Seminoles attack the block-house
Lithograph by Gray & James, 1837, Lib. of Cong.

Over the first year of the Florida war, the U.S. failed to win a single engagement, humiliating five commanding generals. Illustrations almost exclusively depicted Indians as the adversaries, but officers in the field were more quick to confide that this was "a Negro, not an Indian war." 

Also see:

• National mood following U.S. losses
• Slave dynamics of the war
• Visual analysis of 6 wartime illustrations
• Slide with full image credit

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