ery little was known of the settlements of the Seminoles.
They were known by their approaches to the white settlements, and when
the war broke out by their plunders and devastations. It was not known
where their hiding places were, and this could only be determined by
pursuing them. At the time of General Scott's assignment to the
command all the information tended to locating them on the waters of
the Ouithlacoochee and the St. John's Rivers; and accordingly against
this portion of the country the movement of the army was directed.

It was not only the want of ordnance, clothing, and subsistence, but
the geographical peculiarity of Florida--with its marshes, thickets,
hammocks, everglades, and impenetrable swamps--that made this campaign
almost fruitless, and which for years baffled all efforts of the
Government to subdue this small but brave and desperate tribe of
Indians.

In Congress General Scott's campaign in Florida was defended by some
of the ablest men in the country. Richard Biddle, of Pennsylvania, in
1837, when the House of Representatives was engaged in a debate on
appropriations for carrying on the war in Florida, said: "It would be
recollected by all that after the war in Florida had assumed a
formidable aspect Major-General Scott was called to the command. An
officer of his rank and standing was not likely to seek a service in
which, amid infinite toil and vexation, there would be no opportunity
for the display of military talent on a scale at all commensurate with
that in which his past fame had been acquired. Yet he entered on it
with the alacrity, zeal, and devotion to duty by which he had ever
been distinguished....

"When the late General Brown, writing from the field of Chippewa, said
that General Scott merited the highest praises which a grateful
country could bestow, was there a single bosom throughout the wide
republic that did not respond to the sentiment? I, for one at least,
can never forget the thrill of enthusiasm, boy as I then was, which
mingled with my own devout thankfulness to God that the cloud which
seemed to have settled on our arms was at length dispelled. On that
plain it was established that Americans could be trained to meet and
to beat in the open field, without breastworks, the regulars of
Britain....

"Sir, the result of that day was due not merely to the gallantry of
General Scott upon the field. It must in part be ascribed to the
patient, anxious, and indefatigable dru