Scott Massacre

The Scott Massacre, coming after the recent (1813) Fort Mims Massacre, was a factor convincing the United States that the Creeks must be eliminated, beginning the Seminole Wars. It took place at the end of November, 1817. Several hundred Red Stick Creek warriors, led by Homathlimico, with Josiah Francis in the rear, attacked a vessel commanded by Lieutenant Richard W. Scott. The boat was heading up the Apalachicola River to supply Camp Crawford on the Flint River in southwest Georgia; the attack was at the confluence of the rivers (Nicolls' Outpost). Besides the supplies, the boat carried 20 sick soldiers, 7 women, 4 children, and a guard of 20 armed soldiers. After a bloody massacre and scalping, only 7 survived, 1 woman, and 6 soldiers who escaped by jumping into the river and swimming to the opposite shore, where friendly Creeks helped them reach safety at Camp Crawford on December 2, 1817.

The children were killed by having their heads bashed against the sides of the boat. Scott was killed by having splinters of fatwood driven into his body and set afire, "an excruciating form of execution that had its roots deep in the ancient traditions of the Creek Indians".

News of the massacre was immediately sent by the camp commander, General Edmund P. Gaines, to Secretary of War John C. Calhoun and General Andrew Jackson. It was reported widely in the American press. "An infuriated President James Monroe directed that General Jackson be ordered to the frontier and that the Seminoles and Red Sticks be punished without regard to whether they were in the United States or Spanish Florida." This was the first or nearly the first battle of the First Seminole War. (As the undeclared war did not have a clear beginning, several other 1816–1818 confrontations have been suggested.)

The attack was soon followed by the Battle of Ocheesee. Camp Crawford was renamed Fort Scott in the commander's honor.