Eve of Battle: Lt. Scott's Last Night

"I am not able to make a stand against them."

by Dale Cox

The keelboat Aux Arc (pronounced "Ozark") is similar to the
one used by Scott's command. It will take part in the annual
reenactment set for Dec. 7-8 in Chattahoochee, Florida.

Editor's Note: The annual Scott 1817 Seminole War Battle Reenactment begins one week from today on Friday, December 6, in Chattahoochee, Florida. It commemorates the first U.S. defeat of the Seminole Wars, a decisive battle that took place on the Apalachicola River 202 years ago tomorrow.

Lt. Richard W. Scott navigated his shallow-draft keelboat up the Apalachicola River 202 years ago today. He knew that hundreds of warriors waited somewhere near the forks of the Chattahoochee and Flint Rivers, which form the Apalachicola on the border between Florida and Georgia. He kept going anyway, despite the warning of a longtime trader:

Mr. Hambly informs me that the Indians are assembling at the junction of the river, where they intend to make a stand against those vessels coming up the river; should this be the case, I am not able to make a stand against them. My command does not exceed forty men and one-half sick, and without arms. I leave this immediately. [1]

The Apalachicola River as seen from Spanish Bluff, today's
Neal Landing in Blountstown, Florida. This was the site of
William Hambly's trading post.

William Hambly and his friend and sometimes business associate Edmund Doyle had farms on the east side of the Apalachicola at present-day Bristol, Florida. Hambly also ran a trading post on the west bank at Spanish Bluff near the town of the Upper Creek chief John Blunt, where the city of Blountstown stands today. Doyle was the storekeeper of the John Forbes and Company trading post at Prospect Bluff lower down the river.

Hambly undoubtedly knew of the U.S. Army's attacks on Fowltown, and this news likely formed the basis of his warnings to Scott. The lieutenant had gone down the river from Fort Scott to assist Maj. Peter Muhlenberg in bringing the supply ships Phoebe Ann and Little Sally upstream. The sailing vessels were slowing coming up the river, but Maj. Gen. Edmund Gaines worried about the speed of their progress.

Instead of keeping Scott and his 40-men as the general suggested, however, Muhlenberg replaced 20 of the lieutenant's able-bodied men with 20 sick soldiers from his own detachment and ordered him to take them, 7 women, and 4 children to Fort Scott. A supply of regimental clothing for soldiers of the 4th Infantry was also placed on the keelboat.

The Jim Woodruff Dam stands at the original point where
the Chattahoochee and Flint Rivers merged to create the
Apalachicola. The blue water beyond it is Lake Seminole.

Scott stopped at Hambly's trading post, which overlooked the river from Spanish Bluff, where Neal Landing park is located today in Blountstown. There Hambly warned him of danger ahead and found a Native American warrior willing to run a message through the woods to Fort Scott. He encouraged Scott to wait, but the lieutenant underestimated the danger and decided to continue moving upstream. [Note: Neal Landing in modern Calhoun County should not be confused with Neals Landing in neighboring Jackson County.]

Lt. Scott's vessel is often described as a "flatboat" or "barge" by modern writers but really was a keelboat. Flatboats and barges were generally rectangular vessels designed for downstream travel. Quite often, they were broken up after reaching their destinations and the lumber used in other construction projects. A keelboat, however, was a shallow-draft vessel that could move both up and downstream,

Scott's keelboat was similar to the 38-foot Aux Arc
(pronounced "Ozark"), which is coming from its homeport in
Arkansas to take part in this year's Scott 1817 Seminole War
Battle Reenactment on December 6-8 at Chattahoochee, FL.

Common on American rivers in the late 18th and early 19th-centuries, keelboats were the workhorses of the expanding republic. They could carry tons of cargo while still drawing less than 2-feet of water. In fact, they remained in use on rivers like the nearby Chipola long after the introduction of paddlewheel steamboats because they could go places that the larger vessels couldn't reach.

Steamboats were not yet in use on the Apalachicola, so the army depended on keelboats to move men and supplies. All were propelled by oars, and some even had masts and sails. They also usually had a cabin or shelter, and accounts from the time of Scott's voyage indicate that this was the case with his vessel.

By nightfall on November 30, 1817, 202 years ago today, Lt. Scott's boat was nearing the confluence of the Chattahoochee and Flint River. He and his command had made it as far as the vicinity of today's Interstate 10 near Aspalaga Bluff but thus far had not seen so much as a single warrior. That would change the next day.

Editor's Note: To learn more about these real events, please consider Dale Cox's newly updated book, The Scott Battle of 1817: First U.S. Defeat of the Seminole Wars. It is available now in both paperback and Kindle editions.



REFERENCES:

[1] Lt. Richard W. Scott to Maj. Gen. Edmund P. Gaines, November 28, 1817.