General Thomas Sidney Jesup commanded military operations
against the Seminoles in Florida during the early stages of the
conflict now known as the Second Seminole War (1835-1842). The
Second Seminole War was the longest and costliest American
Indian War in American history. Jesup’s field diary, available
on Florida Memory, contains his perspective on the war from
October 1, 1836, to May 30, 1837. This series of blog posts
places significant entries from the Jesup diary in the context
of the Seminole Wars and the history of Anglo-American Indian-
African relations in the American South. Below is the first post
in the series. The Secretary of War ordered General Thomas
Sidney Jesup to Florida in October 1836. In this entry, he
acknowledged the beginning of his service in Florida. However,
this was not his first experience with American Indian warfare.
Prior to receiving these orders, Jesup was deployed in a
military campaign against the Creek Indians in Alabama and
Georgia. Tensions erupted in violence in the C