Combat· Second Seminole War
Battle of Osuchee at Lake Ahpopka
A sharp, successful small-unit strike that showed what speed and surprise could achieve in a war usually marked by frustration.
A force of mounted Marines, with Major Morris's friendly Indian warriors and led by Henderson's aide Lieutenant Chambers, moved against the Seminole leader Osuchee, also known as Cooper, then camped on the borders of Lake Ahapopka. The Marines surprised the band before it could scatter into the swamps and overran it: Osuchee and three of his warriors were killed, and others were taken. The attackers suffered almost nothing, the only loss being a single friendly Indian mortally wounded. The action came just days before the larger fight at Hatchee-Lustee. Coming in a campaign defined by elusive enemies and impassable terrain, the destruction of Osuchee's band was a clean tactical success of the kind the Army rarely managed against the Seminoles.
Podcast episodes on Second Seminole War
Record no. 308