Petals Plucked from Sunny ClimesBrooks, A. M. (Abbie M.)
History
Petals Plucked from Sunny Climes
Brooks, A. M. (Abbie M.)
Cuba -- Description and travel; Florida -- Description and travel; Florida -- History
Osceola afterward selected ten of his boldest warriors, which were to
wreak vengeance on General Thompson. The General was then camping at
Fort King, little dreaming that the hour of his dissolution was so near,
or that Osceola was lying in wait to murder him. Although a messenger
was sent to tell Osceola of the Wahoo Swamp engagement being in
readiness, no laurels won on other fields had any charms for him until
Thompson should be victimized by his revengeful machinations. After
lingering about for seven days, the opportune moment presented itself,
when Thompson was invited away from the fort. On the afternoon of
December 28, 1836, as he and Lieutenant Smith, who had dined out that
day, were unguardedly walking toward the sutler's store, about a mile
from the post, the savages discovered them. Osceola said, "Leave the
Agent for me; I will manage him." They were immediately attacked by
these warriors, when they both received the full fire of the enemy, and
fell dead. Thompson was perforated with fourteen bullet-holes, and Smith
with five. The Indians then proceeded to the store, where they shot
Rogers and four others. After the murder they robbed the store and set
fire to the building. The smoke gave the alarm, but the garrison at Fort
King being small, no assistance could be rendered them.
On the same day (December 28), and nearly the same hour, Major F. L.
Dade, when five miles from Wahoo Swamp, was attacked while on his way
from Fort Brooke to Fort King. The Indians were headed by Jumper, who
had previously warned those who were cowards not to join him. Micanopy,
their chief, who was celebrated for his gluttony, like the Trojan
heroes, could eat a whole calf or lamb, and then coil up in a snake-like
manner for digestion. On a previous occasion, when an appeal was made to
him by the argument of bullet-force, he replied, "I will show you," and
afterward stationed himself behind a pine-tree, awaiting the arrival of
the Fort Brooke force, while his warriors lay concealed in the high
grass around him. When Major Dade arrived opposite where the chief and
his men were ambushed, Micanopy, in honor of his position as top chief,
leveled his rifle and killed him instantly. Major Dade was shot through
the heart, and died apparently without a struggle. The savages rushed
from their coverts, when Captain Frazier was their next victim, together
with more than a hundred of his companions. The suddenness of the
attack, the natural situation of the country, with its prairies of tall
grass, each palmetto thicket being a fortress of security from which
they could hurl their death-dealing weapons, were all formidable foes
with which the whites had to contend. Within a few hours' march of Fort
King, under the noonday splendor of a Florida sun, were one hundred and
seven lifeless bodies, which had been surprised, murdered, and scalped,
with no quarter, and far from the sound of human sympathy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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