Osceola's Death

During Osceola's brief stay in Charleston, the locals had welcomed him with open arms. Editorials hailed him as a fallen hero, "as much sinned against as sinning," a warrior owed "the respect which the brave ever feel toward the brave." Men and women of society visited Osceola at the Fort, and even arranged for him to attend an evening at the theater. Of his newfound admirers, he particularly took to the painter George Catlin, with whom he would talk late into the night. 

"His manners were quiet," wrote one visitor:

"Yet sometimes he would complain in private, to the few friends he had made during his imprisonment, of the hardness of his fate, and at the same time dwell with fire on the great things he might have done could he have united all his people, and been obeyed."