About this ebook
On December 28, 1835, 110 American soldiers marched through the Florida wilderness. By noon, all but three were dead—victims of an ambush that ignited America's longest and costliest Indian war.
The Second Seminole War (1835–1842) consumed forty million dollars when the entire federal budget barely exceeded twenty million annually. Five generals tried to win it. All failed. The Seminoles turned Florida's swamps into a fortress that conventional armies could not breach.
This is the story Washington tried to forget.
Creek exiles, escaped slaves, and Spanish Florida refugees had forged a multiracial nation that terrified Southern slaveholders. Seminole Wars: Florida's Forgotten Conflict brings their story to life—Osceola, whose courage ignited a rebellion; Sam Jones, who refused every offer to leave and died free in the Everglades; and the Black Seminoles who knew that American victory meant a return to bondage.
Covering three wars across four decades (1817–1858), this thoroughly researched narrative explains why the United States spent more fighting the Seminoles than it paid for the entire Louisiana Purchase—and still failed to achieve complete victory.
The Seminole Tribe of Florida has never signed a peace treaty with the United States. They remain, to this day, the Unconquered People.
