Combat
Second Seminole War
The longest and most costly of the American Indian wars, fought in Florida against the Seminoles and their Black allies who resisted forced removal west.
It was also the occasion of the most extensive land service in the Marine Corps' early history. In 1836 Colonel Commandant Archibald Henderson personally led a Marine regiment to Florida, took command of a brigade in the Army of the South, and fought the Battle of Hatchee-Lustee in January 1837, the principal Marine action of the war, for which he was brevetted brigadier general. After Henderson returned north, Marines continued in the field as part of Lieutenant McLaughlin's Florida Squadron, the "Mosquito Fleet," pushing through the rivers and the Everglades in boats and canoes in pursuit of an enemy that refused to be brought to battle. The war dragged on until the United States simply declared it over in 1842, most Seminoles having been removed and a remnant left in the swamps.
Engagements in this conflict (10) Podcast episodes on Second Seminole War
Record no. 302