Scott Massacre
The children were killed by having their heads bashed against the sides of the boat. Scott was killed by having splinters of fatwood driven into his body and set afire, "an excruciating form of execution that had its roots deep in the ancient traditions of the Creek Indians".
News of the massacre was immediately sent by the camp commander, Gen. Edmund P. Gaines, to Secretary of War John C. Calhoun, and Gen. Andrew Jackson. It was reported widely in the American press. "An infuriated President James Monroe directed that General Jackson be ordered to the frontier and that the Seminoles and Red Sticks be punished without regard to whether they were in the United States or Spanish Florida." This was the first or nearly the first battle of the First Seminole War.
The attack was soon followed by the Battle of Ocheesee. Camp Crawford was renamed Fort Scott in the commander's honor.
Further reading
- Cox, Dale (2013). Brininstool, Savannah (ed.). The Scott massacre of 1817. A Seminole War battle in Gadsden County, Florida. West Gadsden Historical Society and Old Kitchen Books. ISBN 9781461046530.