Seminole Success

Over the summer and fall of 1836, while politicians in Washington debated the war and held anguished inquiries into the Army's failed tactics, the Seminoles enjoyed a hard-fought freedom. The Army could muster only limited engagements. For six months, officers failed almost entirely even to find the enemy. The Seminoles, meanwhile, remained ensconced in their inland fastnesses. Safely concealed, they planted crops, hunted game, and renewed family life in temporary camps and villages.