note: Summary military measures]

[Sidenote: Pensacola occupied]

When the order to assume command reached Jackson, he raised a volunteer
force in Tennessee from among his old soldiers. With these and the troops
left by Gaines he marched into Florida. On the site of the Negro fort he
built Fort Gadsden. He then advanced to the Bay of St. Marks, defeating the
few Seminoles whom he encountered. On April 7, he raised the American flag
there in place of the standard of Spain. Two Seminole chiefs who had taken
refuge on an American vessel in the bay, and who were supposed to have
participated in the massacre of a party of Americans, were brought on shore
and hanged. Leaving a strong garrison at St. Marks, Jackson marched a
hundred miles to the Indian town of Suwanee, where he hoped to capture
Billy Bowlegs and his band. But the Indians, warned of his approach,
escaped across the river. Suwanee was destroyed. Jackson, when at St.
Marks, had taken prisoner one Arbuthnot, a Scotchman and supposed Indian
sympathizer, whom he ordered to be confined until his return. At Suwanee,
Captain Ambrister, a former English officer, intending to join the Indians,
blundered into Jackson's camp, and was held a prisoner. On his return,
Jackson ordered the two men to be tried by court-martial, on the charge of
warning the Indians of the approach of the American soldiers, and both were
convicted and executed. Jackson, on reaching Fort Gadsden, received from
the Spanish Governor of Pensacola a protest against his invasion. He turned
back, occupied Pensacola, and took the Fort of Carrios De Barrancas, to
which the governor had fled.

[Sidenote: Jackson unrebuked]

[Sidenote: An amicable settlement]

When the news of Jackson's course reached Washington, Congress engaged in a
heated debate over his occupation of the forts of a friendly power. In
defending himself Jackson wrote that the Secretary of War had given him
full power to conduct the campaign in the manner which seemed best. Spain,
he claimed, had failed to fulfil that article of the treaty by which she
was bound to restrain the Florida Indians from hostilities. Popular feeling
proved too strong for Congress to assert its privileges as the sole
war-making power. Jackson was not even rebuked for his course. During all
those months, Onis, the Spanish Minister, and Adams were in negotiation
over a treaty, which was not ratified until two years later. Florida was to
be ceded to the United St