The Seminole War of 1816 and 1817 – Indian Wars

colonel clinch

After the close of the war with Great Britain, in 1815, when the British forces were withdrawn from the Florida’s, Edward Nicholls, formerly a colonel, and James Woodbine, a captain in the British service, who had both been engaged in exciting the Indians and Blacks to hostility, remained in the territory for the purpose of forming combinations against the southwestern frontier of the United States. Nicholls even went so far as to assume the character of a British agent, promising the Creeks the assistance of the British forces if they would rise and assert their claim to the land which … Read more

Biography of Hillis Hadjo

Hillis Hadjo, Francis the Prophet – (hilis ‘medicine’, hadsho ‘crazy’, an official at the busk, q. v.). A noted Seminole leader in the early part of the 19th century, usually known among the whites as Francis the Prophet, and whose name is also recorded as Hidlis Hadjo, Hillishago, Hillishager, etc. He took an active part in the Seminole war, and is accused of having been one of the chief instigators of the second uprising. He seems to have come into public notice as early as 1814, as on Apr. 18 of that year Gen. Jackson wrote from his camp at … Read more