War Erupts

Brigadier General Joseph Hernandez called the black uprising "the very worst feature of this whole war." Commanding the Florida volunteers, the former Spanish citizen tried to hold a strong point at John von Bulow's plantation. But on January 17th, the Seminoles and their new slave allies routed Herndandez's militia unit, the St. Augustine Guards. The Seminoles inflicted fifty percent casualties. One white volunteer became so enraged that he scalped an Indian captive, later bragging that he kept the man's ears for trophies.