Black Creek. Paul Varnes
arrived at the settlement a few hours earlier, we would have had time to cross the river at another place and box them in. As it was, the attack might have cost the defenders a third of their fighters. It couldn’t be determined for sure because most of their fallen died in the river and were never seen again. Only a dozen of the blacks were found dead in their fixed positions. We had no dead among our fighters and only a few slight wounds.
Taking advantage of the deserted houses, we camped at the site for several days. While camped there we scavenged the surrounding area for food and searched for those who might not have yet gotten out of the area. Our Indian friends killed or captured a few of the blacks and Seminoles we found in the swamps during those days. Two white men were captured: the trader named Arbuthnot, who sold arms to the Indians, and a man named Ambrister, a British subject who had been training the black people for war. Jackson took them to St. Marks where they were court-martialed, sentenced to death, and executed.
Jackson then moved on to Pensacola where it was said the Spanish were outfitting several hundred Indians so they could raid into the United States. After taking over Pensacola, Jackson then put the fort under siege. Following a brief fight, the Spanish garrison at Pensacola surrendered; thus ended the First Seminole War. It did not end the raiding and fighting, however—raiding by all parties continued at a diminished rate.
Pa and I didn’t go to Pensacola. The two of us, along with the several hundred volunteers from Georgia, headed for home. We were dismissed because we were no longer needed. At the same time Jackson also dismissed the Lower Creeks who were fighting with him.
Once their towns were destroyed, the Red Stick Creeks and Miccosukees, except for roving bands, were driven from west Florida. We were to find that our position in southeast Georgia was no safer than it had been. In fact it was less safe. Except for raiding, scavenging, and pillaging east of the Suwannee for a few miles, what is officially called the First Seminole War had taken place between the Suwannee River and Pensacola. Only three hundred or so of the Red Stick and Miccosukees warriors were killed. Most just migrated east. We then had to contend with them at home because more of them were situated closer to our house than before. Also, many of the captive Indian boys had been released. Like me, they would soon be full-grown.
May 10, 1818
We arrived home from the First Seminole War in early May. Though it had been only ten weeks, it seemed like two years. I felt two years older. Ma said I looked just like I did the day Pa and I rode off, except for my clothes being dirty. They were a little worn, too. I had just about worn the seat of my britches out from sitting in a saddle.
As we arrived home we could see that Asa and George had worked hard with the plowing and planting. Some of the things in the fields would need harvesting within two weeks. I had a strange feeling as we rode in. A sort of peaceful feeling settled over me. A sense of responsibility also returned. It seemed to develop as we rode from Sergeant Hunter’s place to ours. All those things I was usually responsible for had been gone from my mind and as we approached our place, they descended like a weight on me.
Though Ma was seven months pregnant, she came, almost running, to meet us. Pa stepped down from his mare and they embraced. After she hugged me, they walked arm in arm toward the horse pen.
I took Pa’s mare’s bridle and said, “Asa, George, and I will put the horses up.”
Asa and George were coming at a full run from the fields. Pa didn’t say anything. He and Ma just walked on in the house with their arm around each other. It was the most public emotion I have ever seen them show for each other. Also, Pa usually insisted that each man tend his own horse. I was happy he didn’t that time.
The other kids stayed out at the horse pen with me. After we put the horses up, I sat my brothers down by the barn and we talked for most of an hour. They were anxious to know everything and I was giving Ma and Pa time alone. I also had some Indian things for each of them: bows and arrows, hatchets, knives, and moccasins. Those, some guns, and some Indian ponies we took and brought home was the sum total of our remuneration for fighting in the war.
After spending the afternoon and part of the night talking, we were up early and back to farming the next morning shortly after daylight. Asa and George had done a good job but they just couldn’t keep it all going. Pa lasted at that for three days. He then saw everything was getting in shape. He also had some other things to tend to and he communicated that at supper the third night.
Pa said, “There’s some property I want to look at. I’ll be leaving tomorrow for two or three days. I want you boys to tend to things while I’m gone.”
It was obvious he had discussed this with Ma because she didn’t have anything to say. Pa then told us all the things he wanted us to do. Things were back to normal.
Over the next couple of months we harvested and stored the corn, fodder, potatoes, beans, and peas. Those things were mostly preserved in their natural state. Other than those Ma was going to cook daily, the peas and beans were allowed to dry on the vine before they were picked for shelling and storing. They could then be stored in containers for extended periods of time. We also planted some late crops: collards, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, and beans.
At that time of year we hunted for any meat we needed instead of killing our own animals. Hog killing was usually done in November, about the same time syrup was made. Shoulders, hams, and sausages were then smoked and left hanging in the smokehouse throughout the winter. Bacon and some other parts of the hog were salted down to preserve them. Also, Ma made bags of hog’s-head cheese and left them hanging in the house after each hog killing. Though the smoked meat lasted throughout the year, we also hunted for fresh meat periodically. Alligators, deer, raccoon, turtles, turkeys, wild hog, bear, and an occasional buffalo were the usual wild game fare. Even though she had at times in the past when food was in short supply, Ma didn’t ordinarily cook opossum or buzzard.
After the crops were gathered, we began mending the fences and the roofs on the buildings. We also worked constantly at clearing new ground for planting, or at least getting the stumps and roots out of the fields we had been planting. It was an ongoing way of life. It seemed it would take a lifetime to get all the roots out of a field. Many times I’ve broken a plow point, and the mule has been jerked almost to her knees, when the plow point caught a root in a field I thought was cleared of them.
During the summer and fall, while we were doing these things, the Indians were on the move. Their homes in west Florida had been destroyed and they had been driven out of that area, so they mostly lived a nomadic life as they sought farmland and home sites in north and east Florida. In relative terms, northeast Florida was becoming crowded as the Red Stick Creeks and Miccosukee, and the blacks living among the Indians, sought new homes there.
Indian raids into Georgia decreased during that time. Oh, there were raids by small bands of Indians, which resulted in some stolen livestock, but nothing on the scale there had been. On the other hand, raids by white Americans into Spanish Florida for the purpose of taking Indian livestock, and gathering up any blacks they found for use as slaves, continued, even increased. Also, the incidence of Americans moving into Florida to take land and establish small communities or individual farms increased.
In late July Ma had a baby girl and named her Nancy after one of our aunts.
In October of 1818, the Spanish Minister, Luis de Onis, and the United States Secretary of State, John Quincy Adams, started negotiations about Florida being taken over by the United States. These negotiations dragged on because both sides had several other things they wanted agreed to at the same time. Also, there was the matter of the land grants the king of Spain had given to his friends just prior to starting the negotiations. The United States didn’t feel these grants should be honored.
Except for one occurrence, our farm was spared from the various small raids going on during that time. In early November, Asa came in from checking his trap line and reported some trouble.
He said, “Pa, some of our woods cows have been rounded up and driven off. From the tracks, it looked like twenty or so cows and three riders.”