Feathers, Seminole War Plume
date: label: Accession Date
content: 31 Dec 1867
name: label: Collector
content: Lt. Col. Alexander R. Thompson
label: Donor Name
content: U.S. Department Of War
notes: label: Notes
content: FROM CARD: "FOUND IN 1849." [1849 date is uncertain, see information below.]
label: Notes
content: From old handwritten tag with the artifact: "A Seminole war plume picked up on Dade's Battleground by the late Colonel Alex R. Thompson, US Army, Florida. War Department, Rec'd Feb. 20th, 1845." Colonel Thompson is presumably Lt. Col. Alexander R. Thompson (d. Dec. 25, 1837, at the Battle of Okeechobee). Dade's Battleground refers to the site of the Dade Battle, the ambush of Maj. Francis L. Dade and troops on Dec. 28, 1835, the start of the Second Seminole War.
label: Notes
content: On p. 23 of National Institute for the Promotion of Science, Washington, D.C. A Popular Catalogue of the Extraordinary Curiosities In the National Institute, Arranged In the Building Belonging to the Patent Office. Washington: A. Hunter, 1855, this object is described: "Seminole war-plume, picked up on Dade's battle-ground by Col. Alexander Thompson. ..."
label: Notes
content: Notes provided by Amy Giroux, researcher from the University of Central Florida by email on June 9, 2025 to Matt Sanger (NMNH, Repatriation) The cataloging questions the date of 1845 as Thompson was dead by then. I mentioned to you and Gwyn that Thompson likely picked up those feathers when he was on that battlefield in 1837. Thompson was in the 6th Infantry Regiment and after they arrived in Florida, they spent time at the Dade battlefield. In a letter from Joseph Swearingen to his sister, Elizabeth, he says: We arrived at Tampa Bay on the 5th of last month [which would have been January 5, 1837], took up our line of march to join General Jesup. We joined the army where Major Dade was defeated. We remained several days making our arrangements to take the field and try to bring the difficulty to a close in this quarter. So, by this I know that Thompson could indeed have picked up those feathers at the Dade site. If they had been dropped during the Dade battle, they would have lain on the ground for a little over a year, but they also could have been dropped at a later date by a passing Seminole as the battlefield was on the Fort King Road. I just found it interesting that Thompson preserved them and that they eventually made it to the Smithsonian. In looking at my records I think I know how. Thompson's widow, Mary Waldron Nexsen Thompson, spent decades trying to get the government to pay her what she felt was due her from Thompson's 27-year career. She was in Washington very often between 1839 and 1858 to try to get Congress to pay her. Among all the Congressional items, she had a private law passed on 1 March 1845 about auditing the accounts (28th Congress, 6 Stat 94), so it is quite possible that she gave those feathers to the War Department two weeks prior. She had her husband's body exhumed from his battlefield grave and shipped to New York for burial at West Point in 1838. She had his trunks and possessions in Florida returned to her. In her will for example, she bequeathed to a grandnephew Alexander's belt, pistol, war sword, undress cap, and gloves, “all bearing the sad marks of his devotion to his country.” I can see her distributing other items of significance from his possessions. She had traveled to every post Alexander was sent to except for Florida. Here's the citation for the correspondence: Letter J.V. Swearingen to Elizabeth Swearingen, 7 February 1837, Joseph Van Swearingen Papers, George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida. This is a direct link to that letter: https://ufdc.ufl.edu/AA00021536/00001/images/107
label: Record Last Modified
content: 12 Jun 2025
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Dade Battlefield, Sumter County, Florida, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Seminole
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 67A00050
label: USNM Number
content: E34400-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Plume