The Exiles still remained in the barracks under the officers in charge of them; and on the ninth of May, General Gaines sued out a rule to set aside the order of sequestration upon the grounds, "that the negroes were '_prisoners of war_' of the United States, taken in combat with the Seminole Indians; that the control of the United States over said negroes, and their right to the control of such negroes as _prisoners of war_, could not be taken away by the sequestration issued." Thus was the manhood of these colored people asserted by this military officer of the United States at that day, when few members of Congress would have hazarded their reputation by the avowal of similar doctrines. Twenty-three years previously, as the reader has already been informed, General Gaines gave to the War Department notice that "fugitives and outlaws had taken possession of a fort on the Appalachicola River." Twenty-two years previously, he had detailed General Clinch, with his regiment and five hundred Creek warriors, to destroy "Blount's Fort," and take the fugitive slaves and return them to their owners. He had only two years previously gone to Florida, marched into the Indian Territory, and fought them bravely for several days. He now saw these Exiles and Indians in a different situation. He witnessed their attachment to each other as parents and children, as husbands and wives, as members of the human family, and his sympathy was aroused--his humanity was awakened. His finer feelings being called forth, he possessed the firmness, the independence, to act according to the dictates of his conscience and judgment.[119] He assumed the responsibility of paying costs and damages, caused himself to be made defendant in the case, and, having obtained a rule on the sheriff to show cause why the negroes should not be delivered as prisoners of war to him, as commander of that Military District, he appeared in person at the bar of the court, and ably vindicated the rights of Government, of himself, and of the prisoners. "The laws (said he) of the United States authorize the late and existing war against the Seminole nation of Indians, and against all persons in their service. The negroes claimed by the plaintiff were found in the service of the Indians, speaking the same language, and, like the inhabitants of all savage nations, aiding and assisting in the war. They were captured and taken by the United States forces _as prisoners of war_, and they are now in charge of a United States officer, Lieutenant Reynolds, acting pursuant to the orders of the President of the United States, directing him to superintend their transportation from the theatre of war in Florida, to a place set apart for their location, west of the State of Arkansas, _as prisoners of war_, as well as servants of the Seminole Indians, who are also _prisoners of war_.