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Battle during Seminole Wars, Florida, US
The
Battle of Ocheesee
took place on the
Apalachicola River
, in northwest
Spanish Florida
, beginning in December of 1817. The shooting part of the battle lasted almost a week,
[1]
: 67?68
but the engagement lasted "weeks" and was "the longest sustained engagement of the
Seminole Wars
".
[2]
: 129
The name comes from the
bluffs
that overlook the river, from which one party of marksmen waged their attack. Today the land is in
Torreya State Park
.
On December 15, 1817,
Red Stick
Creek
Indians fired from both sides of the river simultaneously on ships carrying supplies upriver to
Fort Gaines
,
Fort Scott
, and
Fort Hughes
, the latter of which was simultaneously attacked.
[2]
: 128
The convoy was halted because the sailors could not show themselves to continue navigation. With the convoy halted, the troops at Fort Scott were at risk of starvation, on half-rations for "a long time".
[2]
: 139
Fort Hughes was abandoned.
[1]
: 68
[2]
: 139
In effect, Fort Scott and Fort Gaines were under
siege
.
[2]
: 137
The underlying issue was ownership of land south of the Flint River, which the other faction of the Creeks (who had just had a
civil war
) had ceded to the United States in the
Treaty of Fort Jackson
. The Red Sticks were not a party to the treaty (they were not even notified), and claimed that those Creeks had no right to give away their land. Behind it was the
Treaty of Ghent
ending the War of 1812, which guaranteed return to the Creeks of the lands taken from them by the United States. The treaty was, in this regard, unenforceable, since the British were scarcely going to send out troops to guarantee Indian rights.
There is not a definite day for the conclusion of the battle. The vessels were still pinned down in the same place when General
Andrew Jackson
took additional troops from Fort Scott into Spanish Florida on March 11, 1818, reaching
Prospect Bluff
on March 16, 1818.
[2]
: 80
During this time, the Indians having withdrawn, the supply convoy was set free. To prevent future such problems, Jackson had
Fort Gadsden
built within the walls of the former British, then Negro Fort. This was a U.S. fort built in Spanish Florida.
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
Cox, Dale (2013). Brininstool, Savannah (ed.).
Milly Francis. The Life & Times of the Creek Pocahontas
. Old Kitchen Books.
ISBN
9780615894058
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
Cox, Dale (2016).
Fort Scott, Fort Hughes & Camp Recovery : three 19th century military sites in Southwest Georgia
. Old Kitchen Books.