Prologue

For three years, hundreds of black rebels allied with Seminole Indians have fought the U.S. Army to a standstill. Known as the Black Seminoles, these fugitive slaves and free blacks have defied the country's leading generals and inspired terror across the South. For white soldiers, they have been the most fearsome enemies of the Seminole alliance.

"The negroes, from the commencement of the Florida war, have, for their numbers, been the most formidable foe, more blood-thirsty, active, and revengeful, than the Indian .... For them to surrender would be servitude to the whites; but to retain an open warfare, secured to them plunder, liberty, and importance." -- Lieutenant John T. Sprague