Battle of Econfina River was a Early Republic and War of 1812 engagement fought in Florida, 1818.
On the morning of April 12, 1818, violence erupted along the Econfina River, in what is present day Taylor County, Florida, as part of Andrew Jackson's campaign that year into Spanish held Florida, a conflict now remembered as the First Seminole War. Jackson's soldiers were on the move from the Spanish post at San Marcos de Apalache, heading toward Bowleg's Town, when they came upon a body of warriors under Peter McQueen, a respected Red Stick war chief hailing from Tallassee.
On the morning of April 12, 1818, violence erupted along the Econfina River, in what is present day Taylor County, Florida, as part of Andrew Jackson's campaign that year into Spanish held Florida, a conflict now remembered as the First Seminole War. Jackson's soldiers were on the move from the Spanish post at San Marcos de Apalache, heading toward Bowleg's Town, when they came upon a body of warriors under Peter McQueen, a respected Red Stick war chief hailing from Tallassee.
The roots of this episode trace back to the aftermath of the Creek War of 1813-1814, when Native American refugees who fled that fighting sought exile in Spanish Florida. Many of them gathered at a rendezvous point in the Apalachicola River valley, near what is now Blountstown, Florida. Years earlier, during the War of 1812, the British had built two military posts along that same river, one at Prospect Bluff and another close to present day Chattahoochee, Florida.
Once the Treaty of Ghent was signed, British regulars along with most of the Corps of Colonial Marines departed for other British colonies, leaving behind the weapons stored at these posts under the guard of a contingent of Colonial Marines, an arrangement tied to the Treaty of Nicolls Outpost. The abandoned British post, still held by these Colonial Marines, came to be called the Negro Fort, and it soon gained a reputation as a refuge for Maroons fleeing the United States. By April 1816, Andrew Jackson had warned Spanish Governor José Masot of West Florida that he would destroy the Negro Fort himself if Masot failed to act. Masot answered that he lacked the manpower to do so.
Across the following two years, a chain of violent episodes unfolded in the region, including the Battle of Negro Fort, the Battle of Fowltown, the Scott massacre, and the Battle of Ocheesee, setting the stage for Jackson's push into Spanish Florida in March 1818. During the First Seminole War, Jackson's forces, joined by Lower Creek warriors under William McIntosh, advanced down the Apalachicola, constructing the new Fort Gadsden along the way while razing the Native American towns of Tallahassee and Miccosukee.
The previous day, Major Kinard led a small scouting party and stumbled upon several enemy camps. He wasted no time sending word to General McIntosh, who gathered his warriors and set out hoping to catch the camps unaware. As they neared the site, the Indians spotted them at nearly the same instant. The encampment lay near a sprawling swamp, and once Major Kinard's men charged from the left flank, the defenders scattered into the marsh for cover.
The thick undergrowth gave McQueen's warriors enough shelter to hold off the attackers for roughly half an hour, as they worked to move their women, children, livestock, and provisions out of harm's way. McIntosh's Creek regiment troops far outnumbered them, yet the outcome remained uncertain for some time. Eventually the defenders began falling back through the swamp, with McIntosh's men and a detachment of Tennessee Volunteer Cavalry close on their heels, the latter having lagged behind before rejoining the main force once the hostiles had been pushed through the wetland. Mounted Tennessee militia had also entered the fray, and together the combined troops steadily forced McQueen's fighters deeper into the swamp.
At a small pond the retreating warriors mounted one last fierce but brief resistance before being driven off again, and the running battle continued across roughly three miles. In total the gunfire stretched on for about three hours. The turning point came when the Red Sticks' ammunition began to run out, compelling a hastier withdrawal that left them exposed to being flanked and swept aside by McIntosh's advancing line.
When the fighting ended, the enemy had lost 37 killed, while 6 men and 98 women and children had been captured. The victors seized numerous horses and hogs, a quantity of corn, and around 500 head of cattle. Losses on their own side amounted to only 3 killed and 4 wounded, none seriously. General McIntosh himself accounted for three kills and one prisoner. Major Kennard, for his part, managed to recover a white woman who had originally been taken from the boat in the incident where Lieutenant Scott and his party were massacred.
No official marker designates the ground where the Battle of Econfina River unfolded. Still, scholars point to Captain Hugh Young's topographical notes from 1818 as evidence that the fighting took place within what is now the Natural Well Tract, a piece of public land safeguarded by the Suwannee River Water Management District. The SRWMD notes that this tract sits north of U.S. Highway 98, with access available via Ralph Whiddon Road in Taylor County, FL.
Three hours of combat spanning three miles came to a close with catastrophe for McQueen, who managed to flee alongside as many followers as he could gather. Retreating toward the coastline, they sought distance from Jackson's advancing force and ultimately journeyed south, settling near Tampa Bay in what became Angola, Florida.
The clash left nearly 40 Red Stick warriors dead, while close to 100 Native American women and children fell into American hands as captives. American losses were comparatively light, with only 3 troops and allied warriors killed and 5 more wounded. Among those freed during the engagement was Elizabeth Stewart, a captive held since her seizure in the Scott Battle of 1817.
Also swept up among the Red Stick prisoners was Peter McQueen's own sister, once wed to a British trader named Powell, together with her boy, then called Billy Powell. Roughly 9 years old at the time, this child would later rise to prominence during the Second Seminole War under a far more famous name, Osceola.
It seems Powell's mother, or perhaps grandmother, managed to win freedom for him and other relatives from Jackson by pledging to help bring about McQueen's surrender. Family tradition holds that they then took refuge in the Okeefenokee Swamp, where word eventually reached them that McQueen and his band had settled in the Peace River valley, near Lake Hancock, prompting the family to relocate there as well.
Meanwhile, Jackson's forces pressed on toward their central goal, the villages belonging to Bolek, the Alachua Seminole chief, and the refugee Maroons who had scattered there following the Battle of Negro Fort, in the vicinity of what is now Old Town, Florida.
Approximate location. The nearest recorded settlement is shown; the exact site is unrecorded.
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