Civil War Articles by Julian WilliamsWillcox Kin Might Have Been Near Dangerous Osceola
This article was compiled by Julian Williams.
The General (Mark Willcox) continued to get the siftings of news from south of the border. Down around Fort King (Ocala, Florida), Osceola was up to some real mischief. General Wiley Thompson was in real trouble.
As I looked at some of the material relating to this incident, I happened across a familiar name - Joshua A. Coffee. Apparently, Joshua Coffee was a very popular name among General Willcox's kinfolks, the Coffees. Both General John Coffees (first cousins) had a son named Joshua, and their first cousin, Andrew Coffee, also had a son named Joshua; in fact, his name was Joshua A. Coffee and he would have been about the right age to fit the character named Joshua A. Coffee in the Fort King happenings.
According to some of the historians around the Fort King area (Ocala), Joshua A. Coffee was the engineer for Alachua County and was hired to survey the land around that area in 1827. This was the year Colonel Gad Humphreys was building Fort King and he hired Coffee so that he might have land lots available for the Florida newcomers. Now that would have been an easy task under other circumstances, but when the land had the label "Osceola's Land," stamped across it in blood, the chore wasn't so peachy.
Whether this Joshua A. Coffee was the same as referred to above, whether he got down there with the old Reverend Wilson Conner (Patriots War) earlier, or what, we might never know. We keep saying it, but we will eventually get to the story of the unforgettable Elder Wilson Conner. History would never forgive us if we didn't.
Back to Joshua Coffee. What we do know is there are still some Coffees in the area down there and some of those people might know if there is a connection. Either way, Joshua A. Coffee knew he had a tough job and he was probably a very careful man. You could lose your scalp (or even your head) if you weren't very careful.
We left Osceola and his sixty braves in the wet grass around Fort King, watching General Thompson take a few last puffs from his Cuban cigar. That is when things turned very ugly.
But the ugly things grew out of many ugly things. Now on this day during the Christmas season, Chief Jumper on the road from Tampa Bay to Fort King, had killed Major Dade and all his men (save one poor wretch who made it back to tell the horrible tale). The help that was coming for General Thompson never reached him.
And now Osceola and his group had savagely murdered General Thompson - shot him with the very same beautiful rifle given to Osceola by Thompson as a present of good will and friendship. Surely in the dying ears of General Thompson now rang the words of Osceola (when he received the rifle): "Thank you - I will use it well."
But what Major Dade and General Thompson could not understand was the lingering memory of young Indians who saw Jacksa Chula Harjo (General Andrew Jackson) massacre their kinsmen back in Alabama. And at the village of Tallussahatchee (AL), the soldiers killed many, including women and children. Davy Crockett later lamented and was not proud at all of the feat - "We shot them like dogs." General John Coffee of Tennessee had led the attack and showed no mercy. He was first cousin of General John Coffee of Jacksonville, Georgia. Congressman Crockett later felt so bad about the Indians' plight that he had a big falling out with President Jackson and headed for the West. And we know the rest of that story - and it wasn't pretty either. But The Alamo is another tragic piece of the puzzle.
The Americans at Horse Shoe Bend, Alabama, had indeed avenged the massacre of Americans at Fort Mims (AL) but it came with a terrible future price. And it was now being paid in the farflung outposts of central and southern Florida.
According to Gloria Jahoda in "The Trail of Tears," General Thompson then suffered the same fate as John the Baptist and that night in Wahoo Swamp, the fire-watered celebrating Indians held their talisman high on a pole and imitated Thompson's Georgia drawl: "The Indians who do not go peacefully, the Great Father will remove by force!" Thus we see the bitterness and hatred that festered on both sides during a time and conduct in our history that could not be described as admirable and noble. It appears that both sides were very violent and determined in their behavior.
But Osceola could see the handwriting on the wall. Wounded by a Duncan Clinch bullet at the Withlacoochee River, he knew he was not invincible to the Americans' bullets. Hounded by soldiers, hunger, and hardships of all kinds in the unforgiving forsakens of Florida, he was soon to become sick with malaria.
And a new general was on the scene. Osceola had fooled the lot of them - Winfield Scott, Edmund Gaines, Wiley Thompson, Duncan Clinch and other military leaders. But this one was different - General Thomas Sidney Jesup. The young officer not only believed in himself but he also had a lot of confidence in the new Colt revolvers and Cochran repeating rifles that came with him. Osceola knew he had an awesome opponent. If General Jesup had not come along no telling what Jesup, Georgia, would be called today.
With his gaunt figure wracked by malaria, many Indians "deserting" the cause and heading for Oklahoma with a pocketful of American money, and dwindling resources in manpower against the ever-increasing hordes that came to take his Florida, Osceola was beginning to bend.
But his proud countenance still beamed a cold smile that could mean several things - and you had better not miss in guessing. His devious methods had cost many their very lives.
But General Jesup was not a loser in the game of deceit. But he was a player. So he sent General Hernandez with a flag of truce to "talk to Osceola." Whether Osceola was aware of the trick, or not, he might not have cared at this point. Quickly he was seized and placed in the old Spanish fort at St. Augustine, then named Fort Marion. (Later, the original name, Castillo de San Marcos, was restored.)
As Wildcat, his comrade, and other Indian leaders escaped from the fortress by losing weight and squeezing through narrow places, Osceola, for fear he might do the same, was transferred to Fort Moultrie at Charleston, South Carolina.
Now, Wildcat, Jumper, and Alligator would have to take the fight to the end. As Osceola left, he probably looked back one last time at Florida - a violent land if ever there was one.
And next week we will see what happened to Osceola in Charleston, S.C.
And in the meantime and shortly thereafter, General Willcox could not believe the order of deaths in this strange chain of events. General Wiley Thompson died in 1835. His father-in-law, General John Coffee, died in 1836. General David Blackshear died in 1837. Osceola died in 1838. And General John Floyd died in 1839. The whole unbelievable affair made him kind of nervous - who would be next?
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;
The Trail of Tears by Gloria Jahoda;
History of Marion County, The Early Americans by Darrell G. Riley;
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.
