Anniversary of Scott's Massacre - November 30, 1817

Today marks the 191st anniversary of the Seminole War battle remembered as Scott's Massacre.

This bloody fight took place on November 30, 1817, on the Apalachicola River in roughly the area of Chattahoochee Landing between Chattahoochee and Sneads.

The battle began when Seminole and Creek warriors attacked a U.S. Army supply boat from the Gadsden County side of the river. The current had forced the boat to navigate close to the shore, allowing the warriors to fire from point blank range.

After firing a volley of musket and rifle fire that killed or wounded most of the able-bodied U.S. soldiers on the boat, the warriors (reportedly led by the refugee Creek chief Homathlemico and others) waded into the river and overwhelmed the survivors. The incident was widely mentioned in 19th century histories of the United States, but has now faded into obscurity. Illustrations like the one shown here were used in a number of books of that era.
The attack resulted in the deaths of at least 34 U.S. soldiers, 6 women (wives of soldiers) and 4 children. Four other soldiers were wounded, but escaped by leaping into the river and swimming away to the opposite bank. Only three people survived without injury. Two of them were soldiers that escaped to the opposite bank. The third, Elizabeth Stewart, was taken captive by the warriors and held in various villages until the following spring when she was rescued by troops under Andrew Jackson.

The event marked the deadliest day in the history of Gadsden and Jackson Counties. If you would like to learn more, please consider my new book, The History of Jackson County, Florida: Volume One. The book can be ordered by following the link and can also be purchased at Chipola River Book and Tea in Marianna (downtown across from the Battle of Marianna monument). It will be available through other locations in January.

The Remarkable Story of Elizabeth Stewart Dill

By Dale Cox

Apalachicola River – In a recent article we explored the history of Scott’s Massacre, a battle fought on the Apalachicola River between Sneads and Chattahoochee on November 30, 1817. If you missed the article, you can read it online by scrolling down this page.

The battle took place when Creek and Seminole warriors attacked a U.S. Army supply boat commanded by Lieutenant Richard W. Scott of the 7th Infantry Regiment. Casualties were severe. Of the 40 men, 7 women and 4 children on board, 34 men, 6 women and all 4 children were killed.

The only female survivor of the massacre was Mrs. Elizabeth Stewart. Twenty-nine years old and a native of Maryland, she was the wife of a soldier stationed at Fort Scott. The old fort was located on the Flint River arm of what is now Lake Seminole and was the headquarters of General Edmund P. Gaines and the First Brigade.

Although six other women and four children died in the attack, Mrs. Stewart was saved through the intervention of one of the chiefs. Taken to the Seminole town of Miccosukie near present-day Tallahassee, she was assigned to the women belonging to a band of Creek refugees led by Chief Peter McQueen. A key leader in the Creek War of 1813-1814, McQueen had fled to Florida following the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, Alabama.

Although records mentioning her captivity are rare, Mrs. Stewart appears to have performed tasks such as cooking and watching over the children of McQueen’s band. One of these was a nine year old boy then called “Billy” or “Powell.” In later years he became the great Seminole leader Osceola and it is his life that is memorialized today at Florida State University football games by “Chief Osceola,” the mascot of the Seminoles. In 1817 he was among the refugees that had fled to Florida from Alabama with Peter McQueen.

Enough mention of Mrs. Stewart appears in correspondence and military records of the time to verify that U.S. Army officers knew she was alive. The chances of locating and rescuing her, however, must have seemed remote.

In April of 1818, however, Andrew Jackson’s troops attacked McQueen’s warriors at Econfina Natural Bridge between Tallahassee and the Suwannee River. As the fight developed, Mrs. Stewart was seen hiding in the brush by Timpoochee Barnard, a Creek warrior fighting on the side of the United States. Barnard fought his way through the action to Mrs. Stewart and carried her safely to General Jackson.

Although early frontiersman Thomas Woodward told a vivid story later in life of the death of “Sergeant Stewart” at Scott’s Massacre, records of the time indicate that Woodward was repeating a fictional story. There was no soldier named Stewart killed during the battle and General William McIntosh, the famed Creek leader of Coweta, wrote a few days after Mrs. Stewart’s rescue that she had been returned to “her father and husband” who he said were with General Jackson.

The Stewarts settled about sixty miles north of Jackson County in Fort Gaines, Georgia. He died there in the early 1820s and she remarried a local merchant named Thomas Dill. The couple was one of the wealthiest on the frontier and a Fort Gaines legend holds that their riches originated during Elizabeth’s captivity. As the story goes, Native American warriors considered paper money worthless to them and would throw it away as they returned from raids. Elizabeth collected the money from the ground and stashed it away. By the time of her rescue, she is said to have collected a fortune.

Elizabeth Stewart Dill is buried in the Old Pioneer Cemetery in Fort Gaines and her beautiful home – seen above and supposedly built with the paper money collected in Florida – still stands as a beautiful landmark in the picturesque old town. Her story is truly one of the most remarkable in area history.

Editor’s Note: The story of Scott’s Massacre is presented in detail in Dale Cox’s new book, The History of Jackson County, Florida: Volume One. The book is available in Marianna at Chipola River Book and Tea downtown and can be ordered online by clicking here.

Remembering Scott's Massacre of 1817

The grave visible in the background here (near the fence) is that of Elizabeth Stewart Dill, the only female survivor of a fierce battle that took place on the Apalachicola River between Chattahoochee and Sneads in November of 1817.

Remembered today as Scott's Massacre, the devastating attack on a U.S. supply boat by a combined force of Creek and Seminole warriors was the action that prompted Washington to order General Andrew Jackson to invade Florida...

Remembering Scott’s Massacre: Forgotten Battle Took Place 191 Years Ago This Month

By Dale Cox


Apalachicola River – The deadliest battle in the history of Jackson County took place 191 years ago this month on the Apalachicola River between Sneads and Chattahoochee. Remembered by history as Scott’s Massacre, it was the event that led Andrew Jackson to invade Florida and eventually brought many of his soldiers to Jackson County as settlers.

In November of 1817, following a determined but peaceful standoff between the Lower Creek Chief Neamathla and Major David E. Twiggs, the commanding officer at Fort Scott (located on the Flint River arm of today’s Lake Seminole), Major General Edmund P. Gaines ordered the movement of nearly 1,000 U.S. troops to the fort. Supplies for the soldiers were sent via the Gulf of Mexico and Apalachicola River on boats escorted by troops from the 4th U.S. Infantry.
When he arrived at Fort Scott in person, General Gaines ordered Lieutenant Richard W. Scott to take 40 men down the Apalachicola on a boat to assist the supply vessels in reaching the fort. He then sent 250 men under Major Twiggs to Fowltown, the village of Neamathla, with orders to bring the chief to Fort Scott.

Neamathla and his warriors resisted and on November 21 and 23, 1817, the first and second Battles of Fowltown opened the conflict remembered today as the First Seminole War.
Infuriated by what he considered unprovoked attacks, Neamathla called for reinforcements from other Creek and Seminole villages across North Florida and ordered one of his sub-chiefs to stop the supply boats from reaching Fort Scott. Hundreds of warriors (some reports estimated as many as 2,000) flooded to the banks of the Apalachicola River in anticipation of a battle against the supply flotilla.

Unexpectedly, though, the commander of the flotilla did not keep all of Lieutenant Scott’s men to reinforce his own force. Instead he took only 20 of Scott’s men and then put 20 men that were sick with fever, 7 women (wives of soldiers) and 4 children on the lieutenant’s boat and ordered him to return upriver to the fort. Neither officer knew of the attacks on Fowltown or the outbreak of war with the Seminoles and Creeks.

Following his orders, Lieutenant Scott started back upriver but on November 28, 1817, was warned at present-day Blountstown by the friendly chief John Blunt and the traders William Hambly and Edmund Doyle that a large force was assembling upstream and it would be extremely dangerous for him to continue. He sent a letter overland to Fort Scott requesting help, but then inexplicably continued his journey up the Apalachicola.

On November 30, 1817, as Scott’s boat rounded the sharp bend in the Apalachicola River between today’s Sneads and Chattahoochee, he was suddenly attacked by hundreds of Native American warriors.

The Creeks and Seminoles had formed along the Gadsden County bank of the river at a point where they knew the current would force the military boat close to shore. According to the reports of survivors, they ambushed the lieutenant and his men from the cover of trees and brush, killing Scott and most of his able-bodied men with their first volley. They then waded out into the river and stormed the boat, fighting hand to hand with the rest of the soldiers and killing most of them with hatchets, knives and war clubs.

Only 6 of the 40 soldiers on the boat survived and four of them were wounded. They leaped overboard and swam across the river to the Jackson County shore and safety. Six of the women and all 4 children were also killed. In less than 15 minutes, the Creeks and Seminoles had taken their revenge for the attacks on Fowltown and killed 44 of the 51 men, women and children on Lieutenant Scott’s boat.

The six surviving soldiers made their way overland to Fort Scott with news of the disaster. The only surviving woman, Mrs. Elizabeth Stewart (or Stuart), was taken captive by the warriors and carried away to their villages. Her story became one of the most remarkable of the era and we will detail it in next week’s article.

Scott’s Massacre outraged authorities in Washington, D.C., and Major General Andrew Jackson was ordered to assemble an army and head for the frontier. His campaign would carry him through today’s Jackson County, where many of his soldiers were so impressed with the quality of the lands that they returned over the next few years as the area’s first settlers.

Editor’s Note: The story of Scott’s Massacre is told in-depth in Dale Cox’s book, The History of Jackson County, Florida: Volume One. The book is available at Chipola River Book and Tea in Marianna or for order directly from the printer at www.exploresouthernhistory.com/dalecox.