were giving different versions of an attack by Colonel Clinch on the Negro fort on the Apalachicola River. As Colonel Clinch was moving in to attack the fort, which was holding up shipments of supplies along the river, a round from a gunboat hit the powder supply in the fort. Almost all the three hundred people in the fort were killed in the explosion that followed. Thus, there was no real battle there.
I stayed up and listened to stories until the last of the men turned in.
Pa and I were mounted and rode out at first light the next morning. The Indian tracks were still evident as we rode. The worst part about riding alone, or with only a couple of riders, during the summer was the number of yellow flies, deer flies, and horse flies that gathered to us and the horses as we rode through the woods. It wasn’t so bad when riding with a large group because there were lots of people and horses for the flies to bite other than my horse or me. We saw no hostiles, however. By mid-morning we came to the forks of a wide and deep creek.
Pa said, “This has to be the forks of Black Creek. I’ve heard it described. It’s deeper than the St. Johns River into which it flows. Oceangoing ships could come up this creek to this point.”
Driving a stake in the ground, he added, “I’m going to move our family here someday. Spain can’t hang on to Florida much longer, even with the Seminoles’ help. I’ll bet there aren’t more than eight hundred Spaniards in the Florida Territory anyway. If all of it’s like St. Augustine, there are as many Italians and French here as there are Spaniards. The only requirement the Spanish have for anyone to live in Florida is that they have to be Catholic. Also, the Indians don’t own it. They just moved in from Georgia and Alabama over the last few years. I’m betting Andy Jackson takes all of Florida sooner or later. We’ll just go ahead and take us a piece of it before he takes the whole place. This is some of the best soil I’ve ever seen. We’ll build docks on the creek and warehouses next to the docks. And we’ll plant orchards and farm.”
I figured that if Pa said it, he would do it.
From there, the tracks we were following swung slightly west, and we were traveling just a little south of southwest. Figuring we were getting close to the Indian village, we slowed some and traveled with caution. At full dark we still hadn’t closed on the hostiles or found their village.
In a cold camp that night, the major said to Pa, “Isaac, I think we’re close. Since we’ve been traveling in a straight line for some time, how about you and the boy going straight ahead and see if you can find them in the next few hours. If you haven’t found the village within three hours, come on back. Or, if you find them, come back and get us. I’ll have the men in their bedrolls by seven to get some rest. If you find them, we’ll hit them at daybreak.”
Pa said, “Okay. I’ll need to take a third man. He and the boy can come back while I watch the village. Sergeant Hunter is a good man.”
I had spoken to Pa about Hunter and was proud that Pa agreed with my judgment, though he probably already knew more about Hunter than I did. They didn’t live far from us.
The sliver of moon was bigger than it was two nights before and gave enough light for easy traveling in the open woods. Since the moon was pretty high, the moonlight wouldn’t last but a few hours so I studied the stars as we rode. I would need to know where I was going if Pa sent me back. After riding at a fast walk for an hour and a half, we heard a dog bark in the distance.
Pa said, “That’s a yard dog barking. It’s probably the village we’re looking for.”
If you’ve heard it enough, it’s easy to tell the difference between the bark of a dog that’s chasing an animal and a dog that’s sounding an alarm around the house. They’re two completely different kinds of bark. We then turned toward the sound. At two hundred yards from where the barking dog was, we dismounted and tethered our horses. We were downwind and the smell of wood smoke was strong. The dog soon quit barking and we began to work our way forward on foot. As we advanced it became apparent that this was a permanent Indian town. The town and cleared fields covered several acres.
After creeping around for some time and looking, Pa tapped Sergeant Hunter and me on the shoulder and pointed toward our horses.
Arriving at the horses, Pa said, “You two go back and bring the major. I’m going to ease around some and get a better feel for the layout of the place. One can move more quietly than two or three. Can you find the place we were when we first heard the dog bark?”
Both of us said we could.
“I’ll meet you there an hour before daylight.”
Sergeant Hunter and I then mounted and left.
I said to the sergeant, “Let’s ride back to where we first heard the dog so we can identify some landmarks.”
He said, “That’s a good idea.”
It took slightly more than an hour to make the return trip to our main camp. Having been through the area previously, we knew it was clear of hostiles so we made better time.
It was almost eleven P.M. when we finished making our report and answering questions for the major. We then pulled our blankets over the exposed parts of our bodies and slept until three A.M. It seemed like only ten minutes had passed when I felt Sergeant Hunter’s hand on my shoulder.
He said, “It wasn’t a very long night was it, Isaac?”
I said, “No, sir, it wasn’t.”
The other men had already been up for thirty minutes and were about ready to pull out. In ten minutes I had a fresh horse saddled and was ready.
The major said, “Jacob”—that’s Sergeant Hunter’s first name—“I want you to lead off. Travel at a walk and stop every so often to give everyone a chance to close up.”
Turning to me, the major said, “Isaac, I want you to be the last person in line. If the line gets separated, you can get the stragglers to the right place.”
It was the first time he had called me anything but Boy and I couldn’t help but feel a flush of pride at that, and at being given the responsibility, though I don’t know who else could have done it.
The moon having already set, we were then guided by the stars and by the landmarks Sergeant Hunter and I had picked out. Even with the lack of light, it was an uneventful trip. There were no stragglers and no one got lost. We arrived at the designated place at five in the morning. I was too far back to hear what he said as Pa spoke to the major from the darkness. The major then passed the word back for all the corporals, sergeants, and lieutenants to come forward. I went forward with them. There in the dark, Pa gave his report to the eight of us.
Pa said, “The best I can make out, there are twenty dwellings. Counting men, women, and children, there’s close to a hundred people. There’s not much in the way of guards. I didn’t see any. There are some dogs though. As soon as they hear us, they’ll raise a racket. Counting those from the raiding party, we know there could be more than twenty braves here. There are some boys and old men who were not on the raid. They’ll also try to put up a fight. There’s not much of a horse herd—twenty-five or so—and some staked out, or stabled, close to various dwellings.”
Major Bailey said, “How do you think we ought to do it?”
Pa said, “Depends on what you want to get done. If you just want the horses and cattle, we can make a sweep from two sides
