The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1921-07-31
Drane's Story of the Dade Massacre
in
Is One
stng of Florida History

dead enough Clarke lay feigning
death, among his dead comrades until
nightfalI, and then crawled out of the
bloody pen and started on his long
and painful journey to Tampa Bay.
1.-THE Indians had taken all the guns
and ammunition, so he was unarmed.
He shortly fell in with another soldier,
and they Travelled together, always at
night, hiding in the day time. They
soon discovered that Indians were on
their trail and separated. Clarke said
that soon after he heard a volley of
shots fired that told of his companions
death.
Indians Astounded.
THAT the Indians themselves were
astounded and perhaps awed by the
fearful slaughter is evident from their
actions after the battle. But few Of
the dead were scalped, or their cloth
! ing taken, two things that were in
variably done after a successful battle.
The officers were not robbed of articles
Of jewelry or personal adornment. ALI
gator says that they hastily left the
battle ground and returned northward
into the swamp, where late at night
they were joined by the chief Osceola
and his band, fresh from the murder
of General Thompson and Lieutenant
Smith, at Fort King. Osceola had his
band loaded with loot from the suffers
store at Fort King, and the two bands
celebrated their bloody work until far
in the night. many of them drunk on
the liquor they had taken from the
suffers store. 1t is said that {, sceola
placed the scalp of General Tt -npson
on a pole, and many of the Indians
made speeches to the departed spirit
of the general.
For five weeks the bodies of the
slain remained exposed to the vultures
! and elements. General Edmund p
Gaines, who had landed at Tampa Bay,
! with a considerable force of men,
marched against the hostiles and
reaching Fort King Trail, advanced to
the scene of the massacre, arriving
there in February, 1886.
Captain Ethan Allen Hitchcock, a
graduate of West Point, and serving
as inspector general of the Gaines
command, reports that 1t was indeed
melancholy scene that greeted the
advance of the command. The bodies
of the slain were scattered along the
-
them, were lying as though they had
fallen asleep. The horses of the of
ficers lying dead and the ground lit
tered with the remains of boxes and
packages that had contained the am
munition and supplies of the detach-
ment. Then they came upon the small
enclosure where the last stand was
made, and there found the skeletons
NF y, 3y-sx
In the position they might have occu-
pied during their last fight, their heads
to the log breastworks, bodies parallel
with each other and arms extended,
showing that to the last they had held
their weapons directed upon the enemy.
They had evidently died fighting to the
last. Passing the enclosure other
bodies were found, and then came to
the place where the advance guard
and most of the officers fell The
bodies of all the officers were identi-
fed, as many of the officers with Gen
eral Gaines were friends and associates
of those who had fallen. The little
army of General Gaines was halted,
the bodies of the men gathered and
| buried in a long trench, the officers in
another, and the proper and usual mill
I IoA iohoAo paul " IiiS ucdu' ~ Ihl'
| day the outlines of the trenches may
be seen, the remains having been re-
| moved therefrom many years ago, and
taken to the National cemetery at st.
Augustine, where they rest under
monument erected to the men and Of
/ ficers of the Florida Indian War. The
pound gun was found in the pond
near by. where it had been thrown by
the Indians, and placed in an upright
position at the head of the trenches.
Little Change in Spot.
1.-THE officers of the command who
persisted on that fateful December
morning were Major Francis L. Dade,
Captain Fraser, Captain Gardiner,