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Battle of Wahoo Swamp

1836 in Florida Territory1836 in the United StatesBattles of the Seminole WarsConflicts in 1836December 1836 events
Naval battles and operations of the American Indian WarsNovember 1836 eventsSwamps of FloridaUnited States Marine Corps in the 18th and 19th centuries
Seminole War in Everglades
Seminole War in Everglades

The Battle of Wahoo Swamp was an extended military engagement of the Second Seminole War fought in November 1836 in the Wahoo Swamp, approximately 50 miles northeast of Fort Brooke in Tampa and 35 miles south of Fort King in Ocala in modern Sumter County, Florida. General Richard K. Call, the territorial governor of Florida, led a mixed force consisting of Florida militia, Tennessee volunteers, Creek mercenaries, and some troops of the US Army and Marines against Seminole forces led by chiefs Osuchee and Yaholooche. Soon after hostilities began in late 1835, a portion of the Seminole and Black Seminole of north and central Florida removed to the Wahoo Swamp - a largely unmapped wilderness of wetlands, dense hardwood hammocks, and scattered wet prairies - as a refuge from attempts to expel them from the territory as demanded by the Indian Removal Act. Settlements were established on patches of dry land along the Withlacoochee River, and the area became a base from which small raiding parties launched attacks on US military forces and plantations between Fort Brooke and Fort King. In the autumn of 1836, General Call's forces arrived in the area to seek out and destroy Seminole villages and farms along the Withlacoochee with the goal of breaking their resistance. However, though he forced the Seminoles to retreat deeper into the swamp in a series of sharp engagements, he was unable to follow due to difficult terrain and dwindling supplies. American forces had left the Wahoo Swamp by the end of November 1836, and Call was relieved of his command by General Thomas Jessup the following month.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Battle of Wahoo Swamp (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

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N 28.6899 ° E -82.22285 °
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Sumter County (Sumter)



Florida, United States
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Seminole War in Everglades
Seminole War in Everglades
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