By Spring of 1835 trouble between the Florida indigenous population was brewing up again. The U.S. government was trying to force the Seminoles to leave Florida for the Indian Territory of present day Oklahoma. The enticement to move was flimsy (a blanket per man and a pittance paid to the tribe), so the Seminoles ignored the Treaty of Payne's Landing which spelled out the conditions of removal. The Seminoles found their voice in a firebrand, Osceola, who had fought with the Creeks against Andrew Jackson. What followed was the Second Seminole / Florida War.

On 8 February 1837, two Seminole leaders, Emaltha (King Philip) and his son, Coacoochee (Wildcat), led 200 Seminoles on a strike on the fledgling Camp Monroe, near present day Sanford, Florida, on the south lip of Lake Monroe. The camp was caught off guard, but was able to fight off the assault with the help from a steamboat on the lake that was equipped with a canon. The toll was an undetermined number of Seminole killed, one U.S. soldier killed and eleven wounded. The U.S. soldier was Captain Charles Mellon of the 2nd U.S. Artillery. The camp was later named Fort Mellon in his honor. The area was later renamed Sanford.

The Seminoles delivered many of these blows to the U.S. Army during this classic guerilla war. The war often seemed unwinnable and the costs became a real problem for the new republic. Congress debated the war ad nauseum. If this seems familiar, you might want to read an analysis of the military strategy of the Second Seminole War by a modern day warrior.

Motorcycle Ride Recommendation

When you are next in the Orlando area, leave the kids and the wife at Disney World, rent a bike and check out this ride around Lake Monroe, through some of central Florida's wilder areas and over to Ponce de Leon inlet where the white man began his conquest of Florida.

Book Recommendation: History of the Second Seminole War, 1835-1842 from AbeBooks.com or Amazon.com

Map Recommendation: Florida Atlas and Gazetteer 2006 from AbeBooks.com or Amazon.com

Accor Hotels in the Central Florida area

On 5 February 1865, the Union Army moved on the Confederate line at Petersburg. After 3 days of vicious fighting, no one had won, but the Union had succeeded in stretching the already overstretched Rebel line. The battle has been called the Battle of Hatcher's Run / Dabney's Mill / Armstrong's Mill / Rowanty Creek / Vaughan Road / Boydton Plank Road. Each name had a significance in the battle.

Background

By early February 1865, General Grant had besieged Petersburg for 8 months. Further south, Sherman had completed his march to the sea and was now heading north. Schofield was moving inland from Fort Fisher. Lee knew that Grant would not wait for a full encirclement. Grant wanted to prove he could take Lee without help. The actions from 5-7 Febuary 1865 were the opening moves to make Lee's hold on Petersburg unsustainable.

The Battle

Grant was trying to cut what he thought was Lee's primary supply route into Petersburg. To this end, Grant sent General David Gregg's cavalry division to conduct the operation on Boydton Plank Road to Burgess Mill, near where it crossed the Hatcher's Run (creek). In support, he sent two divisions each of General G.K. Warren's V Corps and General A.A. Humphreys' II Corps. Warren set up a blocking position for Gregg on the Confederate side of Hatcher's Run and Humphreys protected Warren's flank.
As the action commenced on a cold morning, Gregg seized little in the way of supplies on the Boydton Plank Road. Lee was not using it heavily for supplies, partly because he suspected such an attack and partly because little supply was reaching his bedraggled troops anyway. Warren and Humphreys dug in for protection from long range artillery. Late in the day, the General John Gordon's Rebels tried an attack on Humphreys, but it didn't amount to much and was thrown back. Overnight, the Yankees re-enforced with two divisions from Meade.
On 6 February, Warren probed forward, but was hit hard by Gordon and pulled back sloppily until reaching the line with Humphreys. In the 6th's fierce fighting, Gordon lost one of the Rebel's best division commanders, General John Pegram, to a shot through the chest. The 7th brought entrenchment and stalemate.
In the end, the Yankees had to settle for extending their line to the Vaughan Road crossing of Hatcher's Run. The Union took heavy losses, but made Lee extend his line and killed one of the south's best leaders in Pegram. This was bad for Lee, but the worst was to come.

Motorcycle Ride Recommendation

Check out the Petersburg battlefield tour.
If you want a longer ride, try VA-SR-10 and 31 from Petersburg to Williamsburg. You can stop off at the first English settlement in America at Jamestown Island.

Book Recommendation: The Civil War Boxed Set from AbeBooks.com or Amazon.com

Map Recommendation: Virginia Atlas and Gazetteer from AbeBooks.com or Amazon.com

Accor Hotels in the Richmond/Petersburg Area

Commander of the Union's Army of the Tennessee, U.S. Grant, begins the action that would lead to his being recognized by Lincoln as a General with a bias for action. On 2 February 1862, Grant launches his forces from Cairo, Illinois, through far western Kentucky towards Forts Heiman, Henry (on the Tennessee River) and Donelson (on the Cumberland River).
Grant had a sizeable force consisting of three infantry divisions, led by John A. McCLernand, Charles F. Smith and Lew Wallace. There were also two regiments of cavalry and eight batteries of artillery. Grant also had Captain Andrew Foote's squadron of seven gunboats. (troop numbers are from the excellent book, The Longest Night by David J. Eicher)
The force, although reasonable, was not huge, so Grant had to make a decision to attack or wait for the initiative to be sent to him. However, the western theatre was frozen by indecision on how to attack the south, so Grant might have waited forever to get his chance to attack. The known forces were unclear to both sides, as proven by the still debatable troop numbers present at Fort Donelson 2 weeks later. Grant chose the warrior's path of seizing the intitiative whilst others debated strategy. He proposed to his Commander, General Halleck, that he proceed to take Fort Henry and open up Tennessee via the Tennessee River. The rest as they say is history. Grant's star was on the rise.

Motorcycle Ride Recommendation

Take US-62 out of Paducah, KY and US-68 down to Kenlake State Resort Park on the Cumberland River (now Kentucky Lake) pretty much following the path that Grant followed to get to the Fort Henry area. Continue on KY-SR-94 down to Paris Landing State Park in Tennessee and then into the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area. In the southwest corner of LBL, near the Piney Bay Campground, you can find the remains of Fort Henry. A map of the ride is here.

Book Recommendation: The Longest Night from AbeBooks.com or Amazon.com

Map Recommendation: Kentucky Atlas and Gazetteer 2006 from AbeBooks.com or Amazon.com

The War of 1812 coincided with an uprising amongst part of the Creek Indian nation that was rebelling against the U.S. governments attempts to "civilize" them. For the "volunteers" of Tennessee, including future President Andrew Jackson, the majority of the War of 1812 was spent fighting Indians and not the British.

In 1811, Tecumseh of the Shawnee, visited the distant cousin Creek and encouraged rebellion against the white man's ways. The tribe split over whether to follow their ancient ways or throw in their lots with the white man. Those for integration with the USA were called "White Sticks" and those who favored fighting were called "Red Sticks." This Creek civil war was destined to go beyond the nation and did soon enough with a slaughter of over 250 whites / mixed raced Creeks near Mobile, Alabama in August 1813. This caused the predictable call for retribution and U.S. military action. Enter "Old Hickory" Jackson and his Tennessee Volunteers.

In late 1813, Jackson entered Alabama and set up a supply post (Fort Deposit)and a forward post on the Coosa river(Fort Strother) in northern Alabama and began operations against the Creek. Almost from the start, Jackson was beset with mutinous Tennesseans who felt that time spent back in Tennessee counted as part of their enlistment, whilst Jackson felt it did not. Many Tennesseans left, but Jackson pushed on with what was left of his force and a couple of green Regiments that had just arrived from west Tennessee.

Being Old Hickory meant doing hard things anyway, so Jackson set off for the known Creek encampment at Emuckfau / Emuckfaw Creek. He camped within hearshot of the encampment on 21 January 1814 and sent out patrols to find them. The patrols reported that not only did they find them, the Creeks knew of them too. At daybreak the next day, the Creek attacked front and rear, but were thrown back. Jackson counter-attacked and killed a good many. He then wanted to take the initiative and destroy their base. Jackson sent his old friend, General John Coffey, to root out the Creek base on Embuckfau Creek. Coffey went forth, but found the place too well defended and retired. Once Coffey returned, the Creeks attacked Jackson again with a feign on one side and a main attack on the other. Once again, the Creeks were thrown back, but Jackson was in trouble with bloodied, green troops in "Indian Country" with little back up. Jackson felt he need to retire and re-enforce at Fort Strother.

On his way out of the area, Jackson camped on Enitachopco Creek on the 23rd and fixed fortifications, knowing that another attack was likely. Luckily, they got a quiet night and they headed out in the morning. The quiet was not to last. Not long on the trail, they began crossing Enitachopco Creek and the rear guard was put to the run by the Creek attack. The panic spread and a meltdown was looking likely, but Jackson managed to pull together enough to fend off the attack with even his Nashville artillerymen fighting hand-to-hand. Eventually the tide turned with more of the lead elements re-crossing the creek to take part. The Creek warriors began to slip and finally decided getting away from Old Hickory was better than dying in place.

Jackson had the upper hand in both engagements, eventually, but had found out how hard it was going to be to fight in this nearly unsupportable backwater of eastern Alabama.

Books from Amazon.co.uk

Motorcycle Ride

Try this ride which encompasses both battle sites at the two creeks.

Maps

At the confluence of the Two Medicine and Cut Bank Rivers is where the Marias River begins and flows east for approximately 60 miles to Lake Elwell, then on for another 80 miles where it meets the Missouri River near Loma, Montana. Somewhere along this stretch of river (possibly here), there lies an ancient site where Major Eugene Baker of the U.S. Army took his mixed detachment from the 2nd US Cavalry and the 13th Infantry to surround an encampment of Piegan Indians on 22 January 1870. (See a picture of Baker and some of the 2d Cavalry officers in 1871, here) What happened next is clear, but why is not so clear.
The area had seen an altercation between two hotheads, one white, Malcolm Clarke, and one Indian, Owl Child. Clarke beat Owl Child, who he claimed had stole his horses. Owl Child retaliated by killing Clarke. As so happened in those days, this caused cries for the army to make sure another white was not killed by another Indian, so Baker was sent to teach the Indians a lesson. Baker's detachment left Fort Shaw on 15 January 1870 and rode north to find a group of Indians known as the Piegans. Baker found an encampment at a big bend on the Marias River and surrounded it in the winter's night of 22/23 January 1870. There is some debate as to whether Baker knew it was the camp he was looking for or another one.

On the morning of the massacre, Chief Heavy Runner tried to stop the attack by showing papers that he claimed gave him and his people clear passage in the area. Regardless, Baker issued the order to fire on the camp and many women, children and elderly were killed, the camp was burned and the survivors set afoot in the Montana winter without provisions.

Some said Baker knew that it as the wrong encampment, some said he didn't care, some said he was a drunken commander and didn't know what was happening. None of the PR options were good and the Army made it worse by ignoring, at the least, but probably covering up the massacre. As so often happens in these cases in the U.S. Army, a young soldier steps up where his superiors have fallen down and tells the truth. Lieutenant William Pease, acting as a Blackfoot agent, reported the massacre to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Ely Samuel Parker. Parker, a Civil War veteran, confidante to U.S. Grant and an Iroquois Indian whose real name was Donehogawa, demanded a investigation, but the outcome was prevarication as the Army closed ranks with General Sherman saying he would prefer to believe his soldiers.

In the end, no official recognition of the massacre was forthcoming and only time has brought a gradual acceptance of the fact of this massacre. Author Dee Brown, in Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, puts the casualties at 33 men, 90 women and 50 chldren. Best research on the topic seems to be by Stan Gibson. He and Jack Hayne are working on a book on the topic.

Books from Amazon.com

Motorcycle Ride

This is a long ride starting and ending at Browning, Montana at the Museum of the Plains Indians. The ride passes through the origin of the Marias and also runs about 5 miles north and parrallel to the Marias for a good while on the beautiful U.S. Highway 2.

Maps