The Second Seminole War, incidentally, was the Vietnam equivalent for the US military in the 19th Century:
The Second Seminole War is the true forgotten long war in American military history, the 19th Century equivalent of the Vietnam War. It was a war fought against the largest US communities of Maroons, and as an extension of the Jacksonian Trail of Tears. It was fought by the 19th Century Army, the one that would in the wake of this war go on to much greater relative success in the 1846-8 war, where multiple generals that distinguished themselves in other wars fumbled around much like the Vietnam War generals did for the same reasons.
They were asked to solve a predominantly political problem by military means poorly suited to it, had no idea of the location or nature of the enemy they fought, and were incapable of admitting why their enemies were actually fighting the war. Unlike Vietnam Florida was a part of the US, officially, so there was no lack of will to ensure the nominal territory became actual in the way there was to spend the money and bleed to keep the Mekong Delta run by a kleptocracy.
Thus the US 'won' the war and was able to deport a significant portion of the Seminoles as well as to re-enslave the Maroons of Florida.....and then it had to fight one more war after this one, if a somewhat shorter war, to finish the 'victory' it declared here because it turned out the victory was rather less complete than the reports made it out to be.
Africans and Native Americans formed Florida’s Seminole Nation and defeated a heavily armed U.S. invading army during the Second Seminole Wa
