Edited by Spessard Stone from the journal of Major Ethan Allen Hitchcock, courtesy of the late Tommy Underwood. Comments are enclosed in parentheses.
Introduction: Ethan Allen Hitchcock, was born May 18, 1798 at Vergennes, Vermont.
During the Second Seminole War (1835-42), then Capt. Hitchcock, an 1817 graduate of West
Point, was acting inspector-general in General Gaines' 1836 campaign. Promoted to major in
1838, Hitchcock in 1841 was acting as an aide to the Secretary of War when he recorded these
observations in his Diary 18. Nearly all forts and bivouacs mentioned are in present-day Polk
County, Florida.
Feby. 5, 1841 - I returned to Tampa from Ft. Pierce, Key Biscayne & Key West, the 31st ult. & found that Col. (William J.) Worth had marched east with several companies of the 8th Regt. leaving directions for me to follow on. I left Tampa with a waggon train the 2d inst. escorted by Capt. Kello's Comp., 20 waggons, and marched 17 miles.
The 3d we marched 21 miles to Fort Carroll (a mile west of Ft. Fraser) where I found Capt. Gwynn in command with his own and Capt. Screven's Companies. Capt. Kello was left at Fort Carroll & Capt. Screven with his Company came on with the waggon train. We came here yesterday, meeting on the way Lt. Callender with two mounted men from Col. Worth who had reached Fort Gardiner (on the Kissimmee River).
Lt. Callender brought me a letter of instructions from Col. Worth, saying that from the high stage of the waters in the streams & over the surface of the country generally, operations were impracticable & he supposes the same causes have driven the Indians away from this part of the country.
The letter directs me to halt at some convenient point. I have halted near a small stream which seems to run from one small lake or large pond to another, the water being good. I have made a circle with the waggons covering 3/4 of my camp, the 1/4 side being protected by the pond & scrub adjacent to the stream.
It rained while we were pitching our camp & it rained last night. I am now apparently in the midst of a rolling country with ponds of water in every direction.
Some two miles east of us is said to be the ford over one of the branches of Pease Creek or the Kissimmee called Buffalo Ford (near present-day Waverly), which the Col. writes is almost impassible.
Capt. Screven informs me that Col. Taylor in 1837 was detained there two days in bridging the stream & Lt. Callender tells me the bridge has been swept away. Lt. C. says that the whole country about Ft. Gardiner has been under water & in fact is so now. Camp Bowford (?), as Capt. Screven wishes this camp called.
Feb 6th - Lt. Kiell with Comp. H & six empty waggons came from Col. Worth & took with him 20 waggons from me. He brought a letter from Col. Worth repeating that operations were impracticable & directing me to wait orders. I have men at work making a sort of platform of poles on which to pile the forage & provisions discharged from the waggons, having large canvass sheets to cover with, like hut flaps (?).
Yesterday one of the Arkansas delegation passed on to Col. Worth, having with him one of the Indians taken by Maj. Childs. The man is to be sent to open a communication with the hostiles.
We are in the midst of a cluster of lakes called as the Indians told me We-hi-ack-pa (Lake Weohyakapa).
Lt. Kiell says that Col. Worth offered some of the Indians with him, he has 5 or 6 of the delegation, $500 if they would procure simply an interview with Sam Jones (Arpeika aka Sam Jones, a Mikasuki chief/medicine man who opposed emigration) or Wildcat (Coacoochee, a war chief of Mikasuki and Alachua lineage) but they said they could not find them.
All excuses, doubtless as they are afraid to go to them.
Camp Bowford (?), 7 Feb. 1 p.m. (?) ? Col. Worth joined me this morning, retrograding from the old site of Fort Gardiner. Capt. Beall's troop & waggons arrived in advance soon after breakfast & in about an hour the Col. camp up with four Companies of the 8th Infy. The Col. ordered the Camp to be formed under my directions & assigned the command over to me - he being in command of the Tampa Bay District.
At breakfast an express arrived from Tampa with a package for the Col. which contained as he shew me a letter from Gen. Armistead (Brevet Brigadier General Walker Keith Armistead had assumed command in Florida from General Zachary Taylor on May 5, 1840) in which the General says there is some evidence of a disposition in the Indians to 'brake' & he directs the Col. to send Beall's troop of dragoons immediately to Tampa together with two companies of the 8th.
The Genl. has no right to complain if the Indians break. They have, except a few prisoners, come in under his positive promise that if they do not like his talk they may go where they please.
8th Feb. The Col. directed a Block House to be erected and said it must be called a fort according to usage & leaving the name to me I said I would call it after one of Capt. Page's delegation - Yo-ho-la - So that I am at Fort Yohola.
Yohola, 10th Feb. A man of our hunting party yesterday did not return. His party reported that they were separated while in chase of a deer.
Rockets were thrown & a howitzer fired in the evening...a Negro interpreter is sent with an offer of $30 reward if he finds the man. The Negro this morning (we) sent for the man came in with a deer.
The weather is delightful & the country perfectly charming just in the vicinity of our camp. Lakes surround us - water perfectly good. The wind is whispering through the pines. 3:10 p.m.
The lost man is found. He says he missed his party and could not find it, wandered about – swam a stream losing his gun but finally got on the right direction & was coming into camp when he met a party in search of him - fired the howitzer 3 times to call in the other parties.
13th Feb. '41 at Fort Carroll, Pease Creek East of Tampa...It was extremely cold yesterday & for two nights past - today the weather has moderated & the sun is warm.
A private letter from Capt. Beall to the Colonel stated that there was evidence of a determination among the Indians to break that he had sent a detachment 10 miles into the country to seize a depot of supplies made by the Indians of the articles recd. by them as presents & by them sent out preparatory to running away from Tampa.
The news seemed so circumstantial that no one of us doubted it, but Lt. Lincoln informs us that the detachment had returned to Tampa & before he left there had found nothing & he is of opinion that though many anticipate a break, none will happen.
Fort Carroll, 14 Feb. 1841 - I am cold this Sunday. The weather has moderated & it has rained, the wind being southerly, blowing the smoke into my eyes wherever I go. “Close my tent orderly.” There, I hope for some protection. Venison for breakfast this morning.
The crows make a horrible noise, attracted by the grain fed to the horses. Strength of command, 161 men, of whom 17 are mounted...
P.M. A heavy blow with slight rain from the West. Hope the trees around us are firm, they bend gracefully & majestically in the storm...
Camp 4 P.M., 15th Feb '41. Last evening at 4 o'clock I received instructions from Col. Worth to move with 2 Companies & 2500 rations on Fort Cummings.
The letter was conveyed by some friendly Indians who are expected to go out and invite hostiles in.
I was ordered to take 500 bushels of oats. I loaded 19 waggons last evening & this morning. At 1/2 past 6 I marched with Companies F (?) and E (Lieut. Gates & Capt. McKavett) and arrived at the junction of the cross road from Thistles bridge to the road passing from Tampa north of the big Cypress. The distance from Fort Carroll is 17 miles & we were here at 2 P.M.
It was extremely cold last night & this morning. The first part of the march made in the coldest part of the day over the low lands & marshes adjacent to Pease Creek & the men were compelled to walk in the cold water where, remarkable for Florida, there was ice the thickness of a shilling.
About 13 miles lay through a range of small lakes some of them perfectly beautiful, but the Country has scarcely any other growth than pines, very clean from undergrowth & free from dead timber. No fires have yet touched the grass & therefore the appearance of the Country was charmingly fresh & pure.
One Lake was almost entirely surrounded by a growth of evergreen scrub as if for protection. If there had been an Island in it the imagination would readily have assigned it a fairy inhabitant. We are now on the bank of a Lake perhaps 2/3ds of a Mile over, with clean pines all around it.
In the distance beyond it I saw with a Spy glass through the trees another sheet of water. The Indians who came with us have killed today 4 deer - one of them a very pretty fawn.
Col. Worth from Thlonoto Sassa on his way into Tampa & he said he should leave Tampa for
this place Monday or Tuesday (today or tomorrow).
18th. Billy the interpreter says the Indians believe in a great Spirit & have also a name for
the devil, but I cannot get out of him exactly what they believe of either. He says they expect to
live hereafter the good happy & the bad miserable.
I asked him about their laws for the punishment of offences & he told me of a remarkable fact that when an Indian has been punished for any offence the account is settled. No one after that must ever throw it up to him or say anything about it. Poor benighted savages not to believe in eternal punishment!
19th Feby. '41 - Col. Worth came in yesterday about 11 a.m. with Lt. Lincoln & his mounted men followed by Company K, 8 Inf (Capt. Montgomery & Lt. Gwynn) with 16 waggons. He placed the troops under my command and I arranged the order of encampment, but knowing the temper & disposition of the Col. I saw that my command would rather be nominal than real during the presence of the Col. who must always be giving his orders & points (?) in a thousand ways, I addressed him a note officially requesting him to take upon himself the immediate command & thus order me from the position of a Staff Offc. for communicating his orders. I have no orders yet.
The Col. brought with him Cotsa Fixico (Cotsa Fixico Chopco, a Tallahassee warrior) & his family & also the family of Micco (Holata Micco or Billy Bowlegs, a Seminole chief) who was here already & one other woman & family. The idea is partly to please the Indians by this show of confidence & partly to form a nucleus, word of which to the Indians may induce some to come in.
Cotsa Fixico is the husband of a woman taken prisoner on the St. Johns by Lt. Sibley (?) & afterwards sent out by Col. Worth from Fort Armstrong (?) in Dec. She sent her husband in, who afterwards went out and brought in some 30 others, men, women & children.
The Interpt. Gopher John (aka Pease Creek John, a black chief) says he has become satisfied & means to go off with his family.
The news from Tampa is more favorable. There are about 300 Indians in, but they are in great confusion-drinking &c &c. The Genl. wishes to put them on shipboard for Arkansas but is afraid to attempt it. He has no right to ship more than about 100 including about 60 prisoners. The balance have merely come in to hear his talk under a promise of safety.
The Col. assures me he has had no definite talk but speaks of the Indians as having come in to emigrate & he has given the guard orders to watch the whole like runaway prisoners. Some of the officers from Tampa say there is great danger of a break.
20th Feb. Fine weather the Col. has exercised command according to my wishes, much to my relief.
The Commissary has purchased venison for issue to the troops and it appears that the Interpreter & 2 Indians yesterday brought in more than enough for the whole command, some 200 pounds. This looks like starving the Indians in their country. It is true they can hunt better with powder & ball than with bows & arrows, but they cannot be starved under any circumstances.
22d Feby. The company of the 2d Dragoons expected from Fort Read arrived yesterday and
is encamped on our left flank & soon after it arrived from Ft. Carroll.
Afterword: Col. Worth on August 14, 1842 declared the war ended. In November 1843, there were only about 300 Indians left in Florida. At the conclusion of the Third Seminole War in 1858, less than 100 Seminoles remained.
Hitchcock's later career included promotion to Lt. Colonel in 1842, service in the Mexican- American War where he was brevetted Colonel for gallantry, promotion to Colonel of the 2nd Infantry in 1851 and command of the Pacific military division until 1854.
He resigned his commission in October 1855 and engaged in literary ventures in St. Louis, Missouri until the Civil War when he became a Major General of volunteers. Stationed at Washington, D. C., he served on the commission for exchange of prisoners and for revising the military code and as a military advisor to President Lincoln.
Mustered out in 1867, General Hitchcock died on August 5, 1870 at Hancock, Georgia.
Divided into two parts as “History: Seminole War Campaign,” this was published, respectively, in The Herald-Advocate (Wauchula, Fla.) on February 21, 2008, 5C, and March 20, 2008, 8D.
March 21, 2008