The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1895-07-13
THE END OF oscEoLA.
A Visit to the Lonely Grave of the Grea
Seminole Chief


A Visit 70 the Lonely Grave of the Great
Seminole Chief.
On Sullivan's island. within the SAN
ay Enclosure of Fort Moultrie, in
Charleston harbor, guarded by Castle
Pinckney on the one hand and Fort
Sumter on the other, sleeps Osceola,
one of the fiercest children of a fierce
race. The March winds whistled a
dirge and the sea fowls screamed as l
stood beside the tomb of the great
Seminole and gazed upon the endless
blue of waters and of horizon, with my
arm resting upon dismantled gun
whose voice once shook the deeps.
Now it was as silent and as harmless
as Osceola.
What life of romance this strange
man livedi And he was as true to his
education and his nature as the needle
to the pole. He could not have been
other than he was. Campbell, in his
Historical Sketches of Colonial Flor
ida" says:
Among the Red Sticks who. after the dis
astrous battle OF the Horse Shoe. fed to the
Seminole nation, were q Creek mother and her
orphan boy. whose age might be twelve The
young Red Stick was destined In after years to
fill the continent with his name. Osceola was
old enough at the time Of Tecumseh's mission,
and the stirring events In which 1t resulted, to
receive from them q deep and lasting impress
sion To those Impressions, doubtless. and the
blood he derived from one Of those Spartan
warriors whose heroism excited the admira-
ton of their conquerors, was due his primary
in the Seminole war; for an alien he was with
out the influence OF q sept to- achieve It. In
the career OF the Seminole chiSf may be dis
cerned the far-reaching influence of the Great
Shawnee and the abiding force of youthful inn
pressions."
But it would have been better for
the Seminole nation and for Osceola II,
nineteen years after the death of AL
exander McGillivray, Tecumseh had
never appeared among the Creek war
riors, in 1912, to seduce them from the
paths of peace and good faith. The
result of his visit from Detroit, insti-
gated by the British, was the massacre
of Fort Minis by the Red Sticks, who
were so-called to distinguish them
from those warriors who were for
peace, in August, 1918, which sealed
the fate of the Creek nation, and its
offshoot, the Seminole nation. The
peaceful conquests of McGillivray were
more glorious than the disastrous cam
paigns of Osceola, the greatest of the
Red Sticks.
Osceola was born in Georgia, in 1904.
His father was an English trader
named Powell, and bis mother was the
daughter of an Indian chief. He went
to Florida with his mother when he
was about four years old and settled
near Fort King. He was of medium
size, being about five feet eight inches
In height His bearing was resolute
and manly, and his countenance was
frank and engaging. He soon became
a favorite with the tribe and exercised
commanding influence In 1885,
while on visit to Fort King, Osceola's
wife was claimed and seized as slave
and carried of as such. Because of the
strong manner in which he resented
this and other injuries he had received,
Gen. Thompson had Osceola arrested,
put in irons and imprisoned. He was
not kept long in confinement, however.
He determined to have revenge, and
waited patiently for his opportunity.
1t came December 20, 1888, when, find
ing Gen. Thompson on the outside of
the fort, he fred upon him and his es-
cort, killing and scalping the general
and four other white men. This was
the beginning of the second Seminole
war. The Fort Dade massacre took
place on the same day. Maj. Dade and
a detachment of one hundred and ten
soldiers were slaughtered and scalped.
Osceola was to have led the Indians in
this attack, but the affair of Gen.
Thompson prevented. He, however,
took command of the red and black
men who had accomplished the massa-
ere. On December 81 Osceola, with two
hundred men, encountered Gen. Clinch,
with six hundred soldiers, at the cross
ing of the Withlacoochee river. The
which lasted an hour, was
stubbornly contested, when Osceola
drew off.
For upward of q year Osceola prose-
cuted the war under the greatest dis
At no time did he have
more than twenty-five hundred war
riors in the field, covering a wide
stretch of country, while the American
force was fully ten thousand, COM
from time to time during the
year by at least eight full fledged gen.
erals. These were Gems. Jesup, Her
Nelson, Eustis, Gaines, Scott,
Taylor and Call. If the forces and
had been equal the war
might have had different result.
Osceola had gone into the war be-
cause of injuries which no brave man
would tolerate. His capture was rep
rehensible to the last degree; while
holding a conference with Gen. Jesup,
under flag of truce near st. Angus
tine, October 81, 1887, Osceola was
seized, with several of his followers,
and sent to Fort Moutrie, where he be-.
came detected and died in a few weeks.
in the thirty-thiri year of his age.
The last Of the Seminoles are hasten.
ing to the happy grounds. Only here