Civil War Articles by Julian WilliamsWildes Massacre Alarms General Willcox And Others
This article was compiled by Julian Williams.
The world was going too fast for The General (Mark Willcox). Already word had come from the west that brave Americans had fallen at the Alamo.
And down in Florida, they had tricked the old Indian chief Osceola and captured him under a flag of truce. That didn't sound exactly up and up but that was probably the only way the military could catch him. He had been pretty well fooling the generals.
Up in Washington, Andrew Jackson had left the presidency, after two terms, with what he said was "barely $90 in my pockets." He carried himself and his money back to Nashville. He had made a big mark on the history of the country. But John Willcox probably still remembered his high-tailing it to Florida when they needed him mighty bad in South Georgia to fight "these Indians." Not those Seminoles way down on the Gulf Coast.
But The General (Mark Willcox) had lived to see the Creeks and Seminoles almost become one people. Both were being pursued with the intent of killing them or deporting them to Oklahoma. Both were without homes and lands and were forced to roam the country squeezing out whatever existence they found. And it was getting to the point they really didn't care whose households suffered their intrusions. Because to the Indian the settlers had intruded.
The General and his men had ridden from the Flint to the Okefenokee and beyond trying to cut off their escape to Florida. But the red man had found that he could hide and thrive in one of the most beautiful and haunting places in Georgia - The Land of the Trembling Earth - The Okefenokee Swamp. The General not only had to contend with the Indians in such an unreachable environment but he continued his battle with the regular army as they "requisitioned" whatever supplies they needed or wanted.
We find this passage in a letter to Governor Schley from General Willcox:
"I believe you are aware that it was utterly impossible for me to raise any force from this exposed and highly excited section lying between the Creek & Seminoles Indians, and through a country where the Florida Troop had passed, taken and gave their receipts for whatever they wanted. I have now in my possession a number of them for collection. I have done the best I could for the protection of the country and to prevent them (their) escape to Florida."
Collecting on those receipts was probably about as productive as lassoing alligators or Indians in the Okefenokee Swamp.
But news was coming that would excite the racing soldier riders at Race Pond (on the edge of the Okefenokee) and the likes of General Willcox and others. It was something that came to be called The Wildes Massacre.
According to those who know something about this tragedy in history, Maximillan Wildes was a strong, proud Scotsman who had found the secure Scottish settlement in Montgomery County, Georgia, too tame for his inclinations. He found the land "on the Indian side of the river" more to his liking. So he and his wife, Sarah Wilkerson Wildes, made it their home.
But something that fateful day had bothered Maxmillan Wildes. Something was not just right. He knew it and from his reactions, his wife knew it. Earlier, outside their rough-hewn house, he had spotted figures in the bushes. They were Indians. Worried, he scurried to the house. He fretted that he should have heeded his wife's warning and stayed over with neighbors. He knew he should have listened to her.
That Saturday night was a horror of waiting. The dogs barked. According to Kenny Wildes, a local resident and kinsman of the family, acorns and sticks pelted the cabin all through the long summer night.
At break of day, all seemed quiet. Was there really no danger? Mrs. Wildes went outside. The daylight looked better than the night. Even beautiful. But then she heard a bottle drop. Turning she saw its source.
Her cries stirred the ones inside as she ran back inside the cabin. "Indians!"
Maximillan Wildes tried to bluff his way by shouting commands to his boys to man their guns. But there was only one gun - his. And the Indians let him know, in broken English, that they knew the strength of his firepower.
Without hesitating about fifty of the intruders were upon him and killed him with a shot to the chest. One by one the wife and children were killed with unmerciful blows. Mrs. Wildes made it to DuBuss Bay but no farther. Seven children did not get away.
But four boys and one of the little Wilkerson girls, who was visiting the family, ran to safety. Kenny Wildes told me they hid under a fallen tree and the pursuing Indians raced past them. Reuben, the oldest, and Jesse and Jim and John, with the little girl, Alice, had made it out alive.
Captain Elias Waldron came upon the survivors and immediately put all women and children to be found in a fort while he gathered men to pursue the attackers.
It was now 1838. General Willcox must have thought - "Will this never end?" But already, his old soldier-competitor, General Winfield Scott, was gathering the Cherokee for deportation to Oklahoma. They would travel the same trail of the Choctaw of Mississippi and the Creek of Alabama. Soon Georgia would empty its plains, plateaus, swamps, and mountains of its Indian population.
But way down the state, in a place near present-day Waycross and Waresboro, a family of nine was being covered with soldiers' horse blankets and laid in a new cart, Maximillan Wildes' own wagon, and interred in one grave. A lone chinaberry tree stump marked its location.
But the four boys had escaped and so the fears that ran through the mind of Maxmillan Wildes on that fateful Sunday in July of 1838, had not all been realized. He had feared that his family would be completely annihilated and the family name would be no more.
But the name survived and the family survived. But at the great price - called to this day - The Wildes Massacre.
As The General received the terrible news he could remember one of the things he told the Governor:
"I received information the other day entitled to credit that there was a large body seen near the Okefenoke swamp in Ware County. I am now of opinion there are a great many on their way to the Seminoles through this section of the State, the whole of my Brigade lie between the Creeks & Seminoles except the counties I have ordered the men from."
The General looked at the red sky. Yes, those Indians were still in that swamp in numbers sufficient to do great harm. He didn't sleep very well that night. Tomorrow would be a long day.
Credits:
Ann Carswell for letters of and notes on Gen. Mark Willcox;
Willcox Family History by Martha Albertson;
Ware County account of Wildes Massacre;
Kenny Wildes' account of Wildes Massacre;
Pioneer Days Along the Ocmulgee by Fussell Chalker;
info furnished by Chris Trowell;
info furnished by Gertrude Wilcox Williams and Diane Williams Rogers and others.
