The Old Country
Chief Micanopy
1836
On December 5th a meeting was held in Chief Micanopy met with General Jessup and his staff. As with Osceola, Micanopy came under a white flag of truce. When the General asked, “What do you expect from me?” Micanopy replied, “We are ready to go west; we want no more war.” General Jesup gave the Seminole leaders in attendance ten days for the reminder of the Indians to surrender and kept Micanopy and the other chiefs hostages. After ten days the commissioners sent out to have the others surrender returned empty handed. The General then made prisoners of Micanopy and his entourage including twenty-eight warriors and forty-three women and children. Once again General Jesup violated the white flag of truce.
In December many of the Seminoles prisoners were in poor condition with measles haven broken out among them and fifteen had died since the beginning of December. Unable to handle the influx, General Jesup sent over seventy that were “in a very destitute condition,” to the now “principle chief” Micanopy. By the end of December about two hundred, including Micanopy, were being held.
The chiefs that choose not surrender retreated deeper into the swamps of southern Florida where they were followed by Zachary Taylor’s troops and one of the hardest battles of the Seminole war was fought by the Seminoles against overwhelming odds. The swamps and marshes of the area worked in the Seminoles favor with Taylor’s army loosing 26 men and 112 wounded. Giving up pursuit, Colonel Taylor retreated and returned to the fort on the Withlacoochee on the last day of the year.