FROM FLORIDA

Newnansville (E.F.) March 22, 1840

Mr. Editor:  It is painful to me to give you the information that I am now about to try to do.

  On the 17th instant, the Rev. John Nichlison McRae and Maj. A. McNeill, both citizens of Newnansville, were travelling to Micanopy, about thirty miles distant from Newnansville, a country where there are stations kept up every six or eight miles by the regular army. Within three miles of Micanopy they were fired upon by a party of twenty or twenty-five Indians in ambush. Mr. McRae’s horse was shot down at the first fire, but rose again, with three balls shot through his body, and run off a short distance, tell again, and expired. Mr. McRae as yet unhurt.-One ball slightly cut across his thigh, but not to injury him; he rand on foot about two hundred and fifty yards; the Indians surrounded him and butchered him with their hatches and butcher knives, stripped and scalped him. They being so near to stations, in the hurry of their horrid deed ran off and left the scalp on the ground, (a small piece of which I send you enclosed in this letter.)… Major McNeill received three balls through his clothes, two balls cut him across the small of his back, and cut his clothes through to the skin, cutting the two buttons off his coat behind, and one ball across the hip, just leaving the flesh untouched; and with that he got to Fort Wacahoote and gave the alarm to the Commander.

  Mr. McRae will not soon be forgotten in East Florida, as he was a champion in the cause of religion, and an instructor of youth in Newnansville. No man in the whole country would have been missed more. He left no family, but his loss is deeply felt by all the citizens.

Fayetteville Weekly Observer, p1, April 15, 1840

INDIANS IN FLORIDA
More outrages, attended with bloodshed.
April 28th, 1840

Newnansville (E.F.) March 22, 1840

Capt. Rains, 7th Infantry, with eighteen men, (all mounted,) was returning from a scout, he and his party were fired upon near Fort King, by a large party of Indians, concealed in palmettos, near a hammock and four of his men killed, and five wounded, Capt. Rains himself having been severely wounded. Capt. R. and the survivors were compelled to retreat before superior numbers.  

Capt. Rains, previously to leaving the Fort, had concealed in the hammock, a shell, covered with blankets, which the Indians removed, and the shell exploding, some of them, it is presumed lost their lives, as blood was seen about the spot by the troops.  

A volunteer, named Sanders, of Capt. Hineley’s company, was killed about the same time, by Indians, about four miles from Newnansville, and another man wounded. These white men were alone.  

On the same night, Stanley’s plantation, withing three miles of Newnansville, was visited by the Indians, and houses, with the crop of last year totally destroyed.

The Charleston Daily Courier,p2, May 7, 1940

Indians.-A friend from Newnansville informs us, that the Indians still show themselves occasionally in that neighborhood. A part was seen near “Hog Town”* recently by a negro, in the act of conveying on the back of a pony, a beef that they had killed, and being pursued, were discovered on the margin of Hog Town Prairie, barbecuing their ill gotten plunder. They were approached by the scouting party sufficiently near to see their fires, and but for the imprudent rashness of the commander of the scout, who discharged his gun before getting with shooting distance, they might have all been surprised and taken. But upon the discharge of the gun, the fires were immediately extinguished, and the Indians nowhere to be found. It is supposed there ere eight or nine Indians  

The Charleston Mercury, p2, Aug 18, 1840

*Note: Hog Town was a small village on Hogtown Creek which now runs through Gainesville and empties into Paynes Prairie. Hogtown Creek was about half mile from where I grew up and my brother and I used to play in it.

 

Jacksonville, July 28
Indian News

On the same morning (Monday) the express rider, after having left Micanopy, about a mile, saw two Indians standing in the road, but managed to elude discovery until he had passed them so far as to be beyond reach of their rifles. They discharged, he supposes, about fifteen rifles at him, after he had got beyond them. The report of the rifles, and yell of the Indians, was heard at Micanopy, and on repairing to the spot, signs of from 80 to 100 Indians were found.   

The Charleston Mercury, p2, Aug 19, 1840