Combat· Second Seminole War
Battle of Wahoo Swamp
A confused, inconclusive fight in the dense swamps of central Florida, and the action that cost the Marines a promising officer.
As part of Colonel Pierce's command, Marines served in the columns formed largely of friendly Creek volunteers that pushed into the Wahoo Swamp against the Seminoles. The advance bogged down in the tangled, water-logged ground that frustrated nearly every American operation of the war, and the troops withdrew without a decisive result. Among the casualties was Lieutenant Andrew Ross of the Marines, praised in Pierce's report for behaving "with great energy and bravery," who was wounded in the action and died of his wound on 11 December 1836. Ross's death is preserved in the Marine record as a loss of the Second Seminole War. The battle showed, again, how the terrain itself defeated the Army's efforts to bring the Seminoles to a stand.
Podcast episodes on Second Seminole War
Record no. 307