February 23, 1997
Bananas Stolen From Bowlegs Start Last Seminole War
Billy Bowlegs - Holata Micco
The last of three Seminole Wars was decided by a relatively minor skirmish at an isolated ranch on the banks of the Peace River. It began in December l855 when Lt. George Hartsuff led a 11-man squad to determine the number of Indians in the Everglades east of Fort Myers. Hartsuff's orders were: "Explore area but tell Indians you have no hostile intention. Treat Indians with kindness and courtesy. Indians will not attack unless provoked."
The little scouting party made camp at a hammock (raised land of pine and palms) three miles from the town of Chief Billy Bowlegs -- as he was called by Americans. His Seminole name was Holata Micco. He also had a French name, Bolek, which was mispronounced by Americans.
Next day, Hartsuff and three men went to the village and found it empty. As Hartsuff left, his soldiers took several bunches of bananas from Bowlegs' garden. History books are not clear about the pilferage. One version is that the soldiers destroyed the banana plants "to see old Billy cut up." Hartsuff's report was that his men took a few bunches of fruit without destroying the plants.
Whatever the truth, Bowlegs was furious. The next night, a war party of 30 Seminoles led by Bowlegs, attacked the Hartsuff squad. Four soldiers were killed. Four others, including Hartsuff, were wounded. War had broken out once again!
The first action against the Seminoles had occurred in l8l6 when a young U.S. general, Andrew Jackson, invaded British-owned Florida. His aim was to destroy a fort given by the British to runaway slaves harbored by the Seminoles. The strong point at Prospect Bluff on the Apalachicola River was manned by a thousand well-armed blacks.
The fort was leveled by a red-hot cannon ball which touched off the powder magazine, killing or wounding all the defenders. Their Seminole allies rushed to join the fray but withdrew when they saw the fort destroyed. Nevertheless, they launched intermittent terrorist attacks which went on for 39 years.
The second "war" began in December l835 with ambush of a squad of 110 U.S. soldiers led by Maj. Francis Dade. He left Fort Brooke ( Tampa) to relieve the garrison at Fort King ( Ocala) and was ambushed by Indians led by Osceola. Only one man, severely wounded, survived the massacre. The Americans retaliated in force.
Following this second conflict, the Seminoles agreed to a "temporary" reservation east and south of the Peas (Peace) River. The coastal islands and Charlotte Harbor were excluded in an effort to stop the smuggling of arms to the Indians by Cuban fishermen.
Armed Occupation Act
Even the new reservation was coveted by cattlemen who had taken up claims on the west side of Peace River under terms of the Armed Occupation Act. This law, adopted by the Florida Legislature in 1842, granted 160 acres to a homesteader with a rifle who would locate two miles from a fort and brave the forays of hostile Indians.
Many families moved to the very banks of the Peace River where Bowlegs and his tribe resided on the other side. The federal government undertook to resettle Seminoles -- first to Arkansas, later to Oklahoma and Kansas.
During this period of tension, the Kennedy-Darling trading posts -- at Charlotte Harbor south of today's Burnt Store Marina and at Peace River near Wauchula -- were burned by the Seminoles. Bowlegs was taken to Washington, D.C., to negotiate terms of removal, but neither he nor very many of his band cooperated.
To avoid trouble, Bowlegs moved his people to the Everglades. Ironically the third war followed him, erupting over stolen bananas. Again, the Seminoles and settlers engaged in deadly hit- and-run tactics -- killing each other in ambushes and raids of opportunity.
Such a raid by the Seminoles against a homestead south of Fort Meade proved to be the climax of the war. Most families had moved into Fort Meade for protection.
However, Willoughby Tillis, with his wife and three children, and a friend Thomas Underhill, were building a home and hurried to finish it before leaving for the fort.
A dozen or so Indians attacked on the morning of June 14, 1856, while Mrs. Tillis was milking her cows. She, her two boys, and a African-American woman servant named Aunt Line, raced to the house. Tillis and Underhill fired their rifles from chinks in the log building, killing one Indian. The frustrated Seminoles killed 12 horses.
Two boys in the area heard the shooting and ran to Fort Meade for help. Lt. Alderman Carlton and six others mounted their horses and rushed to the scene.
Hearing the approaching posse, the Indians retreated to a heavily forested hammock nearby. Carlton and his men rushed the hammock on foot, engaging the enemy in hand-to-hand combat with knives and pistols. During the bloody struggle, Lt. Carlton noticed that one of his men had the Seminole leader pinned to the ground. Carlton rushed over and cut the Indian's throat. With this the Indians fled, taking their wounded with them.
Lt. Carlton, Lott Whidden and William Parker were killed. Pvt. Daniel Carlton (son of the lieutenant), John C. Oats and John Hollingsworth were wounded.
News of the fight was carried to Fort Fraser. Sergeants F.C.M. Boggess and F.M. Durrance and l5 other militiamen were dispatched to chase the Seminoles. The Indians gathered reinforcements and took defensive positions in the swamps along the Peace River.
The Final Battle
The Boggess-Durrance squad returned to Fort Fraser to relay the news. A militia of 19 men was organized under command of Lt. Streaty Parker. This force found the enemy on June l6. Without stopping, the enraged militiamen charged. The Seminoles retreated by swimming across the river. Many were killed in the water. One of these was Oscen Tustenuggee, the Seminole war captain.
The Indians returned a withering fire from across the river, killing Robert Pine and George Howell; and wounding James Whidden, William Brooker and John Skipper. Parker ordered a withdrawal to Brooker's place where they were joined by a larger detachment led by Capt. William Hooker. The soldiers pursued the Seminoles but were unable to overtake them.
Approximately 20 Indians were killed in the engagement. The American dead were buried in a common grave at Fort Meade. With the death of Tustenuggee, the Seminole's desire to fight withered. Minor skirmishes and murders continued for another year, but Billy Bowlegs realized the end had come. He persuaded his people to join him in emigrating to Kansas. There he was appointed captain of an Indian regiment in the Union Army which participated in several attacks against pro-Confederate Indians during the Civil War. Bowlegs died in 1864 of smallpox.
Not more than 60 Seminoles remained in Florida. These retreated farther into the Everglades where their descendents live today in peace -- "skinning" the descendents of their former enemies in high-stakes bingo games.
By Lindsey Williams, columnist for Sun Coast Media Group newspapers
*it Photo courtesy of Florida State Archives *io
Holata Micco (Big Chief) Bolek, second from right, and his principal councilors were wined and dined at Washington, D.C., in an unsuccessful effort to persuade him to emigrate to Oklahama peacefully.
