Army Response

Despite the dangers of concentrating his forces, Secretary of War Lewis Cass sent his two leading generals to Florida, Winfield Scott and Edmund Gaines, and he deployed a combined force of 6,000 men by the close of the year, 9,000 by the end of 1837. Cass and Jackson had both neglected the Florida situation in 1835, hardly believing that the Seminoles could pose a threat. Now, they demanded swift action.