Dade battle
Dade Battle | |||||||
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Part of Second Seminole War | |||||||
Visitor's center at Dade Battlefield State Park | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Seminole | United States | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Micanopy Chipco Thlocklo Tustenuggee |
Francis Dade † George Gardiner † Upton Fraser † | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
180 |
110 1 six-pounder cannon | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
3 killed 5 wounded |
108 killed 1 wounded |
The Dade battle (often called the Dade massacre) was an 1835 military defeat for the
The battle sparked the Second Seminole War, which ended in 1842. By that time, most Seminoles had surrendered and been transported out of Florida while a smaller portion had moved well south to the edges of the Everglades. There was no formal treaty ending the conflict.
The battle
On December 23, 1835, two U.S. companies of 110 men (including soldiers from the
Although the terrain he was now in, pines and palmettos, could not have concealed anyone who was standing or walking, it could and did conceal crouched or prone warriors waiting in ambush. The Seminoles refrained from attacking in the other places, not because they thought they could achieve better surprise later but because they were waiting for Osceola to join them. However, at the time he was busy killing Wiley Thompson. They finally gave up waiting and attacked without him.
Several Seminoles with their warriors assembled secretly at points along the march. Scouts reportedly watched the troops in their sky-blue uniforms at every foot of the route and sent reports back to the Indian chiefs. The troops marched for five quiet days until December 28, when they were just south of the present-day city of
An eyewitness account by Seminole leader Halpatter Tustenuggee (Alligator, as the white man called him) read as follows:
"We had been preparing for this more than a year... Just as the day was breaking, we moved out of the swamp into the pine-barren. I counted, by direction of Jumper, one hundred and eighty warriors. Upon approaching the road, each man chose his position on the west side... About nine o'clock in the morning the command approached... So soon as all the soldiers were opposite... Jumper gave the whoop, Micanopy fired the first rifle, the
The battle began either at 10:00 a.m. (according to Alligator) or at 8 a.m. and ending around 4 p.m. (according to survivor Private Ransom Clark),[5][6] with the Indians leaving around sunset."The Indians did not scalp or loot. They took food, and some clothes and ammunition, but nothing else. Only when they had withdrawn did a swarm of Negroes come to kill the wounded and loot the dead."[7]
Only three U.S. soldiers were reported to have survived the attack. Private Edward Decourcey had been covered by dead bodies, but for Ransom Clark, "the negroes, after catching me up by the heels, threw me down again with an oath: "He's dead enough." Then they stripped me of my clothes, shoes and hat and left me."
In 1837, Louis Pacheco, the mulatto slave who guided and interpreted for the Dade command, resurfaced and gave a third eyewitness account of the battle. Pacheco had been ahead of the column, by his account, and was taken prisoner by the Indians. Some thought him to be a turncoat or informer. He was shipped west with the Indians about that time, but returned to Florida shortly before his death in early 1895.
Aftermath
After the battle, many large plantations were burned and settlers killed. By the end of 1836, all but one house in what is now
News of the battle was reported in the Daily National Intelligencer, Washington, D.C. in the Wednesday, January 27, 1836, edition as follows:
“Major Dade, with seven officers and 110 men, started the day before we arrived, for Fort King. We were all prepared to overtake them the next day….when an intervention of circumstances deferred it for one day–and in the course of that day, three soldiers, horribly mangled, came into camp, and brought the melancholy tidings that Major Dade, and every officer and man, except themselves, were murdered and terribly mangled.”
The impact of the Florida hostilities dominated the national news until later events that year at the
The dead soldiers were first buried at the site by General Gaines. After the cessation of hostilities in 1842, the remains were disinterred and buried in St. Augustine National Cemetery on the grounds of St. Francis Barracks, the present day military installation that serves as headquarters for the Florida National Guard. The remains rest under 3 coquina stone pyramids along with the remains of over 1,300 other U.S. soldiers who died in the Second Seminole War.[12]
The Dade Monument (West Point), erected in 1845, also memorializes the battle.
Today, annual reenactments detail the battle events at the Dade Battlefield State Historic Site.[13]
See also
References
- ^ Steele, W.S. (1986). Last Command: The Dade Massacre (PDF). Florida Historical Association. p. 15. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-06-24. Retrieved 2012-04-15.
- ^ Meltzer, Milton. 2004. Hunted Like A Wolf. Pineapple Press. p.89
- ^ Sprague, John T. (1848) p. 91. Origin, Progress, and Conclusion of the FLORIDA WAR, by John T, Sprague, Brevet Captain, Eighth Regiment U.S. Infantry. Reproduction of 1848 edition, (2000) Seminole Wars Historical Foundation. University of Tampa Press, Tampa Florida.
- ^ Barr (1836) p. 10
- ^ Note-Pvt Ransom Clark was born in March 1812, Greigsville, New York, complexion-"swarthy", eyes-hazel, height-5'9", hair-black, Army enlistment term-3 years, Army enlistment date-09 August 1833,, Assignment-2nd Artillery Reg't. Laumer p. 18 (2008)
- ^ "Ransom Clark's Account, American Monthly Magazine". 1837.
- ^ Mahon p. 106
- ^ Bemrose p. 67, 68
- ^ Barr (1836) p. 10
- ^ Bemrose p. 67
- ^ Laumer (2008) p. 266
- ^ St. Augustine National Cemetery
- ^ Dade's Massacre Reenacts Start of Second Seminole War
Further reading
- Barr, James, Capt. (1836). Correct and Authentic Narrative of the Indian War in Florida, with a Description of Maj. Dade's Massacre, and an account of the extreme suffering, for want of provisions, of the Army-Having been obliged to eat Horses' and Dogs' Flesh, etc.New York: J. Narine, Printer, 11 Wall St.
- Bemrose, John (1966). Reminiscences of the Second Seminole War. University of Florida Press. Edited by John K. Mahon.
- Cohen, Myer M. (An Officer of the Left Wing). (1836). Notices of Florida and The Campaigns. New-York: B. B. Hussey, 378 Pearl-Street
- ISBN 0-8130-1097-7
- Laumer, Frank (1995) Dade's Last Command. University Press of Florida. ISBN 0-8130-1324-0
- Laumer, Frank (2008). Nobody's Hero, A novel[1] The story of Pvt. Ransom Clark, survivor of Dade's Battle, 1835.Pineapple Press, Inc. Sarasota, Florida.
External links
- Dade Battlefield Society
- Last Command: The Dade Massacre contains the Clarke, Alligator and Pacheco accounts
- The Dade Massacre, Florida Historical Quarterly Jan. 1927
- Ransom Clark's Account of the Dade Massacre, American Monthly Magazine (1837)
- ^ Note-All characters, places, and events are fact. Only the dialogue of the characters, and their individual personalities are the authors', Afterword chapter, p.265