Combat· Second Seminole War
Battle of Hatchee-Lustee
The principal Marine combat action of the Seminole wars.
Colonel Commandant Archibald Henderson, who had brought a Marine regiment to Florida and taken command of a brigade in the Army of the South, led the advance against a body of Seminoles and their Black allies in the swamps along the Hatchee-Lustee. The fight turned on forcing a series of stream and swamp crossings under fire; the Marines crossed on a fallen log and through the water and drove the enemy from one position after another, taking prisoners, ponies, and baggage. Henderson's own report named the cost: two Marines killed, Private Joel Wright and Drummer Thomas P. Peterson, and four wounded, Sergeant Daniel Cunningham, Privates John Sullivan and Peter Foley, and Sergeant Leonard Stevens. For his conduct Henderson was brevetted brigadier general, the first Marine officer to hold a general's rank, and Captain John Harris was also brevetted.
Podcast episodes on Second Seminole War
Record no. 309