Civil War Articles by Julian Williams'Osceola Kills General Thompson' News Saddens Coffee-Willcox Family
This article was compiled by Julian Williams.
As General Mark Willcox stuck the delayed newspaper into his saddlebag, he knew the four mile trip from the courthouse in Jacksonville, Georgia, to the plantation of his father-in-law, General John Coffee would be a long one. He had just received the news that an old family colleague and acquaintance, General Wiley Thompson, had been killed and scalped by the up-and-coming young Creek-turned-Seminole warrior, Osceola. It would be tough news to break to General Coffee. The happenings in this strange chain of events were continuing.
It didn't seem like the latest news could be true. General Wiley Thompson, from around Elberton, had been in the U.S. Congress the same year as General Coffee, 1833. One's term was ending and the other's beginning. But before that, even, the men in this strange chain of events had been military colleagues - Thompson in the 4th Division, Georgia Militia, and General Coffee in various assignments throughout the state. Mark Willcox himself was in the 2nd Brigade, South Division. And Thompson's companions in the Ellicott Boundary Line review, Generals Blackshear and Floyd, were also contemporaries in the Georgia Militia. In fact, Mark Willcox and General Floyd had served in the Georgia General Assembly together. Blackshear had visited with the Willcoxes on the Old River Road which ran by their plantation and boatyard. In fact, he buried one of his men not far from Fort Clark, near Jacksonville, Georgia, at a place now called Soldiers Pond.
As General Willcox reflected on the sadness of the situation and the path-crossing relationships of all these men, he also thought about how the settlers had mistreated the Indians. He even complained to the Governor about this and had seen the Old Indian Cemetery at Jacksonville get larger as the conflict continued.
But just as he had grown from a "lad" to a general, Osceola, four years younger, had grown from a "lad" to a vicious, but respected Seminole war leader, a "tustenuggee."
What had made him so angry - angry enough to kill Gen. Thompson, even? Vernon Lamme, former Florida State Archaeologist and friend to descendants of Osceola and other Indians, tells us this:
"The story goes that Osceola learned to hate the white man after listening to the tales of Chekika, his Creek mother, tell of her mistreatment by his father, a half-breed (half Scotch) called "Powell." Osceola was four years old when his father abandoned his family in Georgia. Chekika (Polly Copinger), bitter over this treatment, took her child and sought a new home with the Seminoles of Florida."
He continues:
"Osceola in turn never forgot that the white man had captured his young wife, Che cho ter (Morning Dew) and that he, himself had been arrested and thrown in jail." The man who had put him in chains was none other than Indian Agent Wiley Thompson, who agreed with Andrew Jackson that "the Indians must go."
But it seems the process of the hardening of Osceola was a bit more complex and progressive. He had tried. He was once even an "Indian police" who kept other Indians in line when they met with the settlers at treaties.
But he had attended one treaty too many. After awhile, he began to see the trickery and guile of the treaty makers. He saw his people go hungry on land that wouldn't grow weeds.
It is said that he walked to the treaty table and when asked to sign, instead plunged his knife into the treaty, pinning it to the table. "There is your heart, and my work."
General Thompson had described Osceola as "a bold and dashing young chief --- vehemently opposed to removal." Now I would say that was the understatement of the year for 1835.
And maybe we will get to how Osceola got his name - next week.
Credits:
C.T. (Chris) Trowell for Exploring The Okefenokee Letters And Diaries From The Indian Wars, 1836-1842;
Alvin M. Josephy for Patriot Chiefs and The Death of Osceola;
Vernon Lamme for Florida's Seminole Indians - The State's Most Colorful Son;
Ann Carswell for letters of and notes on Gen. Mark Willcox;
Willcox Family History by Martha Albertson;
Pioneer Days Along the Ocmulgee by Fussell Chalker;
Telfair History (1807-1987);
info furnished by Gertrude Wilcox Williams and Diane Williams Rogers and others.
