Part 3

Next day, after a fatiguing march, they arrived at Tampa Bay, and camped a few miles from Fort Brooke, on the other side of the river. The men looked very different from the gay, gallant set of fellows who had marched away three months before, their clothes were torn, their shoes worn out, and they themselves were thin and dirty. General Scott gave them the highest praise, and promised to send them home direct from Tampa. 8th.--An order was issued, that my company which had remained in garrison, should return to the Louisiana Volunteers. We immediately crossed the river, and were once more with our regiment. On the morning of the 9th, an Indian prisoner was brought to Fort Brooke by one of the Revenue Cutters. He had been taken in the following manner: some days before a party of seamen, commanded by Lieutenant Powell, had been dispatched from the Sloop of War Vandalia, to Charlotte’s harbour, in consequence of some outrages committed by the Indians in that quarter. The seamen had built a Fort large enough to accommodate themselves and the families of several Spanish fishermen. The Collector of Customs had been murdered a short time before by the Indians, and the Spaniards were much alarmed. The prisoner was the particular object of their terror and aversion. He was known to be a determined fellow, was a suspected accomplice in the Custom house Officer’s murder, and had sworn vengeance against several of the Spaniards. His sister, (a reputed prophetess,) was married to one of them. Lieutenant Powell went with his party to a house at night, and demanded admittance; some one within, shouted Hallo! and immediately after the door was opened, and out rushed three Indians. Two of them were shot down, and three sailors seized the third, but he made a desperate struggle, and succeeded in escaping: the men might have killed him, but the orders were to take him alive. His retreat, a well chosen one, was discovered a few days after:--A tree grew on the outer end of a sand bar, which was covered with water at flood tide; the tree was then a mile from the shore, and the water was scarce a foot deep. The Indian had rigged a very convenient sleeping place for himself, among the boughs, whence he would observe every thing passing around, with very little danger of discovery. He was, however, watched by the Spaniards, who dreaded him, his retreat was reported to Lieutenant Powell, and he himself was seized, whilst asleep, and conducted to Tampa Bay. He reported that there were a considerable number of Indians, besides Negroes, and a large quantity of ammunition, in the neighbourhood of Charlotte’s harbour, and declared his readiness to conduct a party to the spot, stipulating, that he should afterwards recover his freedom. General Smith, immediately volunteered the services of himself and Regiment; his offer was accepted, and on Sunday the 10th, we embarked in the brigantine Calvin and the Schooner Cumberland, for Charlotte’s harbour, distant seventy or eighty miles. We had light winds, and were not landed till the Sunday following. Five days’ rations of provisions were then issued, and orders given for a march on the following day. The men were much dissatisfied: their clothes and shoes were worn out, their feet blistered, and General Scott, having first expressed his perfect satisfaction at their conduct, had promised to them, home direct from Tampa Bay. A statement to this effect was sent in to General Smith, on the evening previous to our march; but was not noticed. Next morning (18th,) we started with five days’ provisions, and marched seven or eight miles. The day was very hot, and the men dropped behind in considerable numbers. We halted at 12 o’clock, and the General gave orders, that all who chose to go forward, should step on in front, and that the others should return to our camping ground, at the _embouchure_ of the Maijaka river. About one hundred and twenty volunteers stepped out, making with the seamen from the Sloop of War Vandalia and the Revenue Cutter, one hundred and sixty men; too small a party to face the enemy; but General Smith was willing to expose his life on this, and indeed all other occasions, and it was our duty to follow. Those who remained behind had every reason to do so: some were unwell, some had no shoes or canteens: they had all undergone much fatigue, and the General told them, it was no disgrace to return. They shared their provisions with us, and wished us success. The bugle sounded forward, and we soon struck the river, where we found a fleet of canoes, waiting to receive our baggage. One half of the party ascended the stream in boats to a convenient camping ground, and the rest marched through the woods towards the same point, with the Indian for a guide; he was strictly watched, although he showed no desire to attempt an escape. The march was longer than we expected, and some of the officers were very impatient with and suspicious of the guide, his language was a mixture of Spanish and Indian, and no one of the party could understand him correctly: the road, too, winded circuitously through the hammocks and along the bayous, with which the banks of the river are indented, and we were forced to march several miles, to gain one in the right direction. About 10 o’clock at night, we came to a hammock which seemed scarce penetrable: the guide said that General Smith with the boats, lay half an hour’s march on the other side; but the officers suspected treachery, and determined to halt. We placed a strict guard over the prisoner, built our fires, and spent the night round them. We started early next morning, and in half an hour’s walk, came on the General’s camping ground, as the Indian had told us the previous night. The whole party here embarked in the canoes, the right under command of Lieutenant Lawson, the left under Captain Ross of the mariners. Our object was supposed to be the burning of an Indian village in the interior. The river was very beautiful, and for the most part deep; there is some excellent land on the banks, and plenty of timber. The Live Oak, Pine, Pickon and Cabbage Trees, are most numerous. It is no wonder that the red men are so unwilling to depart from the land of their fathers. It is a perfect Eden. The woods abound with game, the rivers with fish, and the soil produces almost spontaneously the few articles of food needed by the Indian.

We sailed and rowed many miles up the river, and halted at a pretty spot, called afterwards Live Oak Camp. Here we found evident signs of Indians; the ashes of fire recently extinguished, green hides, two live fowls, which were quickly smoking in the General’s quarters, and several razors and other articles supposed to have been the property of the murdered collector of customs.

20th--Again embarked and rowed a few miles up the stream, but were forced to return on account of the obstructions. We left the boats at Live Oak Camp, with a few men to guard them, shouldered our knapsacks and tramped through the woods. We expected to fall in with some live stock but were disappointed. We marched up the river through the best land we had yet seen, and observed the recent tracks of cattle, horses and dogs. Towards night we fell in with an old Indian encampment close to a brook of excellent water. We built ourselves huts of palmettoes and boughs and slept comfortably in spite of the rain. We called this spot Camp Cowpens, from a large cattle pen close by.

21st--Passed through several large prairies; near one of them we observed the figure of an Indian rudely carved in the bark of a tree. We soon after waded the river nearly four feet deep; the guide followed by the General, leading the way. A halt was called on the other side and the people amused themselves swimming.

A Dutchman who could not swim, contrived to get out of his depth and was seen struggling very hard. He sank several times and at length raised his head and shouted alligator. The river abounds with them. Captain Green of the revenue cutter, Lieutenant Powell and General Smith, who were ashore, jumped in and brought him out alive but nearly exhausted. We saw no Indians or village on that or the following day, and the provisions being out, returned to Live Oak Camp on the morning of the 23d. At a short distance from it the advance guard fired on a deer, while the rear were threading their way through a hammock. We all thought the Philistines were surely upon us, and rushed forward as fast as possible. The deer bounded along the whole line and offered a mark to almost every man, but escaped uninjured.

We had suffered not a little from hunger; our expectation was to return in a day at farthest, to Live Oak Camp; we therefore left most of our provisions with the boats, and felt the want of them severely as we were absent three days.

After breakfast we again embarked and descended the river to the camping ground of the regiment. We had every reason to congratulate ourselves on our return in safety. The expedition might have proved as disastrous as that of Major Dade: a small body of the enemy might have cut us off on the river, which is in some places not twenty yards wide. They might have fired on us with perfect security to themselves.

The summer, indeed, is scarcely the fit time for attacking them; the leaves are then so numerous that it is impossible to see them, and the weather is so hot that it is as impossible to carry the knapsack, provisions and accoutrements. The expedition has answered one good purpose; it has given some knowledge of a very interesting and before unknown section of the territory. The land is excellent and the river may be made navigable for steamboats at a very trifling expense; it is besides adjacent to the Orleans market.

We embarked on the 24th, and reached Tampa Bay on the 27th. On the following morning Colonel Chisme returned to the Fort with a party composed of the fourth Regular Infantry, commanded by Colonel Foster, and the Alabama volunteers. Colonel Chisme had been despatched to bring in the garrison and military stores from Fort Alabama, which was considered untenable.

The Colonel carried off or destroyed the stores and placed a spring gun in the magazine, disposed in such a manner that on opening the door, the magazine itself should explode. The army had not marched more than a mile, when a tremendous explosion was heard, and there is little doubt that many of the red-skins were despatched to the hunting grounds of their great Manitto. On the same day (27th) fourteen miles from Fort Brooke, the army seven or eight hundred in number, was attacked by the Indians from a hammock. The regulars complain that the Alabama troops were not as willing to charge the hammocks as their old friends from Louisiana. Some of them acted like brave men, but the greater part hung back and lost the most favorable opportunity yet presented, of paying the Indians for old scores. The regulars charged the hammock and beat them off. The loss on our side was five killed and fourteen or fifteen wounded. Major Sandes had his horse shot under him. The horse of one of the Alabama volunteers was shot and fell on his rider: an Indian rushed from the hammock, intending to scalp him, but the gallant fellow though entangled beneath his horse, contrived to shoot the Indian, and reload his piece for a second enemy, but he was soon discovered, and relieved from his painful situation. If all his regiment had acted with the like resolution, the Indians would have had but little to boast of.

May 1st--General Scott had proceeded to the Ouithlacouchy, on his return to Fort Drane, and had left the following order:

Head Quarters of the Army of Florida, } TAMPA BAY, _April 16th, 1836_. }

ORDER--No. 37.

The Louisiana Regiment of Volunteers, under the gallant Colonel Persifor F. Smith, will on its return to this place, immediately proceed to New Orleans, in the best transports the Quarter Master’s department can supply. It will first turn into store the arms and other property of the United States, in its possession, and which may not be necessary to the comfort of the regiment on its passage home.

At New Orleans, Major Clarke or other United States officer, shall muster the regiment out of the service of the United States, and it will at the same time be paid by the paymaster of the army, stationed in that city.

What may be the result of the expedition to Charlotte’s harbor and Pees creek, in which the Regiment is at present engaged, cannot be known to the Commanding General in some weeks. Judging from the past, the result cannot fail to be highly honorable to the Colonel, the officers and men of that efficient corps, which is already entitled to the thanks of the country. Doctor Lawson, the senior Surgeon of the United States army, who under a commission from the state of Louisiana, has served as Lieutenant Colonel of the regiment, and who has superadded the distinction of arms to his high medical reputation, will temporarily take charge of the general Hospital at this place. As soon as the great body of the sick shall have been restored and sent off to their respective States, Surgeon Lawson will return to his proper station.

(Signed) WINFIELD SCOTT.

By command of Major General Scott,

K. JOHNSTON,

Aid de Camp and Act’g Ass’t Adj’t General.

* * * * *

The following order was issued by General Smith:

CAMP GEORGIA, _April 28th, 1836_. } Head Quarters, Louisiana Volunteers. }

ORDER--No. 18

The Regiment having completed the duties assigned to it by the Commanding General, he has ordered it to be transported to New Orleans, and there honorably discharged: the arms and accoutrements being deposited here.

The transports furnished are the schooners Emeline and Cumberland, the brigs Calvin, Martha and Caroline, and a steamboat. The troops are assigned to these transports as follows:

To the schr. Emeline, Capts. Mark’s and Edwards’ Company. “ “ Cumberland, “ Kerr and Williams’ “ “ brig Calvin, “ Abodi and Burt’s “ “ “ Martha, “ Lee and Barr’s “ Steamboat Magee, “ Rogers, Smith and Thistle’s “

Major Marks and Dr. Cushman will embark in the schooner Cumberland; Adjutant Barron, and Serg’t Major Hand, in the Emeline; Surgeon Harrall and the Quarter Master Sergeant in the brig Calvin, and Lieut. Colonel Lawson with Lieuts. Balls and Dyer in the steamboat.

Fifteen days provisions will embark with each detachment.

As each transport arrives in New Orleans, the senior officer on board will require of the Quarter Master and Assistant Commissary the necessary quarters and provisions, until the troops are mustered out of the service.

By order of Colonel PERSIFOR F. SMITH.

* * * * *

Colonel Smith left Tampa Bay on 30th April in the cutter Dallas to meet General Scott at St. Marks, by order of the General.

May 1st--My company and that of Captain Lee received fifteen days rations and embarked in the schooner Martha, Captain Baker: the brig Calvin and schooners Emeline and Cumberland had sailed before us. We put to sea on the second, and soon bid adieu to the shores of fair Florida, with every prospect of soon exchanging the soldier’s bed of sand for the citizen’s couch of down, without the laborious precaution of erecting a breastwork, and of enjoying the luxury of lounging through the streets without an ass load of provisions on our backs.

The following are among the orders issued after our arrival at Fort Brooke:

Head Quarters, Western Department, } FORT BROOKE, _10th Feb., 1836_. }

ORDER--No. 4.

I.--Captain E. A. Hitchcock, of the first Regiment United States Infantry, is hereby appointed to act as Assistant Inspector General of the Department.

II.--The troops of this post, consisting of A. B. G. and H. companies of the second Regiment of Artillery, and A. B. E. G. H. I. and K. companies of the fourth Infantry, with the Louisiana volunteers under Adj’t General Smith, will constitute a brigade, to be designated the Light Brigade, and shall be commanded by Lieut. Colonel D. E. Twiggs of the fourth Infantry.

III.--Lieut. I. Izard of the Dragoons, will perform the duties of Brigade Major and will report to Colonel Twiggs accordingly.

By order of Major General Gaines, GEORGE A. M’CALL, Aid de Camp, Acting Assistant Adjutant.

* * * * *

Head Quarters, Western Department, } FORT BROOKE, _Feb. 11th, 1836_. }

SPECIAL ORDER--No. 10.

The Quarter Master, Captain Shannon, will furnish Howersacks or materials for making them, together with such camp equipage as may be necessary for the troops under command of Lieutenant Colonel Twiggs, proper requisitions being made for the same.

By order of Major General Gaines, G. A. M’CALL, A. D. C., Acting Assistant Adjutant.

* * * * *

Head Quarters, Light Brigade, } FORT BROOKE, FLORIDA, _Feb. 10th, 1836_. }

ORDER--No. 1.

1. In obedience to Western Department Order--No. 4, the undersigned assumes the command of the Light Brigade.

2. Orders will be received through Lieutenant Izard and Buchanan, and Battalion Adjutants will report for Orders, at the Head Quarters of the Brigade, at the sound of the Adjutant’s Call.

3. The troops will be in readiness to march on the morning of the 12th inst. They will take with them ten days’ rations, of which five shall be carried in the knapsacks. Each man shall also take with him twenty extra cartridges in his knapsack.

4. Where the strength of the Company is fifty or under, each shall take with it eight axes and slings and eight spades, and where over fifty, a proportioned number at that rate.

5. The officers and men shall not be permitted to leave their companies, without special permission from the Commanders of their respective companies.

D. E. TWIGGS, Lieutenant Colonel Commanding.

* * * * *

Head Quarters, Light Brigade, } FORT BROOKE, FLORIDA, _Feb. 12th, 1836_. }

1. The troops of this Fort will march to-morrow morning, and Commandants of Corps are directed to inspect their respective commands, and report the condition of their companies by 4 o’clock this afternoon.

2. Brevet Major R. M. Sandes’ fourth Infantry will remain in command of Fort Brooke. All the Regulars not able to march, together with one hundred and fifty men and a suitable number of Officers, to be detailed by Colonel Smith from his Regiment, will also remain. Assistant Surgeon Heistell will determine what men of the sick are unable to march.

3. First Lieutenants S. M’Kenzie, second Artillery, and G. Morris, fourth Infantry will remain at Fort Brooke, in discharge of their Staff duties. Lieutenant M’Kenzie, will retain Sergeant Armstrong of H. Company second Artillery, as the Ordnance Sergeant of the Post. Corporal Sunderland of B. Company third Artillery, will remain and report himself to Lieutenant J. C. Casey, second Artillery, acting Assistant Quarter Master, upon his arrival at this post.

(Signed,) D. E. TWIGGS, Lieutenant Colonel Commanding.

* * * * *

Head Quarters, &c., } _Feb. 12th, 1836_. }

ORDER--No. 15.

The Regiment will be inspected at 12 o’clock to day, when every company will be prepared to march in the morning. Each man is to have forty rounds of ammunition, and ten days’ rations, five of which are to be carried in the knapsacks.

By order of A. G. BARROW, Adjutant.

* * * * *

ORDER--No. 20.

The Regiment is organized in two Battalions, the first is composed of the companies of Captains Burt, Lee, Williams, Rogers and Thistle, the second of the companies of Captains Marks, Ker, Magee, Smith, Abodi and Barr. Lieutenant Colonel Lawson is chief of the first Battalion, and Major Marks of the second. The companies will form in the order here named.

By order of A. G. BARRON, Adjutant.

* * * * *

Head Quarters, Western Department, } FORT IZARD, on the Outhlacouchy, Florida, _March 9, 1836_. }

ORDER--No. 7.

1. Called to East Florida, by the savage massacre and conflagrations of the 28th December, and the following month, the Commanding General hastily collected together in Louisiana, the forces which accompany him from that patriotic State. These forces have, in the short space of thirty-six days, marched by land and sea, nearly eight hundred miles, one hundred and forty of which was through the country occupied by the enemy, whose principal force they have met, beaten, and forced to sue for a peace.

2. These important objects of the campaign have been accomplished, with the hearty and cordial co-operation of Brigadier General Clinch, to whose sound judgment the defence of this frontier had been confided, and by whose gallantry the enemy had been chastised on the 31st of December, and since held in check, as far as his limited means would allow: the troops from Louisiana are placed under his command, to guard against the known faithlessness of the enemy, until the arrival of the forces with the Officer charged with the diplomatic arrangements of the War Department. Whenever, and so soon as that Officer shall mature his plan of operations, and accomplish the duties assigned him, the forces from Louisiana, will return to New Orleans.

3. The Commanding General cannot, consistently with his views of propriety, take leave of the troops by whom he has been so manfully sustained, without tendering to them his grateful acknowledgements, for the constancy and courage with which they have performed every duty, and borne privations, the recital of which could not fail to command the admiration of the virtuous and the wise, in every section of the Republic. The officers and soldiers, comprehending the whole force, (including the Artillery from Tampa Bay,) acting as the Light Brigade, under command of Lieutenant Colonel Twiggs, of the fourth Infantry, have performed their duty so much to the satisfaction of the General, that he cannot discriminate between the relative claim of officers or individuals of corps, without the risk of invidious distinctions. All did their duty cheerfully and gallantly, and when it became necessary to meet the question, whether to eat the meat of their own horses, or to abandon an important position, all cheerfully resolved to prefer this unpleasant species of subsistence, to any movement which might endanger the frontier. The horse meat was accordingly eaten by officers and men, until the enemy was beaten, and sued for peace, when a timely supply of subsistence arrived, escorted by the brave Georgians, Floridians and Regulars, under General Clinch, at the moment the pacific proposals of the enemy were being answered; and the Indians were fired on by the General’s light troops, before he could be notified of the object of their being so near the camp. They have since disappeared.