Painting: Osceola's Capture (or was it?)

Historical painting is a genre almost as old as painting itself.   American artists found a whole new outlet for painting in the various wars with Native tribes.  Seth Eastman, 1808-1875, was an army officer posted to various forts in the American west.  He was also topographer and illustrator, and an amateur artist in his spare time.  Later in life, his paintings as well as his treatises on topography would be commercially successful, insuring a comfortable retirement. 

One of his most famous works, painted in 1841, was entitled Osceola's Capture.  It shows a vanquished Seminole warrior seated on the ground under a half-tent with a soldier almost in his face.  Ever since its appearance, this painting has been billed as Osceola's capture, but was it?  If Eastman wanted to depict the capture of Osceola in 1837, he was way off in his historical details.  In October, 1937, there were two young Seminole leaders who were rising to the fore in their people's bid to stay in their homeland in Florida.  Osceola, the son of a mixed-race Creek woman and an unknown father, did not come from an elite-status family, but his defiance and daring had made him a celebrity among Americans at the time.  Meanwhile, another younger warrior, Coacoochee/Wildcat, the nephew of Leading Chief Micanopy, and whose father was also a chief, was gaining ground among their people.  He was as much a skilled guerrilla leader as Osceola, but his name and exploits weren't catching fire among the White reading public, who had fastened on Osceola.

Did this create drama between the two men?  We will never know.  However, in October 1837, it was Coacoochee who first approached Col. Thomas Jessup with an offer of a peace parley, saying he was representing Osceola.  Was Osceola, who was ailing at the time, trying to assess Jessup's willingness to talk?  Neither he nor Coacoochee ever said.  However, Jessup was in no mood for delay.  He ordered that both Coacoochee and Osceola, and any other Seminole leader who showed up at the peace parley to be taken in, talks or no.  On October 20, 1837, Coacoochee, Osceola, John Horse and several other Seminole leaders and warriors approached the American camp and were almost immediately taken prisoner.  From there, they were transported to St. Augustine, Florida on horseback and incarcerated in Fort Marion, the old Spanish fortress known as the Castillo de San Marco.  Thus, Osceola didn't have time to sit on the ground, pondering cruel fate.  If it was his capture Eastman wanted to portray, he could easily have been depicted in Fort Marion, whiling away his time.

While in Fort Marion, Coacoochee and John Horse came up with a daring escape plan.  They starved themselves to lose weight, pried the bars loose from their cell window, and dropped to the ground outside the fort, quickly making for the wilds outside the city.  Soon, Coacoochee had gathered the remnants of Seminole who had not surrendered, linked up with Abiaka and Billy Bowlegs, among others, and met Zachary Taylor at the Battle of Okeechobee in late December, 1837.  Too late, Americans realized they had another enemy on their hands, as wily and dangerous as Osceola.  Try as they might, no one could capture Coacoochee.  Finally, in 1840, Col. William S. Harney captured Coacoochee's wife, mother and daughter, thinking that this might induce Coacoochee to agree to deportation to Oklahoma.  Coacoochee met with American authorities several times, promising to surrender his men, but never did so. 

Fed up, Col. William Worth ordered the arrest of Coacoochee.  In October, 1841, he was captured and clapped in irons by Lt. William T. Sherman at Fort Pierce on the Indian River.  Beaten at last, Coacoochee knew he was on his way to Fort Gibson in Oklahoma but it didn't happen right away.  Winter was fast approaching and, in Oklahoma, the weather would be brutal.  Coacoochee would have a few months to wait until deportation time finally arrived.  Enter Lt. John T. Sprague, who had been assigned by the Army to interrogate Coacoochee with a view to determining which Seminole leaders were still the field and how many Natives remained in the swamps.  The two men became friends and Coacoochee gave a few more details about his life and his struggle, saying at one time, "I was in hopes that I would die in battle, but a bullet never reached me."

So, what does this have to do with the Eastman painting?  The painting is attributed to Seth Eastman in 1841.  That was the year Coacoochee was captured.  Also, the circumstances of the painting, a defeated warrior seated in an outdoor environment, closely guarded, fits the circumstances of Coacoochee's capture.  The Seminoles were held at Fort Pierce in tents while they awaited deportation to Oklahoma.  The painter had spared Osceola/Coacoochee the shame of being depicted in irons but the tense soldier guarding him, almost in his face, shows how closely he was being watched.  So, why call the painting Osceola's Capture and not Wildcat's Capture?  Americans were just as celebrity obsessed then as we are now.  With Osceola's capture and internment at Fort Marion and later death at Fort Moultrie in January, 1838, Americans had a name and, with George Catlin's painting, had a face.  Name recognition belonged to Osceola, not Coacoochee, who would have to wait for the 21st century to come out of Osceola's shadow.