Lake Okeechobee is the seventh largest freshwater lake in the U.S. and the second largest body of freshwater resting totally within the United States, ranking just after Lake Michigan. Unlike that Great Lake, though, Lake Okeechobee lies entirely within the State of Florida, bordering on five counties. It lies near the Everglades, the territory around it being swamp. In 1837, the grass was as tall as most men, the mud was several feet thick, almost quicksand, and the trees were filled with dense undergrowth. Great conditions for the Seminoles and dangerous for their White adversaries.
Fed up with the inability to bring the War to a satisfying conclusion, the Van Buren administration dispatched yet another leading military commander to Florida. Zachary Taylor had already made his mark in other Indian Wars further west. Perhaps he could make something of this conflict. He had a force composed of units from the 1st, 4th and 6th Infantry Regiments, augmented with Missouri Volunteers. As they surveyed the available area around Lake Okeechobee, they knew that their enemy was waiting to spring a trap. Some of the grass had been cropped or pulled away, and there were notches cut in trees to rest rifles. Taylor knew that his adversary had scouts in the trees, reporting their movements to the Native command team, which consisted of Alligator, Billy Bowlegs, Sam Jones/Abiaka, and Coacoochee, though Taylor didn't know it yet. Coacoochee had recently escaped from Fort Marion and the Americans were wondering where he'd got to.
As Taylor marched his men to the middle of the prepared ground on the lakeshore, a Seminole warrior in full battle regalia popped out from the trees, taunting them. To their horror, Taylor's men knew who it was. Coacoochee was even more wily and fierce in battle than Osceola. Taylor had fronted his force with the Missouri volunteers, who lunged toward their target, standing alone and tempting them to come closer. As they did, Natives in the trees opened fire, killing the Missouri commander and sending the militia scattering for their lives. Not wanting to spread his men too far in the unfamiliar swamp and not sure where the enemy was or would be next, Taylor sent the 6th Infantry forward. They, too, took heavy casualties as the Natives opened up on them again. Taylor knew it was useless to plunge further into the swamp and withdrew his men. He suffered 26 killed and 112 wounded, who had to be carted through the swamp back to camp to be tended in less than idea conditions. The Seminoles, who began the fight with 400 warriors, counted their losses as 11 dead and 14 wounded. 
Taylor left the battlefield otherwise empty-handed. He'd not been able to capture a single Seminole or convince them to agree to remove to Oklahoma. The cohesion of the Seminoles without Osceola was a warning that this War was far from over. His only reward for this day's work was 100 ponies and 600 head of cattle. This, though, was a grave loss to the Seminole, who were already suffering from dwindling food supplies and inability to transport themselves and their people from camp to camp to stay ahead of the advancing army. Thus, while the Natives had won tactical advantage on the ground, the U.S. had scored a key strategic victory by further depriving their army of needed animals and forcing them further back in the swamp. The Battle of Lake Okeechobee was a win-win, a draw or a useless exercise, depending on how one looks at it.Nevertheless, the Americans, now beginning to smart under criticism for the way Osceola had been captured under flag of truce, needed a hero for the newspapers. They treated Zachary Taylor as a conqueror, with an appropriate name, "Old Rough and Ready." He would go on to greater fame as a Mexican War general and one of the handful of Presidents to die in office, but that was years in the future. It was Billy Bowlegs who popped Taylor's posthumous fame bubble. In the 1850's, he was on a delegation to Washington to request, once again, assistance for his people who were trying to make the best of their lives in Oklahoma with scan rations, cloth or blankets. As he was on a tour of the Capitol, he spotted a picture of Taylor and pointed to it and then to himself. "Me whip!" he said with a grin. (I beat him!)
Warfare is a fascinating subject. Despite the dubious morality of using violence to achieve personal or political aims. It remains that conflict has been used to do just that throughout recorded history.
ReplyDeleteYour article is very well done, a good read.