Battle of Ocheesee
Battle of Ocheesee | |||||||
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Part of Seminole Wars | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Red Stick Creeks | United States | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Neamathla | Andrew Jackson |
The Battle of Ocheesee took place on the Apalachicola River, in northwest Spanish Florida, beginning in December of 1817. The shooting part of the battle lasted almost a week,[1]: 67–68 but the engagement lasted "weeks" and was "the longest sustained engagement of the Seminole Wars".[2]: 129 The name comes from the bluffs that overlook the river, from which one party of marksmen waged their attack. Today the land is in Torreya State Park.
On December 15, 1817,
The underlying issue was ownership of land south of the Flint River, which the other faction of the Creeks (who had just had a civil war) had ceded to the United States in the Treaty of Fort Jackson. The Red Sticks were not a party to the treaty (they were not even notified), and claimed that those Creeks had no right to give away their land. Behind it was the Treaty of Ghent ending the War of 1812, which guaranteed return to the Creeks of the lands taken from them by the United States. The treaty was, in this regard, unenforceable, since the British were scarcely going to send out troops to guarantee Indian rights.
There is not a definite day for the conclusion of the battle. The vessels were still pinned down in the same place when General