DECEMBER 17:

December 17, 1890:  Sitting Bull and the police killed during his arrest are buried with honor. Today, members of the Hunkpapa Sioux arrive at Big Foot's camp of Minneconjou Sioux seeking refuge. However today will also see the issuing of an arrest warrant for Big Foot himself, for his part as a "troublemaker" in the ghost dance religion.

December 17, 1842:  1842: Today, Pascofa will surrender to Col. Ethan Hitchcock. He agrees to bring his Apalachicola tribe in to the Colonel.
 
 
 

BACKGROUND:
 

From http://www.newsherald.com/archive/local/lk081698.htm
 

Sunday, August 16, 1998

Out Of The Past Second Seminole War meant forts, blockhouses everywhere

Marlene Womack, Contributing Writer
 
 

To many the word ``fort'' evokes thoughts of remote outposts where early settlers fled for protection against Indians in the Old West.  But Florida also had similar forts and blockhouses. The majority were built during the Second Seminole War of 1835-1842, a bitter struggle that began over Indians harboring runaway slaves and whites wanting the Indians' land.

Once the federal government authorized removal and began transporting the Indians west of the Mississippi River, some of the older chiefs and their bands submitted and relocated peacefully. But other younger Indians rebelled over the forced move by massacring families and killing soldiers. During the fighting more than 120 forts were erected around the territory. They were usually established 15-25 miles apart, allowing for a day's travel by horses, wagons and troops. These forts were used for military defense, to store supplies and as safe haven for frightened settlers. Although most were located in the peninsular section, several were built in Northwest Florida. The typical fort was made of wood and consisted of one or more buildings surrounded by a stockade fence. In some forts, the pickets enclosed an 80-foot square with two blockhouses on diagonal corners. Soldiers used the upper story for quarters and the lower level for storage of rations and ammunition.  When the seven-year struggle finally ended, the federal government placed costs for the Seminole War at $20 million, in addition to expenses of the regular army. More than 1,500 soldiers died of wounds and disease, with no total count available on civilian casualties.

FORT BARBOUR OR FORT ASPALAGA  Aspalaga was located on the east bank of the Apalachicola River in Gadsden County, just north of the Liberty County line. The old Pensacola-St. Augustine Road crossed the river near this vicinity, north of today's Torreya State Park.  After killing cattle and taking in runaway slaves from Jackson County plantations, a large number of Apalachicola Indians agreed to resettlement in the west. They departed Aspalaga in October 1838 and sailed down the Apalachicola River.  According to D.E. Eldredge's ``Finding Florida's Forts,'' this fortification was named for Captain Phillip N. Barbour. It was established later in the war on May 16, 1841.

FORT STANSBURY  Old maps show Ft. Stansbury in the S/W 1/4 of the S/W 1/4 of Section 24, Township 2 South, Range 1 West, or about nine miles north of St. Marks, near the dividing line of Wakulla and Leon counties.  The fort was probably named for 2nd Lt. Smith Stansbury and established on Mar. 15, 1839. Soldiers in the Third Infantry were headquartered at this location and patrolled the vast area between the Suwanee River and the present western boundary of the state.  During 1841 a company of 691 men was stationed at this fort with Major Wilson and later Col. J.R. Vose in charge.  A traveling clergyman from Tallahassee visited the fort that year. Horace Greeley published the clergyman's account in the New Yorker magazine in August 1841.  The minister told of boarding the St. Marks Railroad at Tallahassee and riding southward about 10 miles. Soldiers on horseback met him. They took him to the fort, which had originally been the home of early settlers who abandoned the structure at the beginning of the war.  The clergyman found the fort to be ``a more desirable residence that we could have expected. It was a large log house and under the hands of officers it had acquired an appearance of refinement.''  He went on to explain, however, that during rainy weather one would not have much protection ``under the roof so open to the sky, or from logs which lie so invitingly agape for the cold wind to enter.'' But visiting in summer as the clergyman did, he ``enjoyed the cool breeze coming through the cracks and did not suffer any bad weather.'' About 14 men on horseback escorted him to nearby Wakulla Springs, a mysterious attraction where water bubbled up from beneath the ground.  While off duty, soldiers stationed at Ft. Stansbury sometimes visited the tavern at Port Leon near the coast. They were also called upon to assist with the great yellow fever epidemic of 1841.

An old French woman, known as Mother Randall, reportedly lived near the fort and sold the soldiers pies, cakes and other edibles.  During the summer of 1842 about 50 Indians fighting deportation murdered the Stephen Perkins family not far from present-day Chipley, Florida. Gov. Richard K. Call appealed to Washington for help, and Pres. John Tyler ordered Col. Vose and some of his troops to the area. Secretary of War John C. Spenser authorized payment for every warrior and $50 for each Indian captured. But plans for a peaceful end to hostilities forced the government to rescind Vose's order.  Lt. Col. Ethan Allen Hitchcock, an experienced negotiator with the Indians, was dispatched to Ft. Stansbury. Hitchcock traveled from New York to Pittsburgh, Nashville, New Orleans, Mobile, Choctawatchee and Tallahassee by railroad, canal boat, steamboat, stage and wagon.

He reached Florida after 30 days on Oct. 10, 1842.  Following stops at Ft. Gamble, Ft. Hamilton and Ft. Pleasant, he finally arrived at Ft. Stansbury. Once settled, Hitchcock wrote: ``There is something indescribably solemn and grand in the moaning of the wind through the tall pines, among which my post is situated.''  Hitchcock found the Indians to be near starvation and in poor health from being forced to move from camp to camp to avoid detection. He did not believe in annihilating them as many officers did by ``hanging them wherever they were found.'' The colonel met with Pascofa, their chief, and issued each Indian a blanket and food. He also gave the men shirts and turbans; the women, calico dresses and handkerchiefs.  According to Hitchcock's memoirs, ``Fifty Years in Camp and Field,'' there was ``no child among them from four years to about 14.'' The members of this band had put their children to death ``to avoid the chance of exposing the hiding places by their cries, and also to make flight easier.''  Through patience, friendly advances and gifts, Hitchcock convinced Pascofa and his followers to leave Florida. Soon he had them all aboard the steamer William Gaston headed to Cedar Key where they were transported west to Arkansas.  After attending a court martial at Palatka, Hitchcock returned to Ft. Stansbury on Feb. 16, 1843.

He concentrated his regiment at the fort, housing ``four companies in log huts and six in tents.'' The colonel took great pride in drilling his troops in the ample space for exercises and parades. Then, following a party hosted by Gov. Call, Hitchcock and his regiment were reassigned to Jefferson Barracks, Missouri.  John Sprague, who chronicled past Seminole War events in 1848, described an altogether different life around the fort, where he found the surrounding land to be mostly swamps and hammocks, interspersed with pine barrens and ponds. He told of a soldier being totally obscured at 10 feet when he tried to whack a trail through the thick ``almost impenetrable scrub oak, palmetto and grape vines.''

Day after day the soldiers were wet to the skin from hacking their way through the swamps. Then a burning sun dried them before they became wet again.  ``Out of 600 men engaged in wading swamps, 220 were from time to time reported sick. Fever and dysentery were the prevailing diseases.'' Between September 1840 and November 1842, 12 men died from causes that ranged from chronic dysentery to apoplexy.  After years of research, Florida State University and archaeologists finally located the old fort in the 1960s. They found uniform buttons, pieces of glass, etc., but no burial site.

1998 The News Herald