First Blood: The Dawn Attack at Fowltown

Day One of the Battle of Fowltown

by Dale Cox

The probable site of Fowltown in Decatur County, Georgia.

Note: The following is excerpted from my 2017 book Fowltown: Neamathla, Tutalosi Talofa & the first battle of the Seminole Wars. Today is the 202nd anniversary of the first day of the three-day-long Battle of Fowltown, the first engagement of the Seminole Wars. To read yesterday's preliminary article, please see Soldiers cross the Flint River.

- Begin Excerpt -

The morning of November 21, 1817, was seasonably cold, especially as the soldiers moved down into the broad basin of Fowltown Swamp and Four Mile Creek. The creek flows out of the swamp just over one mile east of the Flint River and then runs in a slightly northwest directly to its confluence with the Flint. The route of the march from Burges’s down to the swamp likely followed a trail shown on the 1819 District Plats of Survey on file at the Georgia Archives. This pathway or “road” ran parallel to the Flint River about halfway between the east bank and today’s Faceville Road (GA 97).  [1]

Neamathla (Eneah Emathla)
The primary chief of Fowltown.

Neamathla was not expecting an attack by U.S. troops and no warriors had been placed to guard his town against surprise. This allowed Twiggs to approach the town undetected and begin to form his companies for an enveloping movement:

…Having marched all the night of the 20th I reached the town before day light on the morning of the 21st & posted the troops in order of Battle intending silently to surround it & without blood shed bring to you the chief & warriors, but they fled from the companies of Majr. Montgomery & Cpt. Birch on my right & fired upon my left under Capts. Allison & Bee when they were fired on in return. Discovering my superiority of force they fled to a neighboring swamp. [2]

The exchange of fire between Neamathla’s warriors and the soldiers of Bee’s and Allison’s companies on Twiggs’s right flank was the first of the Seminole Wars. Fighting would continue with an occasional interruption for the next 41 years.

Maj. David E. Twiggs, USA
(As seen 43-years later)
Matthew Brady photograph,
Library of Congress.

Fowltown had been taken by complete surprise, and the firing on both sides was wild. No soldiers were wounded, and Twiggs reported that the Creeks had lost “but few as they received but one round & fled.” He did not provide estimates of Native American losses in his brief written report of the affair but apparently told Gen. Gaines that the fire of Neamathla’s men “was briskly returned by the detachment, and the Indians put to flight with the loss of four warriors slain – and, as there is reason to believe, many more wounded.” [3]

Gaines wrote to Maj. Gen. Andrew Jackson on the day of the attack, informing him of the skirmish and reporting that the village’s casualties included at least one woman:

It is with deep regret I have to add that a woman was accidentally shot with some warriors in the act of forcing their way through our line formed for the purpose of arresting their flight. The unfortunate woman had a blanket fastened round her (as many of the warriors had) which amidst the smoke in which they were enveloped, rendered it impossible, as I am assured by the officers present, to distinguish her from the warriors. [4]

The Native American account of the attack was included in a letter from Cappachimico and Boleck (Bowlegs) to Gov. Charles Cameron in the Bahamas. The document appears to have been written for them by Alexander Arbuthnot and is somewhat garbled. The part that appears to refer to the pre-dawn attack of November 21 begins with a mention of the letter sent to Cappachimico by Gen. Gaines:

Creek Heritage Trail interpretive panel for the Battle of
Fowltown at Chason Memorial Park in Bainbridge, Georgia.

…This letter only appears to have been a prelude to plans determined on by the said General and General Jackson, to bring on troops and settlers, to drive us from our lands; and take possession of them; for, in the end of [November], a party of Americans surrounded Fowl Town during the night, and in the morning began setting fire to it; making the unfortunate inhabitants fly to the swamps, and who in their flight had three persons killed by the fire of the Americans. [5]

The troops remained in Fowltown only until daybreak. Maj. Twiggs reported that they did not destroy the town but left it intact. He did report to Gen. Gaines that a significant quantity of corn was seen in the corncribs of the village and that he and his officers had inspected Neamathla’s home. There, according to the general, they found “a British uniform coat (Scarlet) with a pair of gold Epaulettes, and a certificate signed by a british Captain of Marines.” The certificate noted that Neamathla had always been a “true and faithful friend to the British” and was signed by Capt. Robert White of the Royal Marines. [6]

Twiggs returned to Fort Scott with his battalion on the same day as the skirmish, taking with him little besides a few horses and a few head of cattle. He reported to Gen. Gaines that his men and officers all performed well in what was for many their baptism of fire. [7]

- End of Excerpt -

The first attack did not really rise to the level of a full-fledged battle, but the fighting at Fowltown was far from over and the fiercest encounter was still to come.

Editor's Note: This special series commemorates the opening days of the First Seminole War and provides historical background for the coming Scott 1817 Seminole War Battle Reenactment in Chattahoochee, Florida. The event is set for December 6-8, 2019, and features living history encampments and demonstrations, exhibits, a mobile museum, battle reenactments, vendors, and more. For more information, please visit Scott1817.com.

References:

[1] District Plat of Survey, Early County, District 20, October 5, 1825 (copied from 1819 plat), Survey Records, Surveyor General, RG 3-3-24, Georgia Archives.
[2] Bvt. Maj. David E. Twiggs to Maj. Gen. Edmund P. Gaines, November 21, 1817, Records of the Adjutant General’s Office, Letters Received, National Archives.
[3] Ibid.; Maj. Gen. Edmund P. Gaines to Gov. Peter Early, November 21, 1817, published in the New York Commercial Advertiser, December 15, 1817.
[4] Maj. Gen. Edmund P. Gaines to Maj. Gen. Andrew Jackson, November 21, 1817, Jackson Papers, Library of Congress.
[5] Cappiahimico and Bowlegs to Gov. Cameron, n.d., included in The Trials of A. Arbuthnot and R.C. Ambrister, London, 1819: 19-21.
[6] Gaines to Jackson, November 21, 1817.
[7] Gaines to Jackson, November 21, 1817.