklahoma when the U.S. Civil War broke out. He has documented his lineage on the Dawes Rolls. When he learned of his heritage, which his mother had hidden from him all his life, he vowed to make 300 appearances to raise awareness of Black Seminole Maroons in America.

The Black Seminole descendants who gather in Brackettville, Texas each year, have welcomed Pompey into their fold. He has spoken around the nation, attended the United Nations as a Seminole Maroon member of a Multi-National Maroon Delegation, and today, the now 74-year-old Pompey speaks to us…about his heritage, about his forebears, and about his own story in seeking to spread recognition and harmony as a Black Seminole Maroon descendant.

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 the spring of 1836, U.S. Army Major General Winfield Scott unleashed his three-prong campaign to subdue Seminole, end the war, and ship the defiant tribe to the Oklahoma territory. The task of erecting a blockhouse and pickets for defense and observation fell to Georgia Volunteer Major, Mark Anthony Cooper. He built his namesake fortification in the Cove of the Withlacoochee River. The square palisade fort included two redoubts and a two-story blockhouse with a 6-pounder cannon mounted in it. The post was used as an observation and dispatch site, a horse depot, a scouting post, a makeshift infirmary, a watering hole – and a safe spot from which Cooper’s militiamen could venture outside the main gate to repulse the Seminole siege.

Under constant attack for more than two weeks, Major Cooper’s command held its defensive position. It turned out to be the longest single continual battle of Scott’s 1836 campaign.

On March 12 and 13, Fort Cooper State Park holds its annual Fort Cooper Days to commemorate this engagement. The long siege is condensed into a battle spectacle demonstrated twice each weekend day. Living historians – militia and Seminole -- demonstrate their wares and crafts and costumed attires. The park is located near Inverness, Florida.

Joining us to recount a bit of the battle and how the park is commemorating it is Jeanne Messersmith. Jeanne is the treasurer for The Friends of Fort Cooper. The Friends is a citizen support organization that aids the park rangers in carrying out their mission in presenting the park in a family friendly setting with historical accuracy.

Fort Cooper Days 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!

This is NOT a trick question. What do you call a Convocation of Seminole Wars Historians in Jupiter Florida in 2022? One word: Historic

The Chief of Seminole Nation, Louis Johnson, is traveling from Oklahoma to Florida to address the gathering. As with members of the Seminole and Miccosukee Tribes still in Florida, his people fought in the Jupiter vicinity in early 1838, two battles on the Loxahatchee River. It is unlikely that any of them once removed ever returned. In April, the convocation welcomes him and his party – including a Seminole Nation color guard – to the site with open arms and a fond embrace.

Chief Johnson’s address may be the highlight of the 3rd biennial Convocation of Seminole Wars Historians but his is not the only one of note. Convocation organizer Dick Kazmar, board member of the Loxahatchee Battlefield Preservationists or L-B-P, has arranged a full-schedule of intriguing speakers and activities, including a battlefield tour.

A former LBP president, Dick Kazmar brings many years of knowledge and leadership to the task. He has been a battlefield docent and has also been spotted a few times portraying Maj. Gen. Thomas Sydney Jesup in full regalia. The former aerospace engineer with Pratt and Whitney brings the type of smarts one would expect to the task of preserving the Loxahatchee Battlefield and the memory of the battles fought here and organizing a convocation of historians who study this episode..

In this episode, he shares the background on the convocation, what is on the schedule, and reminds us that you don’t have to be a credential academic historian to attend. Listen in on how you dear listeners can attend.

Register here: https://loxahatcheebattlefield.com/2022-convocation

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 clash of arms is arguably the biggest battle of the Second Seminole War. It made a hero of commander, Colonel, later general, Zachary Taylor. The Army, the government, and the American people, goaded by newspapers, viewed it as a great victory over the Seminoles. Others, however, viewed it as a wash since the Seminoles did successfully evacuate both their families and themselves before escaping into the Everglades to fight another day.

We will examine this battle itself in a later episode. In THIS episode, however, we are joined by Dowling Watford, the mayor of the City of Okeechobee. He details what the battlefield park is offering visitors for this commemorative event. A life-long city resident and 5th generation Floridian, Dowling knows his town. A soldier-reenactor and member of both the Okeechobee Historical Society and Okeechobee Battlefield Friends, he knows his battlefield and park, and, for our purposes, his event.

Dowling Watford and Jim Flaherty, both Soldier living historians, stand stubborn and staunch. Courtesy Photo. (below) Dowling Watford, Mayor of Okeechobee and podcast guest, watches and, out of character, photographs a cannon firing at a living history demonstration. Courtesy Photo. 

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 battles and events of the Seminole Wars cover fields throughout Florida. Unfortunately, in many cases, other than in some dry official reports and personal letters and diaries, or oral tradition, what happened on those fields is largely lost to history and the public. 

There is a corrective, however. TwoEggTV brings the wonder of travel and the adventure of historical inquiry into these places. Through succinct video reports, Rachael Conrad and Dale Cox, breathe life into stale reports by imagining these battles and events through a visual and audio presentation. These historians hail from Two Egg, Florida, hence their name. It is the small town that brings the big picture to history, especially the Seminole Wars.

In this episode, Rachael Conrad relates the places TwoEggTV has visited to bring an awareness of the Creek and Seminole Wars. Battles at Fort Mims and Horseshoe Bend in the First Creek War, along with the Battle of Negro Fort help explain the stakes on the eve of the First Seminole War. TwoEggTV prepared follow-on video dispatches on the battle with Lieutenant Scott on the Apalachicola River, and on other engagements in that war.

A sampling of TwoEgg TV productions.

Intrepid Historian and Reporter Rachael Conrad gets to test the wares with Civil War living historians (Above series)

(Below) TwoEggTV broke the news of massive underground cave complex in the panhandle region. 

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 Museum of Seminole County History is holding a living history encampment commemorating the 185th anniversary of the Battle of Camp Monroe – a rare U.S. Army victory in the Second Seminole War. Joining us to fill us in on the festivities is Bennett Lloyd. He is a long-time soldier re-enactor, having gotten his start with the Micanopy Regulars. More importantly, he is the museum director. As such he is running this living history programming. He’ll describe all he has in store for visitors on the first weekend in February. Bennett will rejoin us for a second episode to explain the to and fro of the actual battle.

An entire room is dedicated to the Seminole Wars at the museum. Museum Director, Bennett Lloyd (Below) portrays a dragoon soldier of the era. Courtesy photos. 

Visitors get interactive engagement with the living historians who describe life back in the 1830s in frontier Florida. 

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!

Jackson Walker's painting of General Jesup at Battle of Loxahatchee River in 1838.

In January of 1838, the U.S. Army felt they had the Seminole clearly on the run when not pressed against the inhospitable Everglades. Surely, they would surrender before descending into that region. The Army sent out a probe to find them in the vicinity of the Jupiter inlet and Loxahatchee River on the east side of the Florida Peninsula.

Two battles raged, the U.S. Army being the force worse for the wear. They found the Seminole but failed to subdue and capture them. But the Army would not be deterred from the campaign. The battles saw combined warfare with a joint Army-Navy expedition and with a civilian contractor with a West Point pedigree taking charge to save the day. Joseph E. Johnston would be heard from again. 

Here to describe the significance of these two battles in depth is Glenn Bakels. He is a member of the Loxahatchee Battlefield Preservationists, manages their social media accounts, and is a battlefield tour guide at the park. This is Living History Weekend at the Riverbend and Loxahatchee River Battlefield Park. 

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!

Independent Historian and Storyteller James Bullock portrays Black Seminole sense bearer Abraham at the capture site of Osceola under a white flag of truce. (Courtesy images)

Living historians portray many personas, some historical, some not. The Seminole Wars podcast has invited a number of such reenactors onto this program. Their main task is interpretation without judgement as well as to "fill in the blanks" the history books don't cover. For instance, the Black Seminole translator Abraham enjoys a somewhat checkered reputation. Was he double-dealing the Seminoles in the agreements he brokered with the U.S. Army? What might have been his motivations for acting as he did? Should we analyze his life and reputation based on these key decision points? Do we moderns judge him by today’s standards versus those of Abraham’s time?

To examine this, we are honored to chat with the distinguished independent historian James Bullock. Bullock is an A.S.C.A.P writer and publisher, playwright, and tour guide.  At public events, he has portrayed Abraham, one of many personas the professional actor takes on. James Bullock is the recipient of the 2006 Interpretive Guide Award from the Castillo de San Marcos, U.S. Park Service.  He is also the author of the play Freedom Road.  He has been a speaker for the U.S. Army Reserve and Florida National Guard and has led tours and presentations at Fort Mose for various Florida schools and St. Louis Urban League.  Bullock is also a re-enactor in the Flight to Freedom Program, National Park Service.  He has acted in community theatre in various plays including Majigeen, To Kill a Mockingbird, Omnium Gatherium, Of Mice and Men, and A Raisin in the Sun.

And today he discusses Abraham in historical context.

1880s illustration of Abraham (Above). (Above and below) Army receipt invoices paying black interpreters for their services. 

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!

Federal legislation authorized the Armed Occupation Act of 1842 (above) to award grants to individuals. (Below) a roster of citizens' request permits. 

Florida crackers are controversial in that some saw them as benevolent while others depicted them as vile. 

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!

Jorge Nunez came to Florida with no understanding of English as a language or of the history of Florida. He taught himself both. Then he decided to teach others Florida history using the English he had learned. Assuming the persona of "Pirate Captain Jorge", Nunez places a heavy emphasis on the Seminole Wars in his episode choices. With a small crew in tow, Captain Jorge voyages (or, usually, drives) toward battles and sites of the Seminole Wars. He researches and interviews experts and produces video segments for his YouTube Channel. Episodes include the Dade Battle, Fort King, Camp Monroe, the Bulow Sugar Plantation, the old town and war site of Micanopy, and Camp Cooper. He joins us to fill us on in what he has covered and what he still wants to reveal about the Seminole Wars in Florida history. 

Captain Jorge literally plunges the depths to discover Florida's Seminole War 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!

In this episode we look at a replica Seminole Wars fort with the peculiar name: Fort Christmas. The fort was built as a resupply station and post for the U.S. Army for its removal efforts against the Seminole. Construction began on Christmas day 1837; hence, Fort Christmas. The original fort was located about a half mile from where the present replica structure stands. Today, one can inspect that replica and visit 19th century buildings as part of the Fort Christmas park about 20 miles from Florida’s east coast, near Titusville.

With us to describe the fort, its place in Seminole War history, and the many historic buildings and artifacts on the campus is Joseph Adams. He is a recreation specialist at Fort Christmas and holds several history degrees.

In year's past, Fort Christmas has hosted living historians portraying soldiers and militia. Kent Low (above) explains process to load the musket. (Below) Troops fire a simulated volley. 

The reenactors demonstrate soldier marching (above) and soldier defense posture (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 provider, 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!

A letter-centric approach came in a 1966 publication; Randal Agostini employed a narrative memoir approach for this version.

John Bemrose came to America from England as an unaccompanied 16-year-old in 1831. He served in the US Army as a dedicated hospital steward during the Second Seminole War.

Bemrose documented his five years in America in a series of sixty letters written to his eldest son, Weightman, between November 1863 and May 1866. Randal J. Agostini, the great-great-grandson of John Bemrose, has compiled and edited these fascinating letters into an engaging memoir.

In a first-person narrative, John Bemrose provides unique descriptions of nineteenth century St. Augustine, Jacksonville, Micanopy, and other locations. He offers personal observations of Florida’s diverse populations, and key figures of the Seminole War. Bemrose recounts dramatic battles, difficult marches through the Florida wilderness, and the challenging life of a soldier.

This exciting memoir published by the Florida Historical Society is available to the public in this form for the first time. It provides valuable new insights into Florida history and culture from An Englishman in the Seminole War. Randal Agostini will be at the Dade Battlefield Historic State Park Jan. 1 and 2 to sign copies of his book during the annual living history reenactment of the Dade Battle. Find him at the Seminole Wars Foundation table. 

The original book taken from John Bemrose's letters and type set, copied, and bound for Bemrose descendants. Below, Randal Agostini shows off the original manuscript. 

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. 

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Courtesy photos Pioneer Florida Museum

The Pioneer Florida Museum of Dade City is holding a Seminole Wars weekend Dec. 18 and 19. Following its success last year with a living history interpretation of the Treaty of Fort Dade, this year’s event recalls the Battle of Black Point. This was a Seminole attack on a wagon supply train. It is significant because it happened before the Dade Battle in present-day Bushnell, by about 10 days. It demonstrated that safe travel was precarious in December 1835 on the treaty-provided Fort King Road through the Seminole Reservation.

Joining us to describe the battle and the overall Seminole Wars programming is Andy Warrener. Andy is a historical research specialist who has curated the Museum’s library and exhibits and coordinated its events since his arrival two years ago. He is also an accomplished living history interpreter himself, portraying figures from various Florida historical periods at events throughout the state.

(Above) Andy Warrener, historical research specialist at Pioneer Florida Museum, is a living history interpreter at such events as well. (Below) The Fort Dade Treaty (or Capitulation) was portrayed last year at the museum. 

Seminole Daniel Tommie demonstrates canoe carving techniques. (Above) (Below) Rachael Conrad portrays Creek "Princess" Milly Francis, who spoke up to save a captured soldier from execution during the1st Seminole War. 

This weekend, the museum unveils the VanBlarcom-Keller collection of Seminole War artifacts, many one of a kind. Ralph Van Blarcom's book  Florida Native American Artifacts of the Seminole Wars and Antiquity about the collection, is in the gift shop along with Seminole Wars Foundation books.

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. 

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Courtesy Hendry County newspaper photo. Seminole's shot arrows in addition to firing rifle rounds. When black powder ran low, they could still engage soldiers, often stealthily, with arrows to some great effect from behind trees and scrub. 

We have long looked in this series at the US military’s various efforts to removal the Seminoles to the Oklahoma territory. We have looked at the Army’s skirmishes, battles, campaigns, and the overall war effort. In all of these, the Seminoles have too often been side players. Seminole takes center stage in this episode.

We will learn who the Seminole were; where Osceola fit into the tribe; how Seminole who chose to remove get out safely from Florida; how Seminole who chose to stay and fight eventually get out safely when captured; how Seminole engaged in battles; and how they separated into smaller bands to stymie U.S. Army removal sorties.

Seminole Wars autodidact Jesse Marshall returns to explain it all.

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. 

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This week we return to Fort King, located in Ocala, Florida. The fort was a focal point in the Second Seminole War, then it was abandoned and Seminole burned its remains. Then the U.S. Army rebuilt it and...abandoned it again. This time, settlers, not Seminole, picked the remnants apart. Then its location was forgotten and unknown until an excavation in the late 1990s by the Gulf Archaeological Research Institute, whose acting director, Sean Norman, podcasts frequently on such matters. 

Ron Mosby, board member for the Fort King Heritage Foundation, joins us to tell us all about what Fort King today is like -- and what visitors will see when they come to visit as well as a good dose of the history behind the fort.

This weekend, Dec. 4 and 5, the annual Festival at Fort King features a living history reenactment of the Seminole Osceola's assassination of the Indian Agent, Wiley Thompson, just outside the fort in late December 1835. There will also be a mock skirmish and many activities for families coming out. 

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. 

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More than two centuries ago this week, on November 30, 1817, a lieutenant sailed his boat along the Apalachicola River to destruction. His boat contained 40 soldiers and noncombatant women and children. Seminole, Creeks and Maroons waited for their passing to open fire. Nearly everyone on board was killed in the volley and one white woman was taken prisoner by the Indians. A few survivors made a swim for it and reached a friendly shore.

The action outraged the American public and the Monroe Administration. Newspapers called it a massacre, a name that stuck until very recent times. The action also inaugurated the First Seminole War to the Americans and the long war to the Seminole tribe. Why did they attack this military vessel in what was thought to be a time of peace? What precipitated the encounter? And how did American history change decisively as a result.

Author and historian Dale Cox returns to the Seminole Wars podcast to assemble this narrative and to analyze its short- and long-term effects. First Seminole War lasted under two years but the wars of Seminole Removal lasted from 1817 to 1858, hence, a Long War. 

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. 

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Podcast devotees may find it odd that the hatchet was buried so quickly after removal -- at least, by the US Army. With removal came compliance with the heavily flawed treaty imposed on them. As such, they were no longer resisting removal, and thus were eligible for the treaty materiel stipulations offered as compensation for having to move. The federal government did not provide luxuries to the Seminoles for their journey, but it also didn't impose a fine on the Seminole for the cost of their resistance, either. So, there's that. What this meant in practical terms is that the US Army considered the Seminole to be a friendly, peaceful people again -- in the Oklahoma Territory. They encouraged these Seminole to return to Florida as scouts to help locate and persuade other Seminole to join them out West. Some prominent Seminole leaders, known for fierce resistance to removal, took the Army up on its offer. They had their own reasons as shall become clear.

Autodidact Jesse Marshall returns to present the case. 

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 provider, 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!

Our listeners have heard much about Frank Laumer. Twice, he led a team to walk the 60-plus mile route of Dade’s fatal march. He co-founded the Seminole Wars Foundation. He authored three books. With the immediacy and intensity of a novel, his Massacre! tells the story of Dade’s battle. He followed this up with Dade’s Last Command, a fact-based chronicle of the overall march, Finally, he penned a novel, Nobody’s Hero, about Private Ransom Clark, one of only three soldier survivors of the battle.

In the summer of 2019, Drs Scot French and Amy Giroux, from University of Central Florida, visited Frank Laumer at his Dade City home, Talisman. They sought to hear from Frank Laumer himself about his research practices and to hear his thoughts on some contentious aspects of the Dade Battle itself and the Second Seminole War in general. Since he began his research in the early 1960s, the late Frank Laumer’s research, books and articles on the Dade battle and the Seminole War have informed and inspired many. One inspired group is the Veterans’ Legacy Project or VLP at the University of Central Florida. Project Director Dr. Scot French said Frank’s research and writings are at the heart of the VLP and are a great inspiration to the team.

[We have invited Dr French to join us in a later episode of the Seminole Wars podcast to share more fully just what that important and noble project is all about and how the Seminole Wars provide ample material. We have also invited UCF’s Dr. Amy Giroux to discuss her project for identifying every Second Seminole War soldier at eternal rest under the three memorial pyramids at St Augustine’s National Cemetery.]

Regular Florida Frontiers radio program contributor, Holly Baker, recorded the session and in October 2019 produced a 10-minute segment.  Florida Frontiers is the weekly radio program/podcast of the Florida Historical Society. Holly is the Society’s Public History Coordinator as well as the archivist for the Society’s Library of Florida History in Cocoa. She and the Society graciously shared their interview recording with us to give our listeners an extended opportunity to hear from Frank Laumer in his own words. The Seminole Wars Foundation extends our great gratitude for this opportunity. We have adapted that interview with minor edits for clarity and narrative flow.

About a month after Holly’s Florida Frontiers feature aired, Frank Laumer died, Nov. 18, 2019. Coincidentally – or not – that was the same day that Ransom Clark died, back in 1840. Clark was only in his twenties; Frank Laumer departed this world at the ripe age of 92. On Frank Laumer's next birthday, March 4, 2020, his daughter Suzanne ("Shorty") sprinkled his ashes on the grave of Ransom Clark in New York state, uniting the two men in perpetuity. 

This week mark’s the second anniversary since his death. In this episode, we present Frank Laumer in his own words. We encounter his folksy personality. We hear his strong opinions on certain matters related to the Seminole Wars. We learn firsthand what a persistent, tenacious attitude he had. He turned over many stones, so to speak, to uncover forgotten or neglected accounts about what he termed, “This Land, These Men.”

Although this graduate of the school of hard knocks declaimed being anything akin to a scholar, Frank Laumer’s body of work says differently. He himself would merely say he was a seeker of historical truth, wherever it might lead him. He quipped that while he was in the land development business, not the digging up bodies business, to discover the truth, digging up bodies sometimes became essential. One literal stone he overturned was – a headstone -- that belonging to Ransom Clark. Frank Laumer did so to determine if Clark had been truthful about his Dade battle injuries. A fascinating story followed where at least one dead man did tell tales.

On the occasion of his 90th birthday, the Seminole Wars Foundation presented Frank Laumer with a seldom seen image featuring Guy LaBree's painting of U.S. Army Private Ransom Clark evading Seminole pursuers after the Dade Battle of 1835.

In his interview, Frank Laumer issued an open invitation for scholars to inspect his research materials. He very much desired for future generations to continue this study – enabled from one central comprehensive repository of books, pamphlets, letters, diaries, memoirs, maps, in print or, where possible, in digital form. That dream will soon become a reality when the Seminole Wars Foundation completes its Frank Laumer Library of the Seminole Wars in Bushnell. It contains more than 500 books related to the Seminole Wars in some fashion, along with priceless survey maps, unpublished letters, and an extensive digital archive of articles, photographs, period newspapers, podcasts – ahem -- and videos. When complete, the Laumer Library will be fully and digitally catalogued for ease of research by visiting scholars to the Foundation’s homestead.

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 provider, 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 coming Saturday, November 13, the Dade Battlefield State Historic Park celebrates its 100-year anniversary since Florida acquired the land for the public. In addition, the date is also Florida Heritage Day. Living historians and reenactors, along with craftsmen and vendors, will be on hand to show off their wares and demonstrate how they lived and operated in the 1830s, as well as throughout Florida history going back to the first contact in the 1560s. Joining us to fill in the details and to address the significance of this anniversary is Ross Lamoreaux. He is president of the Dade Battlefield Society and a long-time living historian and reenactor.

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. 

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We have alluded to it before: There is a Fort King Road running through the central Florida peninsula. And then there is the Old King’s Road running parallel to the state’s east coast.

The search for the Old King’s Road will take listeners this week through other searches as well: for lost planation gold, for lost sugar plantations, for lost ancestors, and for lost Osceola, who lost his freedom to an Army ruse on the Old King’s Road, just south of St Augustine.

Joining us this week is Bill Ryan. Bill moved to the Palm Coast some years ago and immediately fell in love with his surroundings and with the vibrant stories told about the area. Although visible in only a few places, Bill set out to trace its length and to tell stories related to it. He believes he found the spot where Osceola sought to parley with the Army – and where his camp was. He also investigated an old painting purported to portray Pocahontas but which in fact may have been a rendering of Osceola’s Wife and child.

Bill discusses these in fascinating detail as well as the plots and discoveries from his heavily fact-based historical fiction. His books are In Search of the Old King’s Road, Bulow’s Gold, Osceola: His Capture and Seminole Legends, I am Grey Eyes: A Story of Old Florida, Door to Time in Florida: Past, Present, and Future, and Journey into History: Flagler County, Florida. For more, visit http://www.oldkingsroad.com.

Photo below is of era-reenactors and living historians with writer Bill Ryan. This site show the marker where Osceola was purported to have been captured while seeking to parlay with the U.S Army. The plaque on it has not survived hunter's buckshot, Bill Ryan says, and is no longer affixed to the marker. 

Above left: Likely site of Osceola's camp before his parlay; Above right: Bill Ryan treks through overgrowth along the Old King's Road. 

The late Willie Johns, Seminole Tribe of Florida Historian and Chief Justice, and someone his friend Bill Ryan called a true warrior. Bill Ryan brought him to the site of Osceola's capture and ruefully noted that Justice Johns may have been the first Seminole at that site in nearly two centuries. 

Above, image of Pocahontas but not really. Bill Ryan discusses how he showed it was more likely a Seminole and possibly Osceola's wife and son.  Below, American Indian National Museum magazine Summer 2013 page 38.

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 provider, 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!

Episode note: Mark your calendars for three upcoming Florida living history events: Nov. 13 at the Dade Battlefield Historic State Park for Florida Heritage Day and Dade Park Centennial; Dec 18 Pioneer Day at the Pioneer Museum in Dade City; and Jan. 1-2, 2022 at the Dade Park for the annual Dade Battle re-enactment. 

Reenacting war scenes as public spectacle is one means living historians use to bring the general public closer to an understanding of a particular clash in the past. Are they paying homage to the past? Are they playing soldier or Seminole to pretend the past?

The profession is one that takes its participation seriously. Many spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars on uniform items to ensure they represent properly the period they are portraying. Once called "sham battles" in the 19th century, the modern military reenactment movement began in the 1950s, as the centennial of the Civil War approached. Reenactors are in demand by Hollywood producers, with many playing bit parts as soldiers in "Glory!" and "Gettysburg" among other films. 

Autodidact historical hobbyist Jesse Marshall joins us to explain what the spectacle of a military battle reenactment entails and how it has evolved since its origination in the 1950s. Marshall states that Time Machines by Jay Anderson is the most profound book he's read on the living history profession. It is his guide and lodestar.

Jesse Marshall, portraying an Army officer, excitedly discusses the recent action at a reenactment engagement. 

Reenactors at the annual Dade Battle spectacle can play regular foot soldiers or Seminole or specific individuals from history. Here, "Luis Pacheco" points out something suspicious on the Fort King Road to an Army officer reenactor. Below, behind the scenes, he can rejoin the 21st century -- but never in front of the public. 

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. 

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Gabriel Rains was a Confederate general who ran their torpedo service during the Civil War. HIS torpedoes – we call them sea mines today – were what Union Admiral David Farragut was damning when he ordered his fleet full speed ahead in the 1864 Battle of Mobile. Today, some consider him an unsung father of coastal defense through World War II. His land mines ripped a horrendous cost on soldiers passing critical road points. 

A mine-clearing ship, the USS Patapsco, assigned to the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron, joined eight other ironclads in a vigorous attack on Fort Sumter, and received 47 hits from Confederate gunfire during that day. In time, Fort Sumter was reduced to a pile of rubble, but remained a formidable opponent.  On 15 January 1865, while participating in obstruction clearance operations in Charleston Harbor, Patapsco struck a Confederate mine and sank, with 75 lost. Most of its sailors remain entombed in the underwater wreck. Five who died are buried outside Fort Moultrie, next to Seminole leader Osceola's grave. 

An infantry officer by branch, the 1827 US Military Academy graduate had a sideline tinkering with explosives. He employed land mines around forts the Army was evacuating and scored a few hits on curious Seminoles attempting to enter a fort’s walls. He sustained serious wounds in one skirmish between his troops and the Seminole. It was for these wounds that Rains requested compensation in the 1870s. And he DID finagle a pension of sorts out of the Federal government after the war. No, it was not for his service in coastal defense and sea-land mine technology and employment in the Civil War, but rather, for taking wounds in the Second Seminole War!

Chris Kimball, who devoted a chapter to Rains in his Alachua Ambush collection, returns to discuss and describe Rains’ impact as an officer in two armies.

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 provider, 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 podcast has featured many episodes on the Fort King Road. This week we explore the Seminole Trail.

The trail is a patchwork of sites and scenes throughout Florida that are related to the Seminole Indians. In Traveling Florida’s Seminole Trail: A Complete Guide to Seminole Indian Historic and Cultural Sites, Doug Alderson hits the road to discover and assess the Seminole footprint in Florida.

Doug takes readers to the Old Negro Fort site in the Panhandle, the Alachua Savannah near Gainesville, the Dade Battlefield in Bushnell, the Smallwood store in the Ten Thousand Islands, Indian Key in the Florida Keys, the destroyed sugar plantations near St. Augustine and everywhere between the Seminoles kept a presence.

An author of 15 published books, Doug Alderson writes about the historic and dynamic nature of his home state of Florida. His books include this one, for which he recently published an updated, 2nd edition. Of note to listeners, he penned A New Guide to Old Florida Attractions, which the Florida Writers Association placed in the top five of published books for 2017. He has won four first place Royal Palm Literary awards for travel books and several other state and national writing and photography awards. Additionally, his articles and photographs have been featured in numerous magazines including Native Peoples, Wildlife Conservation, American Forests, Sea Kayaker, Sierra, and Mother Earth News.

Above, Seminole Living History Interpreters clear their weapons in a salute at the annual re-enactment of the Battle of Okeechobee. Below, a Seminole interpreter charges during the annual Dade Battle re-enactment. 

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 provider, 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!

Listeners to this Seminole Wars podcast understand the rich scenic cinematic possibilities in telling the story of this long Florida-based conflict. The film makers in Hollywood did, too, back in the 1950s anyway.

Distant Drums, Seminole, and Naked in the Sun are three films taking some aspect of the war and presenting a fanciful view with great liberties to tell a compelling narrative. Distant Drums is the first film to use the so-called 'Wilhelm Scream.' We've all heard it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdbYsoEasio (identified with the 3rd film to use the sound effect).

The Wilhelm scream is a stock sound effect that has been used in a number of films and TV series, beginning in 1951 with the film Distant Drums. The scream is usually used when someone is shot, falls from a great height or is thrown from an explosion. The sound is named after Private Wilhelm, a character in The Charge at Feather River, a 1953 Western in which the character gets shot in the thigh with an arrow. 

Yellowneck, a fourth film, in what we might dub a Seminole Swamp series of movies, focuses on Confederate deserters trudging through the Everglades and meeting hostile Seminoles as they pass through their reservation to the Florida coast. Seminole Medicine man and leader Josie Billie makes a cameo, portraying, who else, a Seminole. 

Two others, Seminole Uprising and War Arrow, portray the Seminoles in Oklahoma and Texas as antagonistic or supporting of the U.S. Army. But although they feature actors purportedly playing Seminoles, the plots of either film could have proceeded without trouble had any other American Tribe been selected.

In this episode, autodidact and cinephile Jesse Marshall returns to give us the run down on the good, the bad, and the ugly of these films, with greatest focus on the three films actually set in the Seminole Wars. They featured journeymen actors but also some genuine box officer superstars – Gary Cooper, Rock Hudson, Anthony Quinn. None were great films but they all harbored some redeeming value. Jesse Marshall explains why and also why Hollywood hasn’t made a Seminole Wars film in nearly three quarters of a century.   

Naked in the Sun is based on the Frank Slaughter novel, The Warrior. Also informing its story is the play, Florida Aflame.

Hollywood has not treated the Dade march as a fully focused movie, despite its vast cinematic possibilities and its compelling human story. Although Naked in the Sun portrayed an aspect of Dade's march, it lasted all of about 5 minutes on the screen.  Jesse Marshall suggests that Hollywood could do well by using Frank Laumer's 1968 account of the Dade Battle, Massacre!,  because of its engaging narrative that reads more like a novel than a work of non-fiction 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 provider, 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 our last episode, Steve Rinck traced the state of the Dade Battlefield from the 1836 recovery mission to the site becoming a historic Florida state park 100 years ago this month, September 1921 and then up to the present. In this episode, Jean McNary, a long-time educator about the Seminole Wars, brings us into the park itself in the last 50 years.

Above, the annual battle reenactment brings thousands to the park each January. Below, the famous statue of "Major Dade" as represented in statuary form by a Union private from the Civil War.

Below, the view of the visitor center from the reconstructed breastworks. 

Teacher Jean McNary wrote about the Dade Battle for graduate school in 1969. After moving to Florida to teach, she married. She and her husband, a state park ranger, lived at the park in the late 1970s. 

In the classroom and at the park, students learn about the Dade Battle and the Seminole Wars. Children come to Dade park for recreational activities as part of the Dade Pioneers group. 

Park Manager Bill Gruber demonstrates an era firearm to visitors. 

Jean has remained a key supporter for the Dade Battlefield Society, serving multiple terms as its president in the 2000s. Retired now, Jean remains involved in the annual Dade Battlefield Reenactment each January and with park events throughout the year.

Jean McNary (with hat) walks with fellow marchers (including Frank Laumer as a foot soldier) from Tampa to the Dade Battlefield in 1988. She later invited Jerry Morris (not pictured) to speak about soldier rations to her high school students.

Marker outside the park and patch. Learn more at https://www.floridastateparks.org/parks-and-trails/dade-battlefield-historic-state-park

Learn more at https://dadebattlefield.com/dade-battlefield-society-inc-501c3.html

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 provider, 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!

Event note: The Dade Battlefield Historic State Park hosts Florida Heritage Day and a Dade Park Centennial Celebration all day on Nov. 13. The gathering includes Florida Music - Folk Crafts - Living History Demonstrations - Pioneer Games for Kids - Hands-on Activities for Kids and Adults and Food Vendors.

September 2021 marks the one-hundred-year anniversary of the state’s acquisition of the land we call the Dade Battlefield to create the historic state park in Bushnell. The State and park officials commemorate this anniversary in an all-day event in conjunction with Florida Heritage Day, on Saturday, November 13, 2021.

This is a story of local Floridians with a sense of history and of honor who campaigned to formalize the battlefield forever more as hallowed ground. Without their efforts, especially the park’s greatest advocate, Judge Bryan Koonce, today the land might be in private hands, long since developed and with no traces remaining of the seminal fight that began the Second Seminole War.

The infamous "Kepi Cap" Civil War-Era private that park visitors dubbed "Major Dade". 

The state's acquisition earned little news coverage; however, the formal dedication ceremony on America's birthday, July 4, 1922, noted a dignified gathering who openned the park for picnicking and play. 

Steven Rinck, president of the Seminole Wars Foundation and a long-time president of the Dade Battlefield Society, joins us to tell this fascinating story of purpose, determination, and tenacity to create a haven where the dead can be honored and the living can enjoy its leisure time.

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 provider, 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!

Milly Francis was the daughter of a Creek prophet who changed the world by showing mercy and compassion for a captured U.S. Army private on the chopping block. This perplexed some whites at the time as they did not think Indians could show mercy or compassion but were, as the stereotypes went, savages. Other whites new the significance of her intervention to save that soldier’s life. They should have. Milly Francis, the Creek Pocahontas destroyed uninformed and prejudicial views of native Americans. She changed the world’s understanding of the civilization the Creek’s inhabited. She restored agency to the Creek in the public’s mind. By doing that she restored the Creek to their proper place as intelligent, resourceful people – like any group of whites viewed themselves.

Joining us to provide more detail on this fascinating woman dubbed “the Creek Pocahontas” is Rachael Conrad. Rachael is co-founder, producer and on-air talent for the award-winning travel channel, Two Egg TV.  Two Egg TV is the creation of Old Kitchen Books, exclusive publisher of works by noted Southern historian and writer Dale Cox. Two Egg TV shares adventures, stories and travels from “off the beaten path” places and locations around the South. Find them at: https://tv2egg.com/

Milly Francis: The Life & Times of the Creek Pocahontas https://smile.amazon.com/dp/0615894054/ref=cm_sw_r_awdo_navT_g_AR1DJ9KT24866J9RSFDH 

Rachael Conrad also portrays Milly Francis through living history presentations around southern Alabama and Florida. She says she uses this portrayal to help young people visualize Millie Francis as a real person so they can appreciate what Milly Francis did.

Rachael has co-authored two history books about the First Seminole War. Old Kitchen Media uses books and web ventures to support rural tourism, historic preservation, community improvement and protection of nature. When not engaged with presenting southern history with Two Egg, Rachael used her MBA from Troy University to teach undergraduate business students. And in the community, Rachael created initiatives such as Skills not Pills and Bugs Not Drugs to help kids choose better things than drugs. Drug prevention, Rachael says, is all about helping people never even try drugs.

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 provider, 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!

Osceola, known sometimes by his American name Billy Powell, is many things in the American imagination. He was neither a chief nor a war chief but more of a sub-chief, with a small cadre of Indians under his command. He DID stab the treaty with his knife, no? Everybody said he did. Great Indian chiefs always stab their knives into unfair treaties, right? Some say that if he did not stab a treaty, then he should have. 

So, if he didn't stab the treaty, was there any other reason why was he influential? Why is he often the only Seminole a person-in-the-street can name? What did he do to gain such lasting notoriety? In short, what do we know as fact about Osceola? 

Jesse Marshall, historian and autodidact, returns to describe what we know about Osceola. He explains, in his view, why the Army and the U.S. Federal government merely sought to remove Osceola to the Oklahoma Territory rather than try him in court for the murder of Indian Agent Wiley Thompson. And he tells why Osceola was wary of being sent to Oklahoma Territory, but not because of his shooting of Thompson. Listen to find out why.

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 provider, 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 late August 1813, the Creek Nation was engaged in a civil war between the so-called Red Stick Faction that wanted to return to traditional Creek ways and the White Sticks who favored integrating with European and American ways. White settlers soon found themselves haplessly involved. In feeling threatened by the Creek war, they sought protection. Territorial militia and volunteers arrived only to creating conflict rather than eased it. They attacked Creeks at their mid-day meal at a place called Burnt Corn Creek.

On August 30, 1813, the Creeks gathered a war party and retaliated by attacking Fort Mims in lower Alabama, just north of Mobile --when the fort’s dinner bell rang. When the dust had cleared, the Battle of Fort Mims seemed more like a massacre. This armed engagement, and the war between the United States and the Red Stick Faction, lead to a string of conflicts between Americans and the existing Indian populations in the Southeast, including Florida. The Fort Mims battle was one piece in a conflict that ran roughly from 1812 until 1858 when the Second Seminole War ended. Americans retaliated for Fort Mims and defeated the Red Sticks at the Battle of Horsehoe Bend in 1814. Red Stick Faction refugees migrated to Spanish Florida where they integrated with Miccosukee and Seminole tribes. One of those refugees was a youth called Billy Powell or, as our listeners know him, Osceola. He would carry memories conveyed to him by his Great Uncle Peter McQueen, one of the leaders of the Creeks at Fort Mims. How the Red Sticks fought would inform his own actions in the Second Seminole war.

The Battle of Fort Mims is re-enacted as spectacle Aug. 29 and 30 at Tensaw, Alabama, where a reconstructed Fort Mims stands.

Southern writer, historian, and Creek Indian reenactor, Dale Cox joins us to narrate and explain the tale. Hailing from the quant little community of Two Egg, Florida, Dale has authored or co-authored more than one dozen books on Southern history and culture. Of interest to listeners is his more recent focus on the Creek and Seminole Wars in Florida, Georgia and Alabama. These include the first two volumes in a four-book series - Fort Gaines, Georgia: A Military History; and Fort Scott, Fort Hughes & Camp Recovery: Three 19th Century military sites in Southwest Georgia. He has done pioneering research on the Negro Fort at Prospect Bluff for which he published his findings and has authored a biography of Millie Francis, the Creek Pocahantas. He has also written about Fowltown, the first battle of the Seminole Wars. In other words, you know we will be hearing again from Dale Cox on this podcast.

With Rachael Conrad, he founded TwoEggTV which produces short entertaining historical documentaries about these early 19th century events in the lower American Southeast. Two Egg TV features scenic outdoor locations, historic sites, legends, live events and more. Although many of their stories end up on commercial television throughout the world, our listeners can find them on YouTube and from their website, TwoEggTV.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 provider, 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!

From the port at Fort Brooke in Tampa, the Fort King Road stretched 100 miles north to Fort King itself, near present-day Ocala. That fort skirted edge of the Seminole Indians' Central Florida reservation. Why was it built there? What was its purpose? How important was Fort King's role to the Second Seminole War? What survives of the fort today? 

Sean Norman, acting director of GARI, Gulf Archaeological Research Institute, returns to answer these questions and to examine the quality of the reconstructed Fort King, what will be done with the blacksmith shop, how the community has partnered well with Fort King to ensure orderly and organized archaeological digs are well funded and supported, and what GARI's survey revealed and enabled about Fort King.

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 provider, 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 recently explored the making of the Fort King Road, which connected Fort King in the north to Fort Brooke at Tampa Bay. In this episode we look at that terminus point, Fort Brooke. Why did the Army select that location? What was its purpose for building Fort Brooke? How important was the fort to the conduct of the Second Seminole War? What remains of the fort today and what was done with the human remains discovered during the cemetery excavation? What does all of this tell us about life at Tampa Bay in the 1830s?  With us to address these questions is Dr. Robert J. Austin from Cultural Resources Consulting. As part of an archaeological team in the 1980s, Dr. Austin excavated Fort Brooke’s first cemetery, while working for then-Piper Archaeology, now Janus Research, from St. Petersburg.

A professional anthropologist for 40 years, Dr. Austin knows his way around the byzantine labyrinth of federal, state, and local laws and regulations focused on cultural resource heritage. These include Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act, and its implementing regulations 36 CFR Part 800, as amended; Section 110 of the Act; the Archaeological Resource Protection Act (ARPA); the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA); and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), as well as Chapters 267 and 872 of the Florida Statutes.

Dr. Bob Austin excavated in the portion of the fort that exists today under a downtown Tampa parking garage. Bronze plaque above commemorates that.

Era maps provide some visual representation of the fort's contours and content to aid in excavation.

In addition to maps and sketches, some have built three-D models of old Fort Brooke, or, how they imagined the old fort to look.

He is an expert on gun flints and barrel wells of the era. In addition to his work at Fort Brooke, Dr. Austin has directed over 700 cultural resource projects, authored over 500 technical reports, published over 40 professional papers, book chapters, and monographs, and has presented his research at numerous professional meetings and public forums. 

Dr. Austin is past President of the Florida Anthropological Society and is past editor of that organization’s journal, The Florida Anthropologist.  He is past President of the Florida Archaeological Council and also served as Vice President of that organization. He is recipient of numerous awards, grants and fellowships since earning his doctorate at the University of Florida in 1983.

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 provider, 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 return to discuss what archaeologists have discovered after conducting a survey of the Fort King Road. Sean Norman, acting director of GARI, Gulf Archaeological Research Institute, returns this week to brief us on GARI's survey findings on the length and breadth of the Fort King Road. GARI explored post returns [such as this one above from Fort Brooke] for the various forts on the road and they employed a KOKOA approach to assess how the road enabled hostile contact at various vulnerable spots.

Sean Norman explains what data and records and existing terrain can say about its terrain and its road workmanship; how baggage trains' vulnerability led to the need for military outposts and forts for security; and how it can be used to extrapolate general Seminole, Soldier, and Settler pathways to skirmishes, battles, and campaigns. 

(Above) The third part of GARI's survey included spot-check stops at eight locations along the Fort King Road.

(Below) Post returns, such as this one, when categorized with those from other posts, tell a story of Army life in the 1830s and how that life moved along the Fort King Road.

Post returns included various statistical data that documents personnel, supplies, movement, and the health of the force. GARI sorted the data into comparative categories to gain knowledge on the Army's composition and activities. 

Post returns included various statistical data that documents personnel, supplies, movement, and the health of the force. 

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 Fort King Road bisected the heart of the Seminole Indians' Central Florida reservation. But it was not intended provocatively, at least until the war came. The Army used it to fulfill the U.S. Government's treaty obligations supplying provisions to the Seminole. Everyone considered it a generally safe road on which to travel; that is, until the ambush of Dade's column. That action transformed the Fort King Road into the essential travel artery in the Florida Theater of War to remove the Seminole Tribe to Oklahoma. How did it fare in this new role? 

Sean Norman, acting director of GARI, Gulf Archaeological Research Institute, joins us to discuss how the Fort King Road served as the key enabler of troops and supplies fighting in the first two years of the Second Seminole War. Battlefields may comprise a set piece of landscape but battles themselves can sprawl over a multitude of terrain, including roads. Sean Norman states why the Fort King Military road falls within such a parameter. He also explains the travails in laying a "blazed trail" and why just paving over what came before often seemed the best course. In our next episode, he returns to discuss the GARI survey on the area comprising the Fort King Road; what we can say about its terrain and its road workmanship; how baggage trains' vulnerability led to the need for military outposts and forts for security; and how it can be used to extrapolate general Seminole, Soldier, and Settler pathways to skirmishes, battles, and campaigns. 

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 provider, 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 recently podcasted on the 200th anniversary commemoration of the United States taking possession of the Florida territory from Spain. That signing and flag ceremony occurred in St Augustine for East Florida. A week later, Pensacola hosted a similar event for West Florida. Under United States possession, East and West became simply Florida.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wHyDcu4uH0

At sunrise on July 17, 2021 Chief Dan “Sky Horse” Helms, of Santa Rosa Creek Tribe, offered a blessing in Ferdinand Plaza before the ceremony recreating the exchange of Spanish and American flags, 200 years since the first time.

In Pensacola, the University of West Florida’s Symphonic Band played The Star-Spangled Banner and provided a medley of Spanish, British, French and American music. Hispanic musicians drifted through the Village and, just as they did 200 years ago, performers of African descent danced in the plazas. Spanish and English military reenactors mingled with the public for the West Florida Days Living History Weekend event. 

The ceremony 200 years ago was a culmination of sharp diplomatic negotiations sprinkled with outlaw military actions on the American side. It begged the question: Why did Spain part with Florida by 1819 treaty? In addition, what part did border conflicts with the new American republic influence this decision? Even so, why was Spain willing to part with any possession, even one as negligible to its empire as Florida was?

An understanding of Spain’s motivations requires a look at Spanish Florida in 1821. What was Pensacola like at this transfer? What was Florida like as a whole? Why were the two sides joined as one territory? What became of the free whites with multicultural backgrounds already living in Florida? What challenges did free blacks have in U.S. Florida?

And, as for the Seminole, whether two Floridas or one, why did territoriality bring unnecessary oversight from the Great Father in Washington, an oversight that subsequently led to unnecessary conflict, as listeners well know.

With us to sort this out is Dr. Brian Rucker, a member of the 200th anniversary committee. He sketches Florida life at the transfer and addresses these questions.

Doctor Rucker is a Professor of History at Pensacola State College, He also teaches courses in Florida History and History of the Florida Panhandle at the University of West Florida.  He is past president of the Gulf South Historical Association and has authored and edited over 40 books and articles related to West Florida history, including the Gulf borderlands struggles of the early 1800s.

Image courtesy of TwoEgg TV.

His most recent publication is a most engaging change of pace: The Story of Walt Disney World Resort Hotels 1971-2021.  

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. 

Like us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Get the latest episode without delay where and when you want it by subscribing through your favorite podcast provider, such as iHeart, Stitcher, Spotify, DoubleTwist, Pandora, Podbean, Google podcasts, iTunes or directly from the Seminole Wars Foundation website at www.seminolewars.us 

In January and February of 1836, the eyes of the United States in the press were concentrated upon the Withlacoochee River, where a relative handful of Seminole and Mikosukee warriors and their families were ensconced to resist the Indian removal policy of the United States.

We’ve discussed how the path to the Second Seminole War was paved with tariffs, land grabs, broken treaties – and a fundamental misunderstanding on the part of the US Government about who the Seminole were. For its own convenience, rather than deal with more than a dozen different bands of Seminole tribes, the US Government created the political fiction of a unified Seminole nation. In fact, the Seminole comprised many disparate tribes from different backgrounds and cultures. Although loosely aligned throughout the Florida territory, their primary unity came from opposition to forced removal west to the Oklahoma Territory.

The commanding general in Florida, Duncan L. Clinch, had dealt with Seminole for more than a decade. Despite unrest and scattered Seminole violence against sugar plantations in East Florida in the last half of 1835, Clinch held out hope to secure an agreement. He amassed a military force to march from Fort Drane to meet the Seminole chiefs in the Withlacoochee River region of Central Florida. He intended to awe the Seminole with his Army’s strength so that the Seminole would, in his view, recognize resistance was futile and they should prepare to pack their bags to leave Florida on waiting transport ships in Tampa Bay. And if the Seminole rebuffed his last peace overture, his Army would crush them and deport the survivors. He failed to recognize the Seminole had a vote in this proposal and that they had other ideas about the removal policy; namely, they would refuse to leave, but would fight by force of arms to the last Indian rather than consent.  The Battle of the Withlacoochee was the first U.S. Army-planned engagement with the Seminole. The inconclusive battle came around the same time Seminole were ambushing a 108-soldier column moving along the Fort King Road from Fort Brooke, Tampa. When troops faltered in the battle, Clinch unsheathed his sword and waved his symbol of authority to motivate troops to maintain discipline and form properly to fight.  

Map that shows location of Fort Drane, the later Fort Clinch, and the Dec. 31, 1835 location of the battle with the Seminoles in the Withlacoochee. (Above) (Below) a notional reproduction of a typical military fort of the era. 

Autodidact, living historian, and military reenactor Jesse Marshall returns to the Seminole Wars podcast to answer these questions and to provide perspective on why things went the way they did. The outcome was not foreordained.

Seminole War soldier reenactor Jesse Marshall explains the situation to Matt Milnes, admist other Soldier-reenactors. (Above) (Below) Jesse Marshall appears at living history events as an 1830s Florida Cracker. 

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. 

Like us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Get the latest episode without delay where and when you want it by subscribing through your favorite podcast provider, such as iHeart, Stitcher, Spotify, DoubleTwist, Pandora, Podbean, Google podcasts, iTunes or directly from the Seminole Wars Foundation website at www.seminolewars.us 

On July 10, 1821, the United States of America accepted possession of the Spanish Florida territory in a ceremony at St Augustine. Whatever tranquility the Seminoles enjoyed began to end with this change of ownership. They knew and trusted the Spanish authorities. They liked them because they left the Seminole alone. But these Americans were different. The Seminole had sided with the Spanish in the so-called Patriot War of 1812. Now the patriots were coming to town to run the peninsula. The Spanish days of benign neglect of the Seminoles began to end with this ceremony.

The Historic Florida Militia is providing a living history interpretation with mock proclamation signings, musket and cannon firing, and living historians mingling with the public on July 9 and 10. Maria Alvarez. who run the company with her husband Bob, joins us to tell us about the importance of this transfer of authority to the United States. She also explains how her group brings to life various historic periods, such as Pedro Mendendez's founding in 1565 and Sir Francis Drake's 16th century raids and the British colonial period (1763-1783) in St Augustine's history.  FHM presents the past to the present for the future. 

Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. He is a combat veteran and of theU.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. 

Like us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Get the latest episode without delay where and when you want it by subscribing through your favorite podcast catcher, such as iHeart, Stitcher, Spotify, DoubleTwist, Pandora, Podbean, Google podcasts, iTunes or directly from the Seminole Wars Foundation website www.seminolewars.us  

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. 

Like us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Get the latest episode without delay where and when you want it by subscribing through your favorite podcast catcher, such as iHeart, Stitcher, Spotify, DoubleTwist, Pandora, Podbean, Google podcasts, iTunes or directly from the Seminole Wars Foundation website www.seminolewars.us  

In April 1861, following a steady barrage of artillery that left him unable to resupply his garrison, the commander of the Union outpost of Fort Sumter, in Charleston’s harbor, surrendered his command to the new Confederates States of America. Some argue that the actions of U.S. Army Major Robert Anderson, an old Seminole War hand, may have sealed the fate unfavorably for the new CSA. While he ordered his men to return cannon fire to the onshore batteries, he specifically prohibited shelling of the heart of Charleston, with all the loss of civilian life and structural destruction. By acting in response to CSA provocations, Anderson positioned his command to be viewed as both a victim of Confederate aggression and as a heroic defender of sovereign federal rights and authority. Who was Robert Anderson and how did assignments in a longer military career shape his temperament as commander of Fort Sumter? Dr. Wesley Moody fills us in. He has embarked on a full-scale biography of Anderson, whom, incredibly, has never had a biography written about him. Our listeners will find it of note that Anderson enjoyed extensive service in Florida, fighting at the Battle of Loxahatchee River, near present-day Jupiter, Florida, and on the staff of General Winfield Scott.

Florida-native, Dr. John Wesley Moody III, has been a professor of history since 2007, Dr Moody has worked as a professor of history at Florida State College at Jacksonville.  Born and raised in Pensacola, Dr. Moody received a Bachelor's from the University of Southern Mississippi; a Master’s degree from University of West Georgia; and a Ph.D. from Georgia State University. He specializes in 19th century American history, specifically military. He is in preliminary stages of a textbook proposal to tell Florida history from first European contact to the present. He is also presently in preliminary stages for a biography of Major Robert Anderson, the commander at Fort Sumter when the first shots there began the military aspects of the American Civil War. Dr Moody is author of four books already, including Demon of the Lost Cause: Sherman and Civil War History; Seven Myths of the Lost Cause; the Battle of Fort Sumter; and a biography of a civil war Marine.

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. 

Like us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Get the latest episode without delay where and when you want it by subscribing through your favorite podcast catcher, such as iHeart, Stitcher, Spotify, DoubleTwist, Pandora, Podbean, Google podcasts, iTunes or directly from the Seminole Wars Foundation website: seminolewars.org 

Sean Norman, acting director of GARI, Gulf Archaeological Research Institute, joins us to discuss the research findings of GARI's report on the 1836 Battle of the Wahoo Swamp. He describes how they engaged the community impacted, surveyed the available terrain, discovered various artifacts, and what GARI concluded in its report. Official register entry for Battle of the Wahoo Swamp from Nov. 26, 1836.

Wahoo Swamp is the battle with the funny name. It provided a bookend to US military efforts to remove Seminole from Florida in 1836. Spring battles within the Withlacooche River region taxed the efforts of a number of Federal Army generals. With these regulars unable to bring the Seminole heal, Florida territorial governor Richard Keith Call, as territorial militia chief, took troops into the Wahoo Swamp to try his hand at removing the Seminole, in this case, using volunteers and Florida militia with available regular troops. His efforts were as futile as the regulars' attempts before him. The battle became known for the death of one of its officers, David Moniac, who had led Creek volunteers and had been the first Native American (Indian) to attend and graduate from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. This is because the battle itself was inconclusive for the U.S. military. For the Seminoles, thwarting American military advance meant they would live another day free in Florida.  

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 provider, 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 battle with the funny name, Wahoo Swamp, provided a bookend to US military efforts to remove Seminole from Florida in 1836. Spring battles within the Withlacooche River region taxed the efforts of a number of Federal Army generals. With these regulars unable to bring the Seminole heal, Florida territorial governor Richard Keither Call, as territorial militia chief, took troops into the Wahoo Swamp to try his hand at removing the Seminole, in this case, using volunteers and Florida militia with available regular troops. His effots were as futile as the regulars' attempts before him.

Craftsman Mark Luther constructed a meticulously accurate miniature representation of the Battle of Wahoo Swamp.

The battle became known for the death of one of its officers, David Moniac, who had led Creek volunteers and had been the first Native American (Indian) to attend and graduate from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. This is because the battle itself was inconclusive for the U.S. military. For the Seminoles, thwarting American military advance meant they would live another day free in Florida.  

National report newspaper account on the battle (bottom second column). Sean Norman, acting director of GARI, Gulf Archaeological Researrch Instititute, joins us to discuss the battle itself and its contours. In our next episode, he returns to discuss the GARI survey on the area of the Battle of Wahoo Swamp. He describes how they engaged the community impacted, surveyed the available terrain, discovered variouis artifacts, and what GARI concluded in its report. 

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 provider, 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!

Florida-native, Dr. John Wesley Moody III, has been a professor of history since 2007, Dr Moody has worked as a professor of history at Florida State College at Jacksonville. He compares and contrasts historical research methods, such as those Chris Kimball highlighted. And he discusses contentious contemporary approaches to historical research. Dr. Moody prefers the narrative aoproach, telling a coherent and possibly unified story to understand what happened at a given place and time. Other historical approaches include applying race, class, gender, and sexual identity as the lens through which a historian should view the past. Dr. Moody discusses pros and cons of historical approaches.

Born and raised in Pensacola, Dr. Moody received a Bachelor's from the University of Southern Mississippi; a Master’s degree from University of West Georgia; and a Ph.D. from Georgia State University. He specializes in 19th century American history, specifically military. He is in preliminary stages of a textbook proposal to tell Florida history from first European contact to the present. He is also presently in preliminary stages for a biography of Major Robert Anderson, the commander at Fort Sumter when the first shots there began the military aspects of the American Civil War. Dr Moody is author of four books already, including Demon of the Lost Cause: Sherman and Civil War History; Seven Myths of the Lost Cause; the Battle of Fort Sumter; and a biography of a civil war Marine.

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. 

Like us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Get the latest episode without delay where and when you want it by subscribing through your favorite podcast catcher, such as iHeart, Stitcher, Spotify, DoubleTwist, Pandora, Podbean, Google podcasts, iTunes or directly from the Seminole Wars Foundation website www.seminolewars.us  

That Air Force veteran is David "Chobee" Exum. 

The former delivery driver volunteered for Hillsborough River State Park Native American Living History Programs. Kimball said the funeral for Exum, one of the original group of Second Seminole War reenactors, was quite a spectacle since many of his fellow reenactors paid their respect in full Native American garb.  Chobee was a member of the Royal Rangers and of the Native American Outreach. Two news articles discuss his work. 

A schematic of the FNC's various sections would help one find his grave. His memorial ID is 15901000

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. 

Like us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Get the latest episode without delay where and when you want it by subscribing through your favorite podcast catcher, such as iHeart, Stitcher, Spotify, DoubleTwist, Pandora, Podbean, Google podcasts, iTunes or directly from the Seminole Wars Foundation website www.seminolewars.us  

We devote our next two episodes to honoring veterans who fell in battle and veterans for whom we memorialize.

In Bushnell, a national cemetery provides an honored abode to deceased American veterans. It is located in the heart of where were waged the first battles of the Second Seminole War

Ironically, Florida National Cemetery at Bushnell, or FNC, contains no Seminole Wars veterans. Only one marker – a headstone – honors Seminole War service. That marker belongs to Creek Indian and Alabama native David Moniac, the first native American graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. His remains are not interred at FNC but his memory is.

A unique feature is the ability to take an image of a headstone to learn more about the veteran. 

Overall, FNC contains no monuments to ANY of the wars Americans have fought in.

That is about to change.

Doug Gardner joins us to introduce listeners to the Freedom Memorial Plaza initiative. Its centerpiece is 68 etched panels depicting the various wars Americans have fought in since our nation’s founding.

Several of those panels are available to recognize events from the Seminole Wars of Florida.

Doug Gardner is a Vietnam veteran – welcome home, buddy! – He heads FNC’s monument committee and serves on the Joint Veterans Support Committee. Doug is executive vice president of Flags of Fallen Vets Inc, for Florida.

This week, Doug describes the monument initiative. Next week, on Memorial Day, Doug chats about the cemetery itself.

Other monuments include Gold Star Families, missing soldiers, and a monument to veterans buried who had no families to attend the ceremony. 

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. 

Like us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Get the latest episode without delay where and when you want it by subscribing through your favorite podcast catcher, such as iHeart, Stitcher, Spotify, DoubleTwist, Pandora, Podbean, Google podcasts, iTunes or directly from the Seminole Wars Foundation website www.seminolewars.us  

This week is the pay off for our time learning about how to research. Chris Kimball has explained how one can search for knowledge on the internet and at libraries. He's talked about how he takes that knowledge and uses it to tell a fuller story of the Second Seminole War. This week, Chris Kimball shares the anecedotes and curious stories about players in the Seminole War -- people and stories he countered in his research.

In this episode, listeners will hear about Osceola and the fate of his head and his belongings. They will learn about military inventions or improvements -- land mines and pontoon bridges -- that later came into their own in the American Civil War. They will learn how the Army armed the Seminole by treaty with 2,200 Derringer small-caliber and percussion capped rifles while supply Halls breach-loading musket-rifles that proved easier to reload while horse riding but which tended to break easily or worse, explode. And they will learn about how tempers flare and people die, needlessly and foolishly, and blood fueds are begun...and finished after originating in service in the Seminole Wars. . 

Above, Gabriel Rains designed mines (then called torpedoes) that he used in the Second Seminole War and refined later for use in the Civil War. This illustration is a representation of an explosion.

Above, one can find these Jaeger rifles at the Florida Historical Society in Cocoa. They were a coda to a blood fued begun over insurbination and disobedience in the chain of command of territorial militia mobilized for the Florida War. The back story is fascinating and Chris Kimball handles its complexities with aplomb. The Jäger rifle was one the most balanced and compact rifles, very characteristic for its big caliber; equipped with double set trigger, it was very precise, able to shoot big balls having a very high energy. The Jäger rifle was first made in the flintlock version and only afterwards it was transformed to a percussion rifle.

Chris Kimball's sleuthing led him to discover that contrary to a headstone in Pensacola (above)that says it contains Major Dade's only daughter, in fact he had another child, a daughter, who died as a toddler. (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. 

Like us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Get the latest episode without delay where and when you want it by subscribing through your favorite podcast catcher, such as iHeart, Stitcher, Spotify, DoubleTwist, Pandora, Podbean, Google podcasts, iTunes or directly from the Seminole Wars Foundation website www.seminolewars.us  

Author and historian Chris Kimball returns to discuss techniques to acquire, handle, and categorized dormant knowledge from official records, letters, newspapers, and diaries about the Seminole Wars. Some remains are found on headache-inducising microfilm. Some are scanned and available as PDF scans. And some, like the orderly books from Fort Brooke -- bound into a collected volume by the War Department, can be viewed wearing protective gloves. The books at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in Washington, DC, are so fragile, one cannot even scan them on a machine without the pages crumbling from the handling. Instead, the NARA folks permit records copying only by individuals if they use non-flash photography. Or one can read the contents and hand-copy them or type them into a word processing program on a laptop permitted in the research area. 

Cursive handwriting in order books is often quite clear. Chris Kimball laments that much correspondence from military officers compiled in such books is often received looking better than chicken-scratch. That is one of the benefits to recopying the incoming correspondence: Its contents all look as if written from the same hand. If one can't make out an original illegible note from a COL William Harney, one can turn to this book as scribes doubled their efforts to transcribe originals as closely to what was drafted as possible. Translation: they had to be able to decipher handwriting accurately to ensure the Orderly Book was authoritative. 

As onoerous as it may seem, the knowledge represented by words scrawled in ink on those documents still tells tales of worthy of continued interest. The War Department records usually have neat, crisp, clear cursive handwriting. A scribe would take disparate field reports and copy their contents into an orderly book. These were entered based on when written or when received. One may find accounts from the Florida War interspersed with reports from Texas, or the Great Lakes states about military operations. These are often as fascinating as the Seminole War reports. Sometimes, they have indirect ties to the Seminole Wars because of the actions described or the people involved in those actions. But, one won't know this until less on goes paintakingly through such an orderly book to view the collected contents.  Chris Kimball tells what he does in such cases.  

Chris Kinball compiled an index guide specifically aligned with Seminole War reports as presented in the Army-Navy Chronicle. It is a handy "cheat sheet" so one knows what are the Seminole War reference in any given issue of the chronicle -- and where to find them (e.g., inside pages or on the front page, etc...) A problem for Chris Kimball is that he detected an eight-month period when the Chronicle is absent from the collected records in hard-bound books, on microfilm, or on internet-available PDF scans. Were those copies lost? If not, what reason explains the inability to find these "missing" issues. The Chroncile's publisher drafted a Supplement that he inserted into the newspaper at the end of October 1840. He harranged subscribers to finally pay their "dues." And he noted that if military officers who read the Chronicle but didn't pay for it continued in this practice, he would be forced to cease publication as he could not pay his bills otherwise. This was the "smoking gun" that outlined why the Chronicle might not be sustainable. Hence, the supplement informs us that the later issues from mid-January to the end of August 1841 were not lost; they were simply never published -- because of inability to pay the printing costs. The people who scanned the back issues of the Chronicle apparently did not have access to the Supplement as the microfilm and PDF images do not include it. The library at the US Military Academy at West Point, NY, responsibly kept the actual hard-copy issues of the Chronicle in addition to offering the microfilm or online PDF versions for researchers. Because of this, the Supplement was not lost -- and the knowledge it contained about publication problems was preserved to assist researchers even 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. 

Like us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Get the latest episode without delay where and when you want it by subscribing through your favorite podcast catcher, such as iHeart, Stitcher, Spotify, DoubleTwist, Pandora, Podbean, Google podcasts, iTunes or directly from the Seminole Wars Foundation website www.seminolewars.us  

The COVID-19 pandemic has led civil authorities to close down many facilities as a public health measure. One of the casualties has been libraries. How do you conduct research when the facilities with the research information are closed? 

In the first of several episodes, author and historian Chris Kimball, author of books on the battles of the Seminole Wars, people in the Seminole Wars, and newspapers covering the war, explains how to use one's keyboard to access the internet and its wealth of resources. He explains reliable sources to consult. Next week he will discuss some of what he found from using such resources, and later he will share anecdotes about people and events of the Seminole Wars that he discovered in the course of his research. These fascinating stories and tidbits add color to our understanding of the war and help to personalize the war when one may look at it in an abstract and impersonal fashion. To find these, one must start with solid sources and the internet and on-site in libraries are two means to start the knowledge quest.  Chris Kimball is also a Seminole living-history reenactor. 

The State Library is the RA Gray Library in Tallahassee (above). A look at the stacks on the shelves is 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. 

Like us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Get the latest episode without delay where and when you want it by subscribing through your favorite podcast catcher, such as iHeart, Stitcher, Spotify, DoubleTwist, Pandora, Podbean, Google podcasts, iTunes or directly from the Seminole Wars Foundation website www.seminolewars.us  

Reenactment photo (courtesy)

At times in its history, the US Army has personified the admonition that those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it. This is especially disconcerting since the US Army has been the architect of its past and yet, as in the case of unconventional conflicts, it has often sought to bury those memories in favor of a pledge never to fight in such ways again. The reality is that the Army does not usually get to choose what type of war it fights; its political leaders choose. The unconventional guerrilla-style operations of the Second Seminole War are a prime case in point.

With us today to discuss how the Army wanted to fight the Second Seminole War versus how the Seminole forced them to fight, and how its leaders adapted is Dr. James S. Robbins. He is an author, political commentator and professor, with expertise in national security, foreign and military affairs, military history, and American politics. 

Reenactors fire volleys against Seminole practicing guerilla war tactics (Courtesy Photo)

Dr. Robbins’ books include Last in Their Class: Custer, Pickett and the Goats of West Point. During his years in government service, he directed the U.S. Intelligence Community Center for Academic Excellence, and also taught International Relations at the National Defense University, and the United States Marine Corps Command and Staff College. His insights gained from Last in Their Class inform our discussion today about adaptability against adversity.

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. 

Like us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Get the latest episode without delay where and when you want it by subscribing through your favorite podcast catcher, such as iHeart, Stitcher, Spotify, DoubleTwist, Pandora, Podbean, Google podcasts, iTunes or directly from the Seminole Wars Foundation website www.seminolewars.us  

For nearly 250 years and with a few notable exceptions, US Army readiness has swung like a pendulum from woefully inadequate to veritable invincible force in its engagements for war. From the Revolution to the War of 1812, from the Civil War to the Second World War, too often the Army began fighting unprepared and only over time – and at great cost in blood and treasure -- has it righted itself to gain the victory it sought.

The Second Seminole War was little different. The Army entered unprepared for an extended conflict with Florida Indians. Fortunately, the fate of the Republic was not at stake. After getting whipped in its early encounters with the Seminole in late 1835 and throughout 1836, the Army muddled along through failed strategies and failed tactical execution, through poor supply, poor medicine, and poor conditions, until it belatedly recognized the futility of total Seminole removal, declarejd victory and went home. It left behind roughly two hundred ravaged but still defiant Seminole warriors and their families to live in peace, at least for the time being. It learned some lessons from the conflict but these were quickly forgotten, along with the war, when hostilities finally ceased. The Army's lesson was not to get involved in THIS kind of war again. 

Historically, why has the Army done this? In Preparing for War: The Emergence of the Modern U.S. Army, 1815-1917, JP Clark, a US Army colonel, Army War College professor, military strategist, and military historian, answers why, especially for the Second Seminole War. He weaves the chronicle of the US Army's state in the 1830s into an overall century-long narrative of challenge, change, and adaptation. He examines four generations of Army forces and how military culture evolved from just after the War of 1812 until our expedition overseas in Europe for the Great War in 1917.

Although every Soldier carried a musket, marksmenship was limited to rote reputation of the manual of arms and close-order drill. Soldiers rarely practiced weapons firing. Despite the weapon's inaccuracy, they were important because one could affix bayonets -- the ultimate weapon of the era. (courtesy photos)

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. 

Like us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Get the latest episode without delay where and when you want it by subscribing through your favorite podcast catcher, such as iHeart, Stitcher, Spotify, DoubleTwist, Pandora, Podbean, Google podcasts, iTunes or directly from the Seminole Wars Foundation website www.seminolewars.us  

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The US Government passed the Indian Removal Act of 1830 and that political decision led to U.S. military demands that the Seminole relocate to Oklahoma. The US Government accepted that it might require waging war to enforce the removal. The great Prussian military strategist Carl Von Clausewitz anticipated this contingency: "War is the continuation of politics by other means."Clausewitz warned, though, "No one starts a war -- or rather, no one in his sense ought to do so -- without first being clear in his mind what he intends to achieve by the war and how he intends to conduct."

The Seminole were clear on their political objectives in opening fire on Major Dade's command to begin formal hostilities with the U.S. government: Wage war until the Army agreed to stop forced removal to Oklahoma. They would fight on the run if they had to, with hit-and-run tactics and nuisance attacks. But they would still fight. 

In response, the U.S. Army embarked on a punitive operation against the Florida Seminole to achieve its own political objectives by warlike means. It seemed a simple enough proposition. Engage the Seminole in a big battle. Defeat them. Remove them. Restore peace. No one in America had read how Clausewitz would have scoffed at this simple proposition. In war, he wrote, everything is simple. But the simplest things are very, very difficult to perform

Removing the Seminole was only simple on paper. More than seven years later, the U.S. Army had not completed its simple mission to capture all the Seminole and deport them. It eventually gave up on 100% removal, packed up, and went home.

Joining us is US Army Colonel and War College graduate JP Clark, a military historian and a military strategist. He explains how an understanding of Clausewitz could have informed officers in the Second Seminole War -- and does inform us today. Without a copy of On War in its collective haversacks to inform and guide its strategy, operations, and tactics, the Army muddled along in the Second Seminole War. Much blood and treasure might have been spared had the Army's senior officers known of and embraced Clausewitz' strategic insights. 

Who was Carl von Clausewitz?

Clausewitz' insights continue to resonate two centuries after he penned them. His relevance to thinking about strategy remains undiminshed by time. 

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. 

Like us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Get the latest episode without delay where and when you want it by subscribing through your favorite podcast catcher, such as iHeart, Stitcher, Spotify, DoubleTwist, Pandora, Podbean, Google podcasts, iTunes or directly from the Seminole Wars Foundation website www.seminolewars.us  

Who oversees custodial care for Seminole Wars battlefields? For years, it has been hard to even determine where some battlefields were. Florida's landscape has changed much in 180 years or so, some nature's doing, some not. In Jupiter, concerned citizens banded together to care for two battlefields near them. They formed the Loxahatchee Battlefield Preservationists. The LBP protects and safeguards the Loxahatchee River Battlefield Park, along with the 6,000-year-old prehistoric Native American occupation area contained therein.  Joining us today to discuss the LBP’s efforts, the park, and to provide an overview of these battles is the vice president of the LBP, Andrew Foster. He also has taken many exceptional photographs of the living history events. Many of those photos have helped illustrate these podcast episodes.

Park visitors learn about Seminole lives and fighting spirit and U.S. Soldier life. Photos by Andrew Foster

       Photos of Andrew Foster by Heather Burney

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. 

Like us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Get the latest episode without delay where and when you want it by subscribing through your favorite podcast catcher, such as iHeart, Stitcher, Spotify, DoubleTwist, Pandora, Podbean, Google podcasts, iTunes or directly from the Seminole Wars Foundation website www.seminolewars.us  

Irish-Immigrant Army Private Paddington McCormik meets us this week along the Dade Battlefield historic trail in Bushnell, Florida. He's at his post, guarding the trail from any potential hostile Seminole incursions. The lot of a private -- and an immigrant one at that, was a miserable one. Paddy explains how he ended up at what he calls "this Godforsaken place", what Soldier life is like -- the rotten pay, the inhuman heat, the dicey rations -- and his hope that if he just keeps his head down, he just might get out of the war alive. Paddy may be a private, but when he steps out of his 1830s-era sky blue fatigues, he becomes Seminole Wars Foundation president, Steve Rinck. Steve is instrumental in a multitude of ways in bringing awareness about the Seminole Wars throughout Florida. Steve chats about how he created the Paddy character and about how he went from mild-manner school teacher and later school principal to joining the ranks of Seminole War historians. 

Above, Pvt. Paddy McCormick, ever vigilant at his post along the Dade Battlefield trail, says Army life is miserable and he is just trying to keep his head down so he can get out of the war alive. Below, Steve Rinck (far right) as Pvt Paddy McCormick joins other Seminole War living historians, such as George Webb (second from left) playing a sutler/trader and Ken Wood portraying his main impression, a Seminole fighter called "Hawkwood". To the left is British Air Commodore (Air Cdre) Stephen R. Thornber, the senior UK  officer from the British contingent visited the Dade Battlefield as part of a militaray staff ride from U.S. Central Command, at MacDill Air Force Base, Tampa, Florida.  Such staff rides help contemporary military personnel to learn and apply lessons to current operations from past military battles and conflicts, such as the Dade Battle and the Second Seminole War.   

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. 

Like us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Get the latest episode without delay where and when you want it by subscribing through your favorite podcast catcher, such as iHeart, Stitcher, Spotify, DoubleTwist, Pandora, Podbean, Google podcasts, iTunes or directly from the Seminole Wars Foundation website www.seminolewars.us

Participants in miltiary staff rides have often encountered Gunpowder Warrior (Steve Creamer) along the trail at Dade Battlefield Historic State Park.

Steve Creamer and other non-Seminole Tribe members portray Seminole Warriors at living history events.

Living historians such as Steve Creamer often reenact Second Seminole War battles side by side with members of the Seminole Tribe of Florida, such as Pedro Zepeda. 

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. 

Like us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Get the latest episode without delay where and when you want it by subscribing through your favorite podcast catcher, such as iHeart, Stitcher, Spotify, DoubleTwist, Pandora, Podbean, Google podcasts, iTunes or directly from the Seminole Wars Foundation website www.seminolewars.us

The Battle of Camp Izard, Second Day by Jackson Walker

In March,1836, the commanding general of a large US Army force had foolishly boxed himself into a hastily built fortification, a 250-yard quadrangle fortified with log breastworks and earthen bastions. He called it Camp Izard, after a West Point-trained officer who had perished on the first day of what became known to history as the aptly named Battle of Camp Izard. The Camp was located along the Withlacoochee River about 20 miles southwest of today’s Ocala, Florida.

The expedition’s leader was General Edmund P. Gaines, commander of the US Army’s Western Military Department, based in New Orleans. Upon learning of the Seminole’s annihilation of Major Francis Dade’s column in late December 1835 and their rebuff of General Duncan’s Clinch’s advance against them in early January 1836, Gaines quickly amassed a military force and rushed off to Florida to join the fight. Gaines found the Dade site, buried the fallen with military honors, and set out to avenge Dade’s men and the Army’s honor. Resupplying at Fort Drane, Gaines believed he could quickly find the Seminole, whip them into submission with his combined force of regulars and militia, and evict them to the Oklahoma territory.

Color map of Camp Izard in February 1836 and black and white photograph of Maj. Gen. Edmund P. Gaines (late in his life)

Instead, he found himself besieged and beleaguered facing a force of Seminole he could not perceive at a small camp he could not escape into terrain he did not know his way out of. As his supplies dwindled, his men began killing and eating their horses and mules to survive. Anxious with the precariousness of his position, Gaines sent messengers begging for relief from the commander of US Army forces in Florida, the aforementioned General Clinch, but thus far no relief had received no reply.

Therefore, he speedily agreed to parley when he received such a Seminole request. They told him they were willing to let his starving Army retreat unmolested if he agreed to leave them alone in Florida. He was close to agreeing to this condition when men from General Clinch’s late arriving relief party stumbled onto the camp and, unaware of the negotiations, began firing. The Seminoles withdrew. The war would drag on for another seven years. We who look back at the poor timing can only despair and ask, What If?

In this episode, Sean Norman, acting executive director for the Gulf Archaeological Research Institute, returns to the Seminole Wars podcast to help us address this great “What if” question. He will explore how the specialized study of Conflict Archaeology informs his study of this Seminole War site, and, how an acronym called KOCOA can aid archaeological teams in complementing and in some cases verifying written accounts of military engagements, such as this one. And, as Camp Izard is the first site GARI began surveying from the Seminole Wars, Sean will address GARI’s challenges in locating and excavating at the camp’s remains, and he will examine why camps and forts in Florida were so short-lived and left such an ephemeral signature on the landscape.

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. 

Like us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Get the latest episode without delay where and when you want it by subscribing through your favorite podcast catcher, such as iHeart, Stitcher, Spotify, DoubleTwist, Pandora, Podbean, Google podcasts, iTunes or directly from the Seminole Wars Foundation website www.seminolewars.us

Recently, a military historian cast his lens on the West Point Class of 1829. That class featured 11 cadets who later saw service in what was then termed, The Florida War. One 1829 graduate in fact served under Major Dade in 1835, but found himself detached to deliver a message and therefore unable to accompany Dade on that disastrous march in late December 1835. Another saw action at the First Battle of Loxahatchee in January 1838, ironically though, as a civilian contractor rather than as a military officer. He later put back on a military uniform advancing to general officer in both the Union, and, in 1861, in the Confederate States of America. One graduate, to commemorate a close friendship, changed his surname to that of a fallen comrade from the Class of 1828 who had died in the war. One other became a trusted Indian agent in the years leading up to the Third Seminole War. Other classes had representation in the Army during the long Second Seminole War, with most of the officers in Major Dade’s ill-fated command having West Point pedigrees. With us to discuss this West Point Class of 1829 and those among it who served in the Florida Wars – and one famous graduate, Robert E. Lee, who did not -- is Professor P.J. Springer. He is the chair for the Department of Research at the Air Command and Staff College at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama. A military historian, he has taught at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, and at the U.S. Army War College in Carlyle, Pennsylvania.  Along with Christopher Mortenson, he is the editor of the three volume Daily Life of U.S. Soldiers: From the American Revolution to the Iraq War. He is also the author of several books including America's Captives: Treatment of POWs from the Revolutionary War to the War on Terror; Transforming Civil War Prisons: Lincoln, Lieber, and the Laws of War; Military Robots and Drones: A Reference Handbook; and Cyber Warfare: A Reference Handbook. 

Dr. Springer first discussed the 1829 West Point for the podcast A Better Peace from the U.S. Army War College at Carlisle Barracks, Pa. That podcast is available here: https://warroom.armywarcollege.edu/podcasts/class-of-1829/

A list of officers from that class and where their careers eventual led is here: https://civilwarintheeast.com/west-point-officers-in-the-civil-war/class-of-1829/

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. 

Like us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Get the latest episode without delay where and when you want it by subscribing through your favorite podcast catcher, such as iHeart, Stitcher, Spotify, DoubleTwist, Pandora, Podbean, Google podcasts, iTunes or directly from the Seminole Wars Foundation website www.seminolewars.us

The Dade Battle of December 28, 1835 is considered one of the U.S. Army’s most lopsided defeats. How an Army column could allow itself to be caught so unaware of a hostile adversary in its midst is a question that military professionals still ask to this day. One way to answer that question is through what's called the Military Staff Ride.

The staff ride puts military leaders in the figurative shoes of the officers and men of Dade's column. Although the battle was part of what is now called “irregular warfare,” today’s leaders—uniformed and civilian—can find ample opportunity to highlight the role of all warfighting functions with a particular emphasis on intelligence, fires and protection. Was the outcome foreordained? Would it be foreordained in the contemporary world? How might today's leaders have conducted the march and the battle differently had they been in charge? Listeners will not be surprised that the insights gleaned from conducting the Dade’s Battle staff ride are as relevant today as they were over 175 years ago.

With us today to discuss the Military Staff Ride and specifically how one is conducted at the Dade Battlefield is David A. “Scotty” Dawson, the civilian command historian for U.S. Central Command, at MacDill Air Force Base, in Tampa, Fla. Scotty is a retired Marine Corps colonel with numerous combat deployments to his credit.  Reenactor Steve Rinck, Seminole Wars Foundation president, portrays Irish-immigrant Pvt. Paddington McCormick -- Paddy to his friends. Paddy explains the miserable life of a U.S. Army recruit in Florida to British officers and NCOs from US Central Command visiting Dade Battlefield on a military staff ride in the summer of 2016.

The British Army military contingent (in civilian clothes) and three living history reenactors (front row) portraying a trader, a Seminole warrior, and a U.S. Army soldier, pose for a group photo after completing the Dade Battle staff ride. The reenactors explained their character and the part they played in the Second Seminole War. Our guest this week, Scotty Dawson,  command historian for US CENTCOM, is standing in the back row, third from the left (white hat). Seminole Wars podcast host, Patrick Swan, is in center rear (wearing safari hat). Summer 2016. 

The Staff Ride Handbook for Dade’s Battle, Florida, 28 December 1835 is published by The Combat Studies Institute at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. Authored by Michael G. Anderson, this extensively researched handbook examines this opening conflict of the Second Seminole War. He uses it as a vehicle to allow organizations at any echelon to study leadership at the tactical level.

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. 

Like us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Get the latest episode without delay where and when you want it by subscribing through your favorite podcast catcher, such as iHeart, Stitcher, Spotify, DoubleTwist, Pandora, Podbean, Google podcasts, iTunes or directly from the Seminole Wars Foundation website www.seminolewars.us

For many warrior re-enactors of the Seminole Wars, the smell of gunpowder from a mock battle is sweeter than the aroma of a roasting pig from camp fire barbecue. Smoking gunpowder represents action…and engagement. It represents an adrenalin rush from fighting for your side while hundreds of onlookers watch nearby. And it represents a means to show what is usually only described through the written word in a history book. THIS, they are saying, is how it went down.

Smoking gunpower then is indeed sweeter…for some. But not for Louie Bear’s Heart. He prefers the slow-burn of smoking meats in a Seminole hunting camp; where he can live in tune with the old ways of self-reliance far removed from the conveniences of modern American life; where he can trap and then carefully butcher a racoon, sear it on a spit, and then provide it for his family’s dinner plates. After all, you just can’t find tender enough racoon filets at your local supermarket these days. It is where he can quietly engage with the public about Seminole life OUTSIDE of the famous battles they fought to resist Army removal to Oklahoma. And, it is where he can personally demonstrate and educate through his appearance, his words, and his activities what the Seminole customs were that sustained a people often on the run throughout Florida. 

Louie (Ferris) Bear’s Heart joins us to discuss all this: Why he believes authenticity is the key to all he does and represents; how he earned his noble Seminole name; and how his living history interpretation is a family affair. 

Reenacting Seminole ways is a famly affair. Louie is here with his wife Pam (and young son Christian) and (back row) daughter Justine and son Taj.  At historical events, they don period attire to portray traditional Seminole life. 

Louie with wife Pam (left).

Louie (right) and son Taj (center) portray Seminole at living history events. 

Louie's son, Taj.

Louie's daughter, Justine. 

In his day job, Louie Ferris (second from right) is a Hillsborough County (State) Park Ranger. 

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. 

Like us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Get the latest episode without delay where and when you want it by subscribing through your favorite podcast catcher, such as iHeart, Stitcher, Spotify, DoubleTwist, Pandora, Podbean, Google podcasts, iTunes or directly from the Seminole Wars Foundation website www.seminolewars.us

We recognize that the Second Seminole War was a war of Indian Removal, ignited by Indian resistance to U.S. government efforts to deport them from Florida to Indian Territory west of the Mississippi.

A key sticking point in resolving the conflict was the disposition of those who were known, for purposes of convenience, as Indian slaves, Seminole Negroes or Black Seminoles.

And at the center of that was the delicate business of defining who the Black Seminoles were. The translator, diplomat, and strategist Abraham was a leader among Black Seminole and a representative among the Seminole of their interests.

One can use the structure of a classic internet meme to illustrate the difficulty in defining who were Black Seminole such Abraham and his people. 

Who did the Seminole say they were? [Abraham and his people were property, not to be given up without financial compensation and worth fighting to keep.]

Who did the Americans say they were? [To the Americans in Georgia and other southern states, Abraham's people were a threat to national security, poised to pour across the border under cover of darkness or to filter up through the swamps to pillage at will.]

Who did the Spaniards who ruled Florida say they were? [men and women who fled slavery were potential citizens and able allies who were worth arming and supporting for their value in protecting St. Augustine's back door.]

Who did the Black Seminoles say they were? [Abraham, his people, and hundreds of others like them were "freedom seekers" who fled the slavery of the American South and deliberately forged symbiotic alliances with the more numerous and established Seminole Indians.]

Who can WE say the Black Seminoles were?

Returning to the Seminole Wars podcast to help with what Sherlock Holmes might dub, “The Curious Case of the Black Seminoles of Florida,” is Dr. Brent Weisman.

Doctor Weisman has podcasted with us earlier to discuss the continued Historical and Cultural Importance of the Seminole in Florida. He is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the University of South Florida. He has served as the editor of The Florida Anthropologist, president of the Seminole Wars Historic Foundation and the Alliance for Weedon Island Archaeological Research and Education, and was a founding director of the Florida Public Archaeology Network. His research interests continue to be Seminole Indian culture and history, Florida archaeology, and North American Indians. 

Black Seminoles at the annual Dade Battle reenactment. 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. 

Like us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Get the latest episode without delay where and when you want it by subscribing through your favorite podcast provider, such as iHeart, Stitcher, Spotify, DoubleTwist, Pandora, Podbean, Google podcasts, iTunes or directly from the Seminole Wars Foundation website

First-time visitors to the annual commemoration at the Dade Battlefield in Bushnell, Florida, are sometimes startled to see -- amidst the melee -- a Black Seminole racing his war horse up and down the field of action. Likewise, groups escorted along the Dade Park memorial trail discover this same Black Seminole emerge from a concealed strategic position to converse with them.

The young man portraying the Black Seminole warrior is Matt Griffin. He is a native Floridian who traces his heritage back to the times of forced Indian removal during the Second Seminole War. He joins us to discuss what the alliance between Seminole and Black Seminole in that war signifies to him; what part Black Seminoles played in the Dade battle itself; what portraying a Black Seminole Reenactor for two decades has taught him about the war; and why we should know and still care about that conflict from nearly two centuries ago.

Peace in our Time? Black Seminole Matt Griffin casts a skeptical eye as a Seminole Swamp Owl shakes the hand of Maj. Gen. Thomas Jessup (Steven Rinck) at Fort Dade Capitulation Historical Reenactment Ceremony at the Pioneer Museum Dec. 19, 2020. Photo 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. 

Like us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Get the latest episode without delay where and when you want it by subscribing through your favorite podcast provider, such as iHeart, Stitcher, Spotify, DoubleTwist, Pandora, Podbean, Google podcasts, iTunes or directly from the Seminole Wars Foundation website at www.seminolewars.us 

Last week, we looked at the terrain, environment, climate and on-the-ground atmosphere for Seminole and Soldiers and Settlers. This week, we look at some of the underlying causes of the war; some the places and incidents where the Second Seminole War was waged; and also the strategic, operations and tactics used to wage the war. Returning again is Dr. Joe Knetsch, author of a number of books and journal articles on the Seminole Wars. His anthology Fear and Anxiety on the Florida Frontier: Articles on the Second Seminole War 1835-1842, informs our discussion 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. 

Like us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Get the latest episode without delay where and when you want it by subscribing through your favorite podcast provider, such as iHeart, Stitcher, Spotify, DoubleTwist, Pandora, Podbean, Google podcasts, iTunes or directly from the Seminole Wars Foundation website at www.seminolewars.us 

The 1830 Indian Removal Act aimed to relocate Indian tribes in the southeastern United States to undetermined land across the Mississippi River in the Oklahoma Territory. The tribes affected were the Choctaw, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Creek – the so-called “four C” tribes -- and the Seminole of Florida. The tragic tale of this unjust trail of tears rips at our collective hearts to this day. When removal efforts came to the Seminole of Florida, some departed voluntarily. But, the majority stood their ground and refused to be moved.  

Dr. Joe Knetsch. author of a number of books and journal articles on the Seminole Wars, joins us for the first of two episodes to discuss what life was like for Floridians in those days. We examine the Florida terrain, climate and on-the-ground atmosphere for Seminole and Soldiers and Settlers. His anthology Fear and Anxiety on the Florida Frontier: Articles on the Second Seminole War 1835-1842, informs our discussion today. Next week, we look at some of the underlying causes of the war, some the places and incidents where the Second Seminole War was waged, and also the strategic, operations and tactics used to wage the war. 

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. 

Like us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Get the latest episode without delay where and when you want it by subscribing through your favorite podcast provider, such as iHeart, Stitcher, Spotify, DoubleTwist, Pandora, Podbean, Google podcasts, iTunes or directly from the Seminole Wars Foundation website at www.seminolewars.us 

In this episode, Jerry Morris discusses his 1830s victuals display and the pamphlet he penned based on it along with his overall research, entitled The Army Moves on Its Stomach. He does not ration his insights here but doles out healthy portions to help listeners understand what it took the Army to feed its troops on a 7- to 10-day march between military posts in Florida.

Why did he do this? Because it wasn't enough for ex-paratrooper Jerry Morris to march 60 miles with Laumer's Legion in 1988, retracing the 1835 route of Major Dade's fateful march to massacre. He had to map it as well and he did with Jeff Hough in The Fort King Road: Then and Now. Even that wasn't enough. Jerry Morris also wanted to know what the Soldiers ate along the march route. He had wondered about this while he himself was marching five days from Tampa to Bushnell. The contemporary fare he nibbled upon gnawed at his conscience. This wasn't what they ate, he told himself. A library quest soon ensued and after that, a compilation of recipes and after that, carefully measured amounts in mason jars along with baked hard tack meeting all 1830s standards for quality (Note: no worms. Those only came later with the Civil War and unscrupulous contractors). He soon had a field table display from which he educated spectators visiting various Seminole War battlefield sites during living history demonstrations. With his great wife Linda, Jerry moves the accoutrements in a trailer from site to site today, even though he now moves around in a mobility scooter. From middle school students to the author of the History of the Second Seminole War, Dr. John Mahan to a five-year-old girl attending a battle reenactment with her dad, Jerry gives every presentation as if it was his first one and with the personal delivery one would expect to his dearest friend.

Courtesy photo Jerry and Linda Jerry Morris at Seminole Wars Battle Reenactment in Florida. 

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. 

Like us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Get the latest episode without delay where and when you want it by subscribing through your favorite podcast provider, such as iHeart, Stitcher, Spotify, DoubleTwist, Pandora, Podbean, Google podcasts, iTunes or directly from the Seminole Wars Foundation website at www.seminolewars.us 

Courtesy photo of Jerry Morris holding part of a Gunter's Chain

It wasn't enough for ex-paratrooper Jerry Morris to march 60 miles with Laumer's Legion in 1988, retracing the 1835 route of Major Dade's fateful march to massacre. He wanted to "finish the march" continuing another 40 miles north from the Dade Battlefield Historic State Park to re-created Fort King in Ocala. Told no one has re-mapped that route from the old 1840s survey maps, Jerry replied, "Then I'll do it." And so he did. Many years and a collaboration with Geospatial Imager Jeff Hough later, they published The Fort King Road: Then and Now. The unspoken question gnaws at us, though. How did they do it then and now. 

In this episode, Jerry Morris explains the ins and outs of surveying in the 1600s and 1700s with so-called Gunter Chains, named for its inventor. He then recalls just what it took to assess the old survey maps -- spot check their accuracy with these Gunter Chains -- and overlap aerial photographs and satellite imagery to produce a highly accurate representation of the old Fort King Military Road. 

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. 

Like us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Get the latest episode without delay where and when you want it by subscribing through your favorite podcast provider, such as iHeart, Stitcher, Spotify, DoubleTwist, Pandora, Podbean, Google podcasts, iTunes or directly from the Seminole Wars Foundation website at www.seminolewars.us 

"Dade's Battle" Copyright Guy LaBree 1987

U.S. Army Major Francis L. Dade’s movement of a combined artillery and infantry column from Fort Brooke to Fort King is a controversial one, mainly because it ended in disaster. Dade knew such movement could be dangerous but believed the intent of the orders from General Duncan L. Clinch were clear: reinforce the garrison at Fort King without delay. This would explain why he did not wait for the two additional companies that were expected to arrive any day to join him. But, other questions remain. Why were communications interrupted between Fort Brooke and Fort Drane, where General Clinch was planning a campaign to confront the Seminoles about removal to the west? What was the terrain like that Dade’s column had to traverse? What were his troops eating on the march? Did either of these hamper Dade’s ability to move his troops with alacrity to relieve Fort King? What were his troops carrying? What role did their heavy great coats, worn to protect against cold and rain, play when the troops came under fire? How did Dade’s men maintain their professionalism and good order when the Seminole assault ripped through their ranks? After they won the battle, why didn’t the Seminole take any prisoners? And were the Seminole actions to dispatch the wounded soldiers a massacre, as portrayed in news accounts, and a violation of accepted norms of war?

Autodidact, living historian, and military reenactor Jesse Marshall returns to the Seminole Wars podcast to answer these questions and to provide perspective on why things went the way they did. The outcome was not foreordained.

Dade Battlefield Sketch from Diary of Surgeon Nathan Jarvis, 1836

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. 

Like us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Get the latest episode without delay where and when you want it by subscribing through your favorite podcast provider, such as iHeart, Stitcher, Spotify, DoubleTwist, Pandora, Podbean, Google podcasts, iTunes or directly from the Seminole Wars Foundation website at www.seminolewars.us 

Dade Battle by Ken Hughes 1974 Miami History Center

Over several episodes, we have alluded to or briefly described the Dade Battle of late December 1835. The time has come to take a deep dive. The Dade Battle, also known as the Dade Massacre, arguably served as the opening shots to the Second Seminole War. Other shots were being fired throughout Florida in that December as well as in the months leading up to this engagement. But this was the Big Battle that seized everyone’s attention and that informed the U.S. Government that the Seminole would not go quietly into Oklahoma exile.

With us today to set the scene and describe the Dade Battle is Ross Lamoreaux. Ross is a military re-enactor, a museum exhibitor at the Tampa Bay History Center, the newly elected president of the Dade Battlefield Society, and someone who has actually walked the path of Dade’s march from Tampa toward turmoil in present-day Bushnell.

Post return Dec. 28, 1835, list of casualties from "Engagement on the Withlacoochee" 

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. 

Like us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Get the latest episode without delay where and when you want it by subscribing through your favorite podcast provider, such as iHeart, Stitcher, Spotify, DoubleTwist, Pandora, Podbean, Google podcasts, iTunes or directly from the Seminole Wars Foundation website

Making progress to Dade City (above) (Below) newspaper article with Frank Laumer, Chris Laumer and assorted marchers. 

[Editor's Note: This is the seventh in a series of podcasts over the coming weeks promoting the Seminole Wars Foundation's self-paced virtual challenge, The Major Dade Memorial March to Fort King that launches in just a few days, on Dec. 22. Registration to join Laumer's Legion is now open. Visit www.seminolewars.us for details.]

Our guest this week is one of the last remaining survivors of – well, not Maj. Dade’s march of 1835 from Tampa to Ocala – but of the first Laumer’s Legion, in 1963, that sought to retrace Dade march along a rediscovered Fort King Road. That group succeeded in reaching Bushnell and the Dade Battlefield Historical State Park, where Dade’s journey came to an abrupt halt from a Seminole ambush. The first Laumer’s Legion had no need to track it any further because Dade’s column was unable to trek it any further. Battle survivors had returned to Fort Brooke in Tampa rather than marched north to Fort King, which was a shorter distance but had unknown composition of Seminole who would oppose any passage through.

Chris Laumer was 12 years old in 1963. He walked one long, full day with his father, Frank Laumer, family friend William Goza, and several other interested impresarios eager to blaze the pathway anew. Twenty-five years later, his father decided to try it again, this time attired as a blue-sky uniformed 1835-era Soldier, one who would march himself, ford rivers himself, and camp overnight himself to gauge a Soldier's life moving through hostile Indian country, as we term it today. This time, Chris chose to accompany his father – with a legion of historical hobbyists – for the full five-day walking journey.

In this episode, Chris shares insights on the difference between the two marchers as he perceived them, whether he thought the marches were a good idea, and what he gleaned from them about the arduous nature of a Soldier’s life back then and how alien it appears to us today. Chris and I shared narration duties of William Goza’s 1963 book on that pathbreaking march for an earlier episode of this podcast.

(Above) Crawling under property owner's fences did not appeal to Chris Laumer. (Below) Emerging from swamps, the Legion enters Zephyrhills city streeet.

Chris Laumer then (1988) and now (2020)

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. 

Like us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Get the latest episode without delay where and when you want it by subscribing through your favorite podcast provider, such as iHeart, Stitcher, Spotify, DoubleTwist, Pandora, Podbean, Google podcasts, iTunes or directly from the Seminole Wars Foundation website at www.seminolewars.us 

With military marching, only the first 100 miles are hard.

If you are thinking that our virtual march challenge will be tough to complete at 102.3 miles over 90 days, then consider the case of U.S. Army Pvt. John Thomas, a wounded survivor of the Dade Battle in Bushnell. Under penalty of sudden death at Seminole hands, he high-tailed it back to Tampa – some 60 miles and overnight in hostile Indian country –  wearing 1830s-era Army boots (and not much else!) to break the news. Let's just say, his trek was "incentive-based."   

In this episode, we examine his story. While Soldiers dragged cannon and limber across the bracing, swift Big Withlacoochee River Dec. 25, 1835, Thomas injured his back severely pulling with them. A surgeon later certified him 3/4ths disabled. Historians have debated whether Thomas then left immediately for Fort Brooke, or continued with Maj. Dade's column. Either way, post returns show Thomas arrived Dec. 29. So, he either tramped back at a brisk clip of 60 miles in 30 hours with a thigh wound and an injured back after the fight -- a most challenging hike without question but not infeasible -- or he was competing for the distinction of the most malingering messenger of all time, sauntering back a full five days after this Dec. 25 crossing mishap. Listen to Jesse Marshall, our resident autodidact and aficionado on most things related to the Seminole Wars, explain not only how Thomas could have done it but also why many continue to doubt it to this day.

The late Dave "Boxcar" Leonard, long-time 1830s Soldier living historian who walked the walk, like Jesse Marshall, so he could talk the talk. He marched with the 1988 iteration of Laumer's Legion from Tampa to Bushnell to commemorate Maj. Dade's march of 1835. He even had his prescription adapted for that spectacles modeled on that era. He brought natural food snacks with him on that several day excursion and, of course, wore his uniform, carried his rifle, and camped overnight along the way to add authenticity. He would have appreciated Thomas' feat (and feet!).

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. 

Like us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Get the latest episode without delay where and when you want it by subscribing through your favorite podcast provider, such as iHeart, Stitcher, Spotify, DoubleTwist, Pandora, Podbean, Google podcasts, iTunes or directly from the Seminole Wars Foundation website at www.seminolewars.us 

For their craft, Jesse Marshall and colleague march through the blisters, aches and pains. Virtual Challenge hikers wear comfortable clothes & shoes and move at their own pace. 

[Editor's Note: This is the fifth in a series of podcasts over the coming weeks promoting the Seminole Wars Foundation's self-paced virtual challenge, The Major Dade Memorial March to Fort King that launches Dec. 22. Registration to join Laumer's Legion is now open. Visit www.seminolewars.us for details. In calculating the toll on ones' feet and muscles from this virtual hike, consider what it would have been like to have walked in the replica Brogan Army boots of our guest this week.]

For nearly three decades, Jesse Marshall has literally walked the walk as well as talked the talk about soldier life in 1830s-1860s U.S. military eras.

An autodidact historical hobbyist, Jesse has portrayed the Confederate grey in Civil War confabs, one time even walking 80 miles to recreate a rebel march before engaging immediately upon arrival in the simulated Battle of Red River. In the Federal blue for Seminole War events, Jesse has trekked some 65 miles along the perilous shoulder of U.S. Highway 301 from Tampa to Bushnell. He did THAT just to commemorate the movement of Dade’s men from Fort Brooke to their untimely demise from a Seminole ambush in 1835. Jesse is one of the most renown and most respected in the living history profession of arms in Florida today.

It is easy to recognize why. In his quest for authenticity in what he does, Jesse’s boots have literally worn right off his feet. His knapsack has pinched him too tight to move naturally. His high beaver-skin hat carried forage well enough for him but needlessly irritated his head. Yet he emphatically maintains that, whatever the discomfort, to interpret a period both properly and professionally, one must get the regalia and reactions right. Or not partake in the exercise at all.

He joins us to explain why he marched such distances, what he learned in the process about Soldiers' travails, and what the spectacle of a military battle reenactment entails for those practicing the craft. 

Below: Living Historian Jim Flaherty showcases an 1830s Soldier's kit.  

Below, in 1988, the late Frank Laumer demonstrated an 1830s Soldier's struggles simply to ground his gear.  

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. 

Like us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Get the latest episode without delay where and when you want it by subscribing through your favorite podcast provider, such as iHeart, Stitcher, Spotify, DoubleTwist, Pandora, Podbean, Google podcasts, iTunes or directly from the Seminole Wars Foundation website at www.seminolewars.us 

[Editor's Note: This is the fourth in a series of podcasts over the coming weeks promoting the Seminole Wars Foundation's virtual challenge, The Major Dade Memorial March to Fort King that launches Dec. 22. Registration to join Laumer's Legion is now open. Visit www.seminolewars.us for details.]

In this episode, we present an adaptation of William Goza’s Fort King Road 1963 booklet. Although Mr. Goza has passed away, along with Frank Laumer,  a participant from that 1963 march still lives today. Frank Laumer’s son, Christopher, now age 69, walked part of the route with the men when he himself was 12 years of age. It is our distinct pleasure to welcome Chris to our podcast to read the first-person portions of William Goza’s account of the first march to specifically mark that trail since Major Dade himself trod it with his doomed 108-man detachment of artillery and infantry soldiers in 1835.

Background:

In 1963, land developer Frank Laumer and Clearwater attorney William Goza, joined by a St Leo College student, Jim Beck, decided to take a little hike in the country, tracing the path of Major Dade’s ill-fated column from Tampa to present-day Bushnell, Florida.

    Frank Laumer and Co. (above) arrive at Dade Battlefield Historic State Park in December 1963 and accepts greetings from the Park Superintendent. In the 2010s, Frank Laumer (above right) gives a public address at Dade Battlefield Historic State Park.

The trek attracted many camp followers – and a few members of the news media. The men had successfully re-established a walking trail that mirrored that of Major Dade in 1835. They donated copies of their maps to the Dade Battlefield Historic State Park and to the Florida Historical Society. And William Goza dedicated himself to drafting an account of their motivations, planning, and many-day journey to the site of what was then still called “The Dade Massacre.” The product of that work became a short booklet, The Fort King Road 1963.

William Goza, who died in 2008 at age 90, lived a long and prosperous life as an attorney and municipal judge, after serving honorably as a battery commander during World War II.  But his true passion traced a different route, that of Florida history and forensic science. Twice president of the Florida Historical Society, William Goza was a life-long student of the Seminole Wars and a board member of the Seminole Wars Foundation. He participated in many Dade Battle talks and participated in the acquisition of the US Army Lt. Henry Prince Seminole War diary at the University of Florida in Gainesville.

Mr. Goza participated in the investigations of the circumstances surrounding the deaths of President (and one-time Florida War commanding general) Zachary Taylor, the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizzaro, and Joseph Merrick, the so-called “Elephant Man.” This work in forensics is believed to have influenced his good friend, Frank Laumer to seek answers about Dade Battle survivor, Ransom Clark, by having his remains exhumed and examined by a professional pathologist. This confirmed that all Private Clark had stated about his battle wounds was true. 

Frank Laumer was instrumental in getting a new VA headstone for battle survivor Ransom Clark. He acquired and donated the legacy headstone to the Tampa Bay History Center. (below)    

The 1963 march attracted much news media attention. Chris Laumer, who narrates William Goza's first-person portions of the trek account, is pictured in a photo in the top news article. A Miami newspaper (below) organized a mock Seminole ambush, led by Chairman Howard Osceola, as Frank Laumer's party approached the famous Dade's Breakfast Pond, four miles shy of the Dade Battlefield. All survived and a friendly campfire cookout followed. 

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. 

Like us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Get the latest episode without delay where and when you want it by subscribing through your favorite podcast provider, such as iHeart, Stitcher, Spotify, DoubleTwist, Pandora, Podbean, Google podcasts, iTunes or directly from the Seminole Wars Foundation website at www.seminolewars.us 

Editor's Note: This is the third in a series of podcasts over the coming weeks promoting the Seminole Wars Foundation's virtual challenge, The Major Dade Memorial March to Fort King that launches Dec. 22. Registration to join Laumer's Legion is now open. Visit www.seminolewars.us for details.

In modern times, there have been three formal treks commemorating Major Dade’s march from Fort Brooke to catastrophe, near present-day Bushnell. The first was in 1963. The second was in 1988. And a third was in 2004.

In this episode, Ross Lamoreaux returns to the Seminole Wars podcast to describe what that third march – and his first – was like and what perils these marchers encountered along that most dangerous stretch of the old Fort King Military road called...US Route 301. Ross then spends a little time explaining what it means to be a living historian military reenactor at sites such as the Dade Battlefield Historic State Park, where he often portrays soldiers but sometimes an individual, such as Captain Gardiner’s from Dade’s column.

Ross Lamoreaux, current president of the Dade Battlefield Society, portrays a 1835-era US Army Soldier at the annual memorial to the fallen combatants at the Dade Battlefield Historic State Park in Bushnell, Fla.

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. 

Like us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Get the latest episode without delay where and when you want it by subscribing through your favorite podcast provider, such as iHeart, Stitcher, Spotify, DoubleTwist, Pandora, Podbean, Google podcasts, iTunes or directly from the Seminole Wars Foundation website at www.seminolewars.us 

Editor's Note: This is the second in a series of podcasts over the coming weeks promoting the Seminole Wars Foundation's virtual challenge, The Major Dade Memorial March to Fort King that launches Dec. 22. Registration to join Laumer's Legion is now open. Visit www.seminolewars.us for details.

Jerry C. Morris spotted the innocuously titled newspaper notice by chance in the Nov. 20, 1988 Tampa Tribune-Times: "Historian to Lead Excursion." That historian was the late Frank Laumer and he was recruiting his legion of soldier-reenactors to recreate the march of Major Francis L. Dade's ill-fated column along the Fort King Road, from Tampa to Bushnell. The former trucker and ex-paratrooper gave it a moment's consideration and told his wife, Linda, "I think I want to do this."

No longer as fit and trim as he was when he jumped out of perfectly good airplanes for the Army in 1956, nevertheless, 50-year-old Jerry signed up. At a planning meeting with the Dade Battlefield Society, the personable Jerry quickly made contacts with living historians who helped outfit him in the proper period soldier’s attire. A month later, in late December 1988, Jerry joined a group of not especially fit middle-aged men to pace the route of Major Dade’s ill-fated march of 1835. Although its composition was not exactly the size of a Roman Legion -- or even a Roman Century, for that matter -- when the trek began, the hard-physical marching soon quickly decimated the ranks hour by hour and day by day until by the time they reached Dade Battlefield Historic State Park, roughly a baker's dozen of hearty troopers remained. Among them was ...Jerry Morris, who said he really only intended to walk one day's worth (12 to 15 miles) just for the experience. But, one foot in front of the other lead to one hour after another and one day after another until five days later he found himself, to his complete surprise, finishing the 60-mile or so trek.

Jerry joins us to tell us first his story of how a scrawny teenager, standing 5'9" and 119 pounds soaking wet, proved the Army doubters wrong about his capabilities and physical caliber to complete airborne training and become an elite paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division. Then he explains how that drive, determination, and stick-to-itiveness served him well 32 years afterward when he decided on a whim to become a soldier volunteer again, enlisting in the elite ranks of the historical-enthusiast marchers of Laumer's Legion. Jerry has remained a stalwart sentinel every since, proving himself many times to be an indispensable voice, mover, and shaker in the Seminole Wars' commemoration community to this day.

Once a scrawny 5'9" 119-pound teenager, Jerry built himself into a man "built like a fireplug" (above) with paratrooper jump wings tattooed to his "slab-like" forearm, Jerry Morris set out cheerfully on a whim to march the Fort King Road with Laumer's Legion in 1988. Enraptured by Frank Laumer's captivating campside tales of Dade's men in 1835, Jerry has stayed on with the troop, remaining a stalwart sentinel in the Legion's informal ranks, ever since.

In an Aug. 15, 2015 commemoration of the 1842 procession and interment of the remains of Dade's men into the St. Augustine National Cemetery at St Francis Barracks, an older Jerry Morris (above and below) rides atop a memorial caisson with funeral pall, pulled by 2 elegant mules, owned and driven here by Denise and Tom Fitzgerald.

Completing the march to Fort King has been Jerry's longstanding dream ever since the 1988 march. Relying on a motor scooter for his mobility these days, Jerry even at 82 has never surrendered that desire. On Veterans Day 2020, Jerry registered formally for The Major Dade Memorial March virtual challenge so he can finally reach Fort King, 32 years after he first entered the elite ranks of Laumer's Legion. We'll hear more from Jerry in upcoming episodes about how he researched and documented the full route of the Fort King Military Road, as well as a pamphlet, An Army Moves on Its Stomach, about what soldiers ate as rations in Florida-based Army garrisons and while marching along blazed trails, such as the Fort King Military Road.   

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. 

Like us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Get the latest episode without delay where and when you want it by subscribing through your favorite podcast provider, such as iHeart, Stitcher, Spotify, DoubleTwist, Pandora, Podbean, Google podcasts, iTunes or directly from the Seminole Wars Foundation website at www.seminolewars.us 

This week guest host Steven Rinck, president of the Seminole Wars Foundation, interviews Patrick Swan about The Major Dade Memorial March, a 103-mile virtual challenge that takes hikers on a virtual footpath along the entire unbroken length of the old Fort King Military Road. Similar to the Inca Trail in Peru and Hadrian’s Wall path in England, entrants “walk” (or run) a renowned route steeped in history. This episode discusses how the Army used the Fort King Military Road, how the Second Seminole War began on this road, why it is important to walk the terrain where famous battles occurred, and everything one may want to know about how to participate in this memorial march, including registration fees, benefits, and what exercises are permitted to complete it. Registration opened Veterans Day 2020 and the mission itself launches Dec. 22, 2020 and is open for 90 days after that. Frequently Asked Questions and the registration links are available by visiting www.seminolewars.us

Patrick Swan, the regular host for the Seminole Wars, devised this virtual challenge in cooperation with myvirtualmission.com, which sponsors various fitness challenges at notable sites around the globe. He himself recently walked the length of Roman Hadrian's Wall path in England in a virtual challenge as well as walking it physically in 2016 over 7 consecutive days. He offers insights in what one learns from trekking such distances in person and virtually and how taking the journey along the Fort King Military Road will provide one a greater understanding for significant aspects of the Second Seminole War. 

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. 

Like us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Get the latest episode without delay where and when you want it by subscribing through your favorite podcast provider, such as iHeart, Stitcher, Spotify, DoubleTwist, Pandora, Podbean, Google podcasts, iTunes or directly from the Seminole Wars Foundation website at www.seminolewars.us 

This week we begin a recurring special feature, on state and federal parks with ties to the Seminole Wars.

Dade Battlefield Historic State Park, acquired by the State of Florida in 1921 (see full newspaper clipping below), is the second oldest site in the state. It serves as a memorial to the brave men, both soldiers and Seminoles, whose 1835 battle marked the beginning of the Second Seminole War, the longest armed conflict in the first 195 years of American history. Visitors can inspect the recreated breastworks where the last of Dade's men desperately fought off their Seminole attackers, and then stroll down the eerily quiet original trail where commemorative markers note the precise spots where some of the officers fell in the battle.  https://www.floridastateparks.org/parks-and-trails/dade-battlefield-historic-state-park

Ross Lamoreaux portrays an 1835 US Army sergeant as he speaks at the annual wreath-laying ceremony to memorialize the lives lost at the now-Dade Battlefield State Park, in Bushnell, Fla. He stands outside the perimeter to a recreated breastwork of the type the last remaining soldiers used desperately for cover as they fought to stave off the final Seminole attack on Dec. 28, 1835. Courtesy Photo by Linda Charlton, Leesburg Daily Commercial. https://www.dailycommercial.com/news/20181228/dade-battlefield-pays-tribute-to-slain-soldiers

In this episode, Ross Lamoreaux, Dade Battlefield Society president, Seminole Wars-era soldier-reenactor and living historian, outlines how the Society orchestrates its well-known, authentic annual reenactment of Dade’s Battle each January as well as sponsors living history events, nature programs, social functions, educational and recreational activities, and festivals throughout the year.  Some of these include World War II Commemoration Weekend every March, with a nighttime "World War 2 USO-style" entertainment; an historic-era interpretation with period-attired living historians for visiting groups, such as National Guard members, US and Foreign Militaries, ROTC cadets, and students in schools of all grade levels.  The Society increases public awareness of Dade Battlefield and enhances youth education and citizenship through field trips, quality outreach programs, sponsoring of scholarships, and creation of the Dade Pioneers for school-age children and Dade's Youth for teens interested in earning volunteer hours, while allowing them to become Dade Battlefield Society members. 

  https://www.dadebattlefield.com/society.html

Tampa Times July 7, 1921 Dade Park Dedication

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. 

Like us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Get the latest episode without delay where and when you want it by subscribing through your favorite podcast provider, such as iHeart, Stitcher, Spotify, DoubleTwist, Pandora, Podbean, Google podcasts, iTunes or directly from the Seminole Wars Foundation website at www.seminolewars.us 

There is a short answer to the question, "What started the Second Seminole War?" That’s simple. An ambush. The Florida Seminole Indians attacked a column of American Soldiers by surprise. The Soldiers were marching along the old Fort King Military Road to relieve the garrison at Fort King.

A better question, however, begins with why. Why did the Second Seminole War start? Seminole anger with the US Government. Why were the Seminoles suddenly hostile to the US Government? Because the US Government had unilaterally ended its treaty with the Seminole. Why did the US Government abrogate its treaty and fervently insist they remove from Florida ten years before the treaty’s expiration? It wanted their land. Why did it want their land?  The answer to that question is more nuanced than one may imagine.

In this episode, autodidact, living historian, and military reenactor Jesse Marshall joins us to explain the underlying causes that blazed a path to war between the US Government and the Florida Seminole in 1835.

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. 

Like us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Get the latest episode without delay where and when you want it by subscribing through your favorite podcast provider, such as iHeart, Stitcher, Spotify, DoubleTwist, Pandora, Podbean, Google podcasts, iTunes or directly from the Seminole Wars Foundation website at www.seminolewars.us 

This week we look at how the Second Seminole War forged a distinct lasting cultural identity among the loosely aligned bands of Florida Seminole in the 1830s.

In 1817, two years before the legal transfer of Florida from Spain to the United States, the Seminole Indians numbered as many as 5,000. They were organized into settled towns across North and Central Florida and thriving on an agricultural economy.  By the close of hostilities in 1858, those remaining Florida Seminole, who had not died from combat or illness or had been forcibly removed to reservations in the Oklahoma territory, numbered fewer than 200. These hearty, defiant survivors remained in scattered family camps on mostly inaccessible remote tree islands in the Everglades and Big Cypress Swamp. 

It is these Florida-based survivors whose descendants are now organized into the federally-recognized Seminole Tribe of Florida and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians.

Federal recognition depended on cultural survival and continuity of historical identity, both of which resulted from an internalized self-identity born in response to a period of cultural stress and crisis. Among the three federally recognized tribes today, distinct political identities exist.

The Seminole Tribe of Florida has about twenty-six hundred members, with most living on the three largest reservations at Hollywood, Big Cypress, and in the Everglades regions of the Florida South.

The five hundred or so members of the Miccosukee Tribe live on the Tamiami Reservation around U.S. Route 41 west of Miami in the Everglades. A small, politically independent group in Florida lives separate from these two and has resisted federal recognition in favor of maintaining a traditional identity, staying away from modern society.

The third federally recognized political entity is among the descendants of the Seminole deported to Oklahoma during the wars. They comprise the twelve-thousand member Seminole Nation of Oklahoma in the Wewoka area of Seminole county.

In this podcast, we will explore the ethno-genesis of the Florida Seminole. We will define ethno-genesis. And we will explain the continued cultural importance of the Seminole Wars to the people of Florida.

To help understand this is Brent R. Weisman. Dr. Weisman is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the University of South Florida. He has served as the editor of The Florida Anthropologist, president of the Seminole Wars Historic Foundation, and the Alliance for Weedon Island Archaeological Research and Education, and was a founding director of the Florida Public Archaeology Network. His research interests continue to be Seminole Indian culture and history, Florida archaeology, and North American Indians. He has written and published numerous journal articles and books about the Seminole.

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. 

Like us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Get the latest episode without delay where and when you want it by subscribing through your favorite podcast provider, such as iHeart, Stitcher, Spotify, DoubleTwist, Pandora, Podbean, Google podcasts, iTunes or directly from the Seminole Wars Foundation website at www.seminolewars.us 

The "big bang" battle that began the Second Seminole War in late 1835 comprised the Seminole ambush of a column of US Soldiers marching along the Fort King Road to relieve that under-manned military outpost. Three big battles followed it, all along the banks of Florida’s Withlacoochee River. Rather than achieve a quick, decisive victory over the Seminole, the Army found itself forced to settle in for a long, hard slog in its removal efforts. Many written accounts survive these battles, but they tell only the Army’s side of the story. And some of these contradict each other.

The need to reconcile historical discrepancies -- and account for omissions of Seminole perspectives --  provided an ideal opening for the Gulf Archaeological Research Institute, or GARI, from Crystal River, Florida. GARI dispatched a survey team to assess incongruities in the official record by examining the terrain features in comparison to known locations and surviving artifacts. From these, GARI drew fresh conclusions about how the battles were fought by each side to the conflict. GARI is the only independent, not-for-profit organization focused on preserving both the archaeological and the natural heritage of Florida. Joining us to explain their findings is Sean Norman, GARI’s acting executive director.

BACKGROUND: The first of the cove battles featured Brigadier General Duncan Clinch in command. He lead a large force toward the Withlachoochee River from his post at Fort Drane, to the north. He intended to meet Seminole chiefs and compel them to accept removal to the Oklahoma territory by it’s the US government’s self-imposed January 1st deadline in 1836.

Rather than conduct a parlay and negotiations, Clinch found himself instead engaged in an intense but inconclusive battle. Some weeks later, Major General Edmund Gaines also sought the Seminole at the Withlacoochee River. He intended to bring them to heel for the annihilation of the Army’s Fort King-bound relief column. He was fortunate to survive a hostile Seminole siege on his position, following an inconclusive battle. Finally, Major General Winfield Scott arrived to try his hand at taming the Seminole at the Withlacoochee River. The Seminoles resisted and bedeviled his efforts bringing a now-familiar result: inconclusive battle.

Copy of 1836 Map prepared by Major General Winfield Scott for engagements in the Florida War. 

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. 

Like us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Get the latest episode without delay where and when you want it by subscribing through your favorite podcast provider, such as iHeart, Stitcher, Spotify, DoubleTwist, Pandora, Podbean, Google podcasts, iTunes or directly from the Seminole Wars Foundation website at www.seminolewars.us 

We have discussed the Florida Black Seminole as a group previously and how they allied with the Seminole against the US Government’s Indian removal policy of the 1830s.  A number of Florida Black Seminole stood out with distinction and are remembered today in history books. students of the Second Seminole War may recognize these names: Abraham, John Ceasar, and Gopher John, also known as John Horse or John Cavallo.

Returning to the Seminole Wars to elaborate on their contributions is Dr. Anthony E. Dixon, who podcasted with us previously to discuss the Black Seminole as a group. He is the author of Florida’s Negro War. Dr. Dixon is also the Founder and President of AHRA, the Archival and Historical research Associates. He an Adjunct Professor of History at Florida A&M University and has been the Field Director for the Florida African American Heritage Preservation Network.

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. 

Like us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Get the latest episode without delay where and when you want it by subscribing through your favorite podcast provider, such as iHeart, Stitcher, Spotify, DoubleTwist, Pandora, Podbean, Google podcasts, iTunes or directly from the Seminole Wars Foundation website at www.seminolewars.us 

In Seminole & Creek War Battles and Events, Chris Kimball stitches every single reference to a war, campaign, battle, engagement, skirmish, or ambush into the most comprehensive list of such engagements ever assembled. Although the Seminole Wars had a few well documented big battles, it also encompassed scores of small skirmishes that comprised the bulk of the fighting between soldiers and Seminole. Seminole & Creek War Battles and Events offers a regional perspective lacking in accounts of either just the Seminole Wars or of just the first and second Creek Wars of the American southeast. Most of what he chronicles here has been long overlooked in history books.  Finding this comprehensive list in one place is a godsend for anyone who seeks to understand the fighting of this period and is a must-have for anyone interested in Florida or American military history.

Joining us to explain how he assembled Seminole & Creek War Battles and Events and why is Chris Kimball. Chris is a researcher and living historian of the Seminole Wars, and is a member of the Board of the Seminole Wars Foundation. He podcasted with us previously to discuss his reference collection to Seminole War articles found in the Army-Navy Chronicle and his compilation of letters, reports, and descriptions of the war’s bloodiest battles and events in the region of Alachua County, Florida. Chris Kimball has always been interested in Florida history and Seminole Indians due to growing up in Florida.  After earning a degree in Public Administration from UCF, Chris served as a Sergeant in the US Army, in the Adjutant General Corps, where he learned to navigate the various systems of administration and paperwork that the Army is famous for, which prove invaluable for researching Florida Seminole War history.

He is active in historical living history presentations since 1985, and recreates historical clothing, writes articles, web pages, and newsletters.  He has assisted with museum exhibits and made reproductions of outfits for museums.

He created the first book of battles and events of the Florida Seminole War as a resource to provide a better perspective of events that happened in the war. For his next project, he scoured 6,000 surviving pages of the military trade journal printed in 1835 to 1844, the Army and Navy Chronicle, to construct a synopsis of all the Seminole War articles. This project led him to riveting accounts, many previously unpublished, from the latter half of the war around Alachua County, which he summarized in his third book, Alachua Ambush.

The Kimball Bookshop is at: https://bookshop.org/shop/seminolewar His Youtube channel is at: https://www.youtube.com/user/seminolewar/

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. 

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