The Case of Oceola’s Missing Head
Arrival at Fort Moultrie
January 1st, 1838
The Charleston Daily Courier Jan. 3, 1838, p2
On December 16th the steamer U.S. Poinsett stopped in Charleston on its way to Florida to “join an expedition to Mosquito and the Everglades.” Upon arriving in St. Augustine, General Jesup redirected the Poinsett to transport Osceola along with Chief Micanopy, 116 warriors, and 82 women and children to Fort Moultrie on Sulivan’s Island in South Carolina.
The Indians arrived at Charleston on New Years Day, 1838[1] in poor health. Even before departing St. Augustine, it was reported that, “Indians confined in the Fort at St. Augustine, were very sickly, and several of them had died within a few days,” and the three-day voyage in the cold hold of steamer did not help their condition. Dr. Frederick Weedon, who had attended the Seminoles while they were at St. Augustine, accompanied them on the trip to Charleston and then continued their care at Fort Moultrie. The Seminoles in Florida seldom experienced temperatures below freezing and dressed for the warmer climate of Florida, the South Carolina winter was a brutal shock. They were a defeated people, unsure of what lay in their future, they gathered somberly around meager fires to keep warm.
News of Osceola’s arrival at Ft. Moultrie quickly spread and the story of his fight, capture and imprisonment at Fort Moultrie appeared in about every state of the Union and several in Europe. Many were sympathetic about the Seminole cause particularly after the injustice of being captured while under the truce of a white flag.
[1] Several references (#40) say that the Poinsett arrived on January 1st 1838, but The Charleston Daily Courier reported on Wednesday, Jan. 3, 1838 that the Poinsett arrived in port on “Monday morning last,” which could mean the Monday the week before or Christmas Day, Monday, December 25th, 1837.