Combat· Second Seminole War
Vandalia boat expedition
One of the first Marine boat operations of the Seminole war, and the start of the riverine method the Navy would refine over the next six years.
Marines from the sloop USS Vandalia took to the ship's boats for a reconnaissance and pursuit along the Gulf coast of Florida, ranging the Manatee River and the Anclote and Mullet Keys in search of Seminole bands that had been raiding the scattered settlements. The expedition came in the war's opening months, when Florida's governor had called for federal forces and the Navy and Marines were first finding how to operate in a country of mangrove, shoal, and shallow river where conventional troops were nearly helpless. It produced no casualties and no major fight. Its importance lay in the precedent: small parties of Marines and sailors, moving by boat, could carry the war into waters and inlets that the Army could not reach.
Podcast episodes on Second Seminole War
Record no. 304