#second seminole war

[todaysdocument]

Former Lieutenant Leon Dyer swore his identity on the “5 Books of Moses” to claim Bounty Land in return for his service in the Florida War, May 19, 1851. #JewishAmericanHeritageMonth 

Bounty Land Application File of Lieutenant Leon Dyer, Captain Burt's Company, Louisiana Volunteer Regiment (50-40-44606) [detail]

Series: Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, ca. 1800 - ca. 1900

Record Group 15: Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs, 1773 - 2007

Transcription:

STATE OF MARYLAND, BALTIMORE CITY, Sct.

On this nineteenth day of ["April" overwritten] May one thousand eight hundred and ["forty" crossed out] fifty one before me, the subscriber, a Justice of the Peace of the said State, in and for  Baltimore City, personally appeared Leon Dyer who being duly sworn on the 5 Books of Moses ["Holy Evangely of Almighty God" crossed out], declares that he is the identical individual who was a Lieut. in Company Captain Burt of the Louisiana Vol. for Florida War in active service. that he enlisted [carat] at New Orleans on the [blank] day of January one thousand eight hundred and [blank] for the Term of 8 months and [illegible] over 4 months and was honourably discharged at New Orleans in May 1835. That he never received any certificate of discharge. That he has not received nor is he entitled to Land under any other act.

[signed] Leon Dyer

[lightdancer1]

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.

Dec. 26, 1835: Second Seminole War, Largest Uprising of the Enslaved - Zinn Education Project

Africans and Native Americans formed Florida’s Seminole Nation and defeated a heavily armed U.S. invading army during the Second Seminole Wa

[lightdancer1]

Until the War of the Rebellion the most successful slave rebellion in the USA was the one with its own Maroons, the Black Seminoles

How Black Seminoles Found Freedom From Enslavement in Florida

Learn about Black Seminoles, the Africans who fled enslavement in the southern American colonies to live in Florida with the Seminole tribe.

It was their existence more than the Seminoles of Osceola himself that led one Andrew Jackson to unleash the twenty year Second Seminole War. One of the longest wars of the 19th Century, one of the most destructive. It also shows the reality of what the USA actually did in the period of the Slave Power versus its supposed profession of being a last best hope of liberty and freedom.

[georgy-konstantinovich-zhukov]

The Macon Volunteers by Jackson Walker

1st Battalion, Georgia Volunteers, skirmish with Seminoles in on the outskirts of Fort Cooper in April, 1836 during the Second Seminole War.

(National Guard)

[georgy-konstantinovich-zhukov]

[georgy-konstantinovich-zhukov]

"Massacre of Whites by Indians and Blacks in Florida," a piece intended to incite rage against the Seminole Indians of Florida. The Second Seminole War was fought between 1835 and 1842.

(NYPL)

[humanoidhistory]

Soldiers in the Second Seminole War, circa 1839:

In the right foreground is a company officer in a fringed leather frock, linen or cotton trousers, and the issue forage cap. His only indication of rank is his red silk sash around his waist. In the left foreground is a friendly Indian scout in typical dress. 

In the background, the enlisted men wear the white cotton summer jacket and trousers, or the light blue cloth winter equivalent with its collar laced with white binding, or any combination of the two. These uniforms were worn day and night and soon became ragged and dirty. All of the white leather belting was blackened, and metal trimmings such as cap numbers and buttons were either removed or allowed to tarnish in order to make the wearer inconspicuous. The soft leather forage cap, introduced in 1833, was worn at night with the strap buckled under the chin, in order, as a hospital steward said, "to keep out of our ears, ear-wigs, centipedes, cockroaches, etc."

(Center of Military History)