The Scott Battle of 1817 at Chattahoochee, Florida

First U.S. Defeat of the Seminole Wars

by Dale Cox

The attack on Lt. Scott's boat as painted by Eric Sapronetti.

Editor's Note: The following is excerpted from historian Dale Cox's book The Scott Battle of 1817: First U.S. Defeat of the Seminole Wars.

- Excerpt - 

THE BLOODIEST DAY OF THE FIRST SEMINOLE WAR dawned not much different than other recent days on Florida’s Apalachicola River. Mount Tambora still exerted its influence on the weather of the world, and temperatures along the border of Spanish Florida were falling to levels lower than normal.

Aboard the open vessel commanded by Lieutenant Richard W. Scott of the 7th U.S. Infantry, men, women, and children shivered in the early morning mist. Some of the soldiers shivered from the cold, but nearly half of them shook with the fever that had overcome them on their long journey from the Alabama River to the Apalachicola. Onshore and hidden in the trees where they could not benefit even from the meager sunlight of the morning, Creek, Seminole, Yuchi (Euchee), and African warriors shivered as well. It takes time for the sun to rise high enough over the bluffs that tower above the east bank of the river for the woods and swamps below to benefit from its warming rays.

The Apalachicola River at Chattahoochee, Florida, as seen
from the air on a beautiful fall day.

Roughly one mile below the original confluence of the Chattahoochee and Flint Rivers, the course of the Apalachicola makes a full bend. The site of the junction is now beneath the waters of Lake Seminole just above the Jim Woodruff Dam. One mile below the dam, however, the river still swings around the same bend as it begins its southward flow to the Gulf of Mexico. A panoramic view of the curve of the river can be seen from the dock at Chattahoochee Landing, and in 1817, as a boat rounded the bend from the South, it would have been possible for its passengers to see straight up the channel to the point of land formed by the confluence...

...As the boat entered the widest part of the arc of the bend, it was pushed hard by the full force of the water pouring from the river’s two main tributaries. The Apalachicola was beginning its winter rise, a fact that made its current even stronger. The vessel was pushed from the center of the river towards the east bank as the men pulled hard on their oars to maneuver it against the current and around the bend. Their forward progress stalled as the current ran hard against the side of the boat and drove it ever closer to the bank. All that could be seen there were the trees and bushes of the swamp, and the focus of the lieutenant and his men was devoted almost entirely to the navigation of the large bend so that they did not run aground in the shallows.

The boat used by Lt. Scott's command was similar to the
Aux Arc ("Ozark"), a 38-foot keelboat that is coming from
Arkansas to take part in the reenactment on Dec. 6-8.

The chill of the morning replaced by the heat of the adrenalin running through their veins, hundreds of warriors waited in the thick trees and brush that lined the east bank at the point where the boat would be forced closest to shore. Stripped for battle and painted in their traditional colors and designs, they took careful aim with their rifles and muskets and waited for the signal to open fire.

Lieutenant Scott and his men were focused almost entirely on getting their boat around the bend and into the straight channel that would take them up to the confluence when the east bank of the Apalachicola River suddenly erupted with a solid wall of flame:

[The survivors] report that the strength of the current, at the point of the attack, had obliged the lieutenant to keep his boat near the shore; that the Indians had formed along the bank of the river, and were not discovered until their fire commenced; in the first volley of which Lieutenant Scott and his most valuable men fell. 

The site of the Scott Battle of 1817 at Chattahoochee, Florida.

The explosion of gunfire from the trees and bushes along the bank all but annihilated the able-bodied portion of Scott’s command. The lieutenant and most of his armed men went down without ever firing a shot. The boat now floated on the current and in minutes was pushed aground in the shallows. The various war cries of the Red Stick Creek, Seminole, Yuchi, and African warriors rose above the scene, drowning out the terrified screams of the women and children of Lieutenant Scott’s party.

Among the soldiers on the boat that day was a man identified only by his last name, Gray. Severely wounded in the first volley, he was still at Fort Scott when Major General Andrew Jackson arrived there in March 1818 at the head of a brigade of Georgia militiamen. In the campfires of the army camps, Gray described the speed and ferocity with which the attack took place:

…As those on board were hooking and jamming (as the boatmen called it) near the bank, and opposite a thick canebrake, the Indians fired on them, killing and wounding most of those on board at the first fire. Those not disabled from the first fire of the Indians made the best fight they could, but all on board were killed except Mrs. Stuart and two soldiers Gray, and another man whose name I have forgot, if I ever knew it; they were both shot, but made their escape by swimming to the opposite shore. 

- End of Excerpt -

By the time the battle ended, Lt. Scott, 34 men, 6 women, and 4 children were dead. There were Native American casualties as well, but the total number is known. Six soldiers, five of them badly wounded, escaped by leaping from the boat and swimming to today's Jackson County shore. 

Editor's Note: The only other survivor of Scott's command was Mrs. Elizabeth Stewart, the wife of a soldier. She was rescued by a warrior named Yellow Hair. Her complete story is a fascinating part of Cox's book, the newest edition of which was released this week! It is available in both book and Kindle formats.

You can order now by clicking the ad below. 

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.

They'd cry out I was a savage: Neamathla stands against the U.S. Army

Neamathla, General Gaines, and Washington Irving!

by Dale Cox

Neamathla (Eneah Emathla)
Primary Chief of Fowltown

Note: As we approach the Scott 1817 Seminole War Battle Reenactment, which will take place on Dec. 6-8 in Chattahoochee, Florida, I will post articles that give you information about the significance of that encounter. DC

The effective strengths of the Fourth and Seventh Infantry Regiments of the U.S. Army began arriving at Fort Scott on today's Lake Seminole in Southwest Georgia 202 years ago today. The soldiers did not know it, but they were coming to start a war.

Maj. Gen. Edmund P. Gaines, a hero of the War of 1812, commanded the march, which started at Camp or Fort Montgomery in the Tensaw settlement of what is now Alabama. He was under orders from the administration of President James Monroe to kidnap the Red Stick Creek chief Neamathla (Eneah Emathla) and some of his leading men. 

Neamathla was the principal chief of Fowltown, a Lower Creek village that had recently resettled on the swamps of Four Mile Creek about 3-4 miles south of present-day Bainbridge, Georgia. He and his followers sided with the Prophet Josiah Francis during the Creek War of 1813-1814 but were defeated at the Battle of Uchee Creek and forced to evacuate to the Florida borderlands. 

Rearmed by the British during the closing months of the War of 1812, they refused to evacuate their lands as required by the Treaty of Fort Jackson, which seized more than 22 million acres from the Creeks. Neamathla had not signed that document. "The land is mine," he told Maj. David E. Twiggs of the U.S. Army that summer, "I am directed by the Powers Above to defend it."

Maj. Gen. Edmund P. Gaines, USA
Photographed later in life.
National Archives.

Angered by the chief's "defiance," the powers in Washington, DC, instructed Gen. Gaines to hold the chief as a hostage until his followers left the Fort Jackson Treaty lands. The general started his troops for Fort Scott.

Hindsight shows that everyone involved in the U.S. side of the dispute - from subordinate officers at the fort on the Flint to the highest officials in the Monroe Administration - underestimated Neamathla. The fighting that would take place at Fowltown and on the Apalachicola River over the next eleven days would show by how much.

Perhaps the best account of the chief was written by the famed author Washington Irving. Remembered today for The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and other works, Irving interviewed Florida Gov. William P. Duval about his later interactions with the chief. Duval met Neamathla as lands were being selected for Florida’s capital city of Tallahassee:

…He was a remarkable man; upward of sixty years of age, about six feet high, with a fine eye, and a strongly-marked countenance, over which he possessed great command. His hatred of white men appeared to be mixed with contempt: on the common people, he looked down with infinite scorn. He seemed unwilling to acknowledge any superiority of rank or dignity in Governor Duval, claiming to associate with him on terms of equality as two great chieftains.[i]

Washington Irving, the noted American
writer who penned a fascinating account
of Neamathla.
Library of Congress.

Irving’s statement that the chief was unwilling to acknowledge the superiority of the white governor is powerful. It shows that Neamathla regarded himself as the equal of any white leader. He also left no doubt about his feelings concerning the U.S. occupation of his lands:

…This country belongs to the red man; and if I had the number of warriors at my command that this nation once had, I would not leave a white man on my lands. I would exterminate the whole. I can say this to you, for you can understand me: you are a man; but I would not say it to your people. They’d cry out I was a savage, and would take my life. They cannot appreciate the feelings of a man that loves his country.[ii]

Duval was attempting to arrange the movement of Neamathla and his followers from a village site at Tallahassee to a new reservation established for them near the Ochlockonee River in Gadsden County, Florida. The chief’s voice grew louder and louder until it could be heard over the entire village as he made clear that he was willing to fight to the death to defend the lands of his people:

…He held in his hand a long knife, with which he had been rasping tobacco; this he kept flourishing backward and forward, as he talked, by way of giving effect to his words, brandishing it at times within an inch of the governor’s throat. He concluded his tirade by repeating, that the country belonged to the red men, and that sooner than give it up, his bones and the bones of his people should bleach upon its soil.[iii]

Pensacola's Jacksonian Guard demonstrates the uniforms,
weapons and musical instruments of the 4th and 7th
Regiments. The unit will participate in the Scott 1817
Reenactment at Chattahoochee, FL on Dec. 6-8, 2019.

Neamathla eventually did put his words into action. He never occupied the tiny reservation established for him in Florida but instead moved up the Chattahoochee River to the surviving part of the Creek Nation. There he became the principal chief of Hitchiti and emerged as one of the principal leaders in the Creek War of 1836.

Captured by U.S. and Alabama militia troops, he was placed in chains and marched west on the Trail of Tears. An officer who saw him wrote that the chief was over 80 years old but never uttered a complaint despite the weight of his chains. He reached what is now Oklahoma during the brutal winter of 1836-1837. One of the final mentions of him to appear in U.S. Army records is a plea for his people to receive the blankets that they had been promised. They were suffering in the snow and ice and had nothing with which to cover themselves.  

Editor's Note: The events of November 1817 are commemorated by the annual Scott 1817 Seminole War Battle Reenactment at Chattahoochee, Florida. This year's event is scheduled for December 6-8 and will feature an Education Day for school and home school students on Friday, December 6, followed by public days on Saturday and Sunday, December 7 and 8. Activities take place at River Landing Park and feature living history encampments, demonstrations, exhibits, a mobile museum, the authentic 19th-century replica keelboat Aux Arc ("Ozark"), and battle reenactments on both Saturday and Sunday. All activities are free to the public.

For more information, please visit https://scott1817.com. This video will give you a quick 30-second preview:

[i] Washington Irving, “Conspiracy of Neamathla” in The Works of Washington Irving, Author’s Revised Edition, Volume XVI, Wolfert's Roost, New York, G.P. Putnam, 1863, page 297.

[ii] Ibid., pp. 297-298.

[iii] Ibid., pp. 301-302.

Site of Scott's Massacre - November 30, 1817

This photo, actually taken from the Gadsden County side of the Apalachicola River, shows the site of the bloodiest battle of the First Seminole War.

The river here forms the dividing line between Jackson and Gadsden Counties. Jackson County is on the right or west side of the stream and Gadsden County is on the left or east. On November 30, 1817, an army supply boat manned by 40 men from the 7th U.S. Infantry Regiment made its way around the sharp bend seen here. Due to the strength of the current, the boat was forced to navigate close to the east bank of the river. Although they had been warned of the possibility of attack, the soldiers were not prepared when a large force of Creek and Seminole warriors opened fire from hidden positions along the shore.

The commander of the boat, Lieutenant Richard W. Scott, and most of his men were killed or wounded in the first volley. As the warriors stormed the boat, six men managed to escape by leaping overboard and swimming across to the Jackson County shore. The rest were killed. Search parties later found the bodies of 34 men at the site.

In addition to the soldiers, 7 women and 4 children (family members of soldiers) were on the boat at the time of the attack. All but one of these, a Mrs. Stewart, were killed. She was taken prisoner by the warriors, but was rescued the following year by troops under Andrew Jackson.

The attack on Scott's party was made in retaliation for U.S. Army attacks on the Lower Creek village of Fowltown in what is now Decatur County, Georgia. The village, home of the chief Neamathla (Eneah Emathla), was attacked on both November 21st and November 23rd, 1817, after the chief refused to come to nearby Fort Scott for a conference. Fowltown warriors were among those who carried out the retaliatory attack on Scott's command.