General Jessup assumes command of the Army--Number of Troops in the Field--His Advantages--His energetic Policy--Orders Crawford to the Withlacoochee--Capture of fifty two Women and Children--They are held as _plunder_ by the Creeks--Wild Cat and Louis attack Fort Mellon--Severe Battle--Allies retire with their dead and wounded--Death of Captain Mellon--Our loss in killed and wounded--Caulfield's Expedition to A-ha-popka Lake--Capture of nine Women and Children--Expedition to Big Cypress Swamp--Capture of twenty-five Women and Children--General Jessup seeks Negotiation--Abram and Alligator meet him preparatory to a more general Council--Several Chiefs agree upon terms of Capitulation--Difficulty in regard to Exiles--Jessup yields--Express Stipulation for their Safety--Indians and Exile come into Tampa Bay--Are Registered for Emigration--General Jessup discharges Militia and Volunteers--Transports prepared--He declares the War at an end, and asks to be relieved from active duty. On the eighth of December, 1836, Major General Jessup joined General Call at Volusi, and relieved that officer from the further command of the army in Florida. He had now eight thousand troops in the field well provided in all the material of war. They were in fine spirits, and he was in all respects prepared to push the campaign with energy. He had all the advantages which experience of the previous campaign had furnished, and endeavored to profit by it. He was careful to order no large body of troops, nor any artillery, into the uninhabited portions of the country. He employed only light troops for such purposes. His first attention was directed to the settlements of Exiles on the Withlacoochee who had up to that time defied our army. They had been the object of frequent attacks, and the scene of as frequent defeats. He directed a battalion of mounted men under Major Crawford, accompanied by two battalions of Creek Indians, to make a sudden descent upon those villages. But the allies had removed their provisions, and most of the people had abandoned the settlements. A few only were left. The warriors fled to the swamps; and the troops seized and secured fifty-two women and children. These were the first prisoners captured during the war; and General Jessup made a formal report of this important victory. It was a victory over defenseless women and helpless children, obtained by the aid of Creek Indians, who claimed both women and children as _plunder_ under their contract. But this victory stimulated the allies to strike in retaliation for the injury thus inflicted upon non-combatants. [Sidenote: 1837.]