herd stampeding northwest. The other six of us were tearing down the temporary corral and getting the horses to running, and getting shot at some.
It seemed that mounted Indians were everywhere. Each Indian must have been sleeping with a pony by his side. The Indians’ musket fire was mostly ineffective. Some of them were not even shooting. They probably hadn’t had enough time to check the priming in the flash-pan of their weapons. With gunfire all around us we finally got the horses out of the pen and running. After the rope and stick fence was down, my mare was almost at a full run as I swung aboard. In a hail of gunfire we passed through the positions of our force on the west side of the Indians’ camp. We soon got the horse herd turned north behind the cattle.
Within four minutes we were a mile from the Indian camp. The sound of gunfire was thinning some and growing dim. It was a wild ride but we were at the river in fifteen minutes. There, the herd slowed as they crossed. We stopped them a quarter of a mile past the river.
Riding up to Sergeant Hunter, I said, “Sergeant, the major didn’t say, but you best take seven men and defend the river crossing against pursuit. I’ll take the other three men and hold the herd here. It’ll be easy. They’re about tuckered out.”
Without responding, the sergeant called out the names of the men to stay with me. He then left for the river. That’s how we were situated when Pa and the main force arrived just before noon and set up camp there. They had already buried one of ours and we had a couple of wounded to care for.
Though everyone was talking about it, when things had settled some and we were alone, I said to Pa, “Tell me about the fight.”
He said, “Not much to tell. You boys swooped in on your horses yelling and like to have scared all the Indians to death. There wasn’t much for the rest of us to do.”
Then he smiled and said, “They came after you and the horses and ran straight into thirty-five guns. They then turned south and ran into the thirty there. We got hurt some but not near as bad as them. Eight or ten of them got through on their horses. Some abandoned their horses and went in the swamp to the east on foot. We got the horses that they left when they went into the swamp, and those from the dead and seriously wounded. You did a fine job, Boy. I’m proud of you.”
I didn’t ask about the slaves because I could see they had brought eight with them. They were all women and children.
Pa asked, “Did you shoot either of your guns?”
We both carried a rifle and a short-barreled musket.
Hanging my head, I said, “No, sir. I was pretty busy.”
He said, “Yes, I could see you were. I just asked in order to make sure you cleaned them if you had shot them.”
We had been in camp for a couple of hours caring for our wounded when Major Bailey called a meeting.
He said, “Men, we all know the raiding party we just whipped was some of those from south of Payne’s Town. Old Chief King Payne died not long after he was wounded in General Newman’s attack six years back. Still, these Indians were some of his. We’ve done our job in getting the animals and most of the slaves, but I think we should do more. Knowing where these were from, I think we should follow them and hit their settlement while we’ve got them thinned down and disorganized. What I’m proposing is a raid with fifty mounted men. We’ll hit and run, taking what food, horses, cattle, and runaways we can. The rest of you will take our wounded and the livestock home and give a report to each family.”
Speaking to Pa, he said, “Isaac, I hope you’ll go. You know the country better than most.”
Pa said, “I’ll go. And the boy will. Someone will need to drive our livestock home and tell our family. How long should we plan for?”
Major Bailey said, “Six days at the most. We won’t stay around long enough for them to gather a force against us.”
There was lots of talk after that. The major had to pick and choose because more than fifty wanted to go. I noticed that Sergeant Hunter was chosen. I liked him. He had treated me like an adult since we took back the livestock. He even called me by my name.
We left the next morning, riding south. Looking for tracks and other sign, Pa and I were out front about a hundred yards. The major also had outriders to his flanks to prevent a possible ambush.
South of where we fought the battle, we picked up the trail of the reassembled raiding party. They had returned to the battle site and cared for their dead and were then traveling south. They seemed to be returning to their village. There were about twenty of them. Some were riding double and five or six were walking. They were short on horses. In addition to recovering the horses they had stolen from us, we also had taken eighteen of their horses. The tracks were most of a day old so we moved along quickly. Pa and I were soon almost a mile in front of the major’s party. We didn’t figure the Indians would stop, but in case they did, we didn’t want the whole force to blunder into them.
Shortly before midday we turned back to meet Major Bailey. When we met him, Pa said, “We’ve scouted most of a mile ahead, I would suggest we stop here and cook enough for noon and night. That way we can run a cold camp tonight. We’ll then have no fire or wood smoke to give us away.”
The major gave the orders. He then sent two men out a hundred yards in each of four directions to act as pickets.
Thirty minutes before the others broke noon camp, Pa and I left. We had switched to fresh horses. Because we had lots of horses from those recaptured and the Indian horses we had taken, and because we would be riding more than the others would, we each had brought a spare. Covering lots more ground, and quicker than the others, Pa and I needed extra horses. Pa and I were soon ranging up to a mile in front of the major’s party. The Indians we were following obviously knew the country well and were taking a route that avoided contact with anyone. That also kept us out of contact with anyone, which was fine with us.
It really wasn’t hard to avoid contact with other people. There were not many people in Florida. The few that were there were located mostly on rivers or the coast. The territory was so thinly populated that, unless you knew where they were, you might have ridden for weeks without seeing anyone. Pa had been through this country before but over closer to the coast. From conversations he had, and from drawings in the sand during those conversations, Pa had a pretty good idea about where we were going. In addition to farming, Pa pulled a chain on a survey crew, did blacksmith work, and was a wheelwright. Due to his interest and inquisitive nature, Pa was always gathering information about places that could be of use in the future. He would squat and talk, and draw maps in the sand by the hour when he met someone who had been places he had not been. I’ll bet he knew more about Florida than anyone else except the Indians.
Having scouted over a mile ahead, we turned back thirty minutes before dark to meet the major.
Though we were running a cold camp that night, the men sat around and talked in small groups. Most of them didn’t go to sleep until eight or nine that night. Mostly they talked about being raided by the Indians or of raids on the Indians. Like Pa, lots of the men had fought the Red Sticks, the Upper Creek Indians. That war was brought on when the Red Sticks attacked Fort Mims in Alabama. The Red Sticks killed over five hundred white people there in 1813. The Creek Indian War then lasted until 1814 when Andrew Jackson, with a large white army and a couple hundred Lower Creek Indians, killed over a thousand of the Upper Creeks at Horseshoe Bend in Alabama. I moved from group to group and heard various versions of the battles that occurred during the Creek Indian War. There were lots of tales about battles against
