The scene of the attack.

The most infamous battle of the First Seminole War was fought within sight of our campus 107 miles upstream at Chattahoochee Landing, which is just south of the Jim Woodruff Dam at Lake Seminole.  The event was called Scott's massacre, and it happened on November 30, 1817 as a flatboat tried to reach Fort Gaines, Georgia from Apalachicola. The boat was carrying forty soldiers (including twenty sick men), seven soldiers' wives, four children, and supplies to the frontier outpost. The group had departed Alabama on a schooner, arrived in Apalachicola, and then transferred to a flatboat for the trip upriver. Elizabeth Stewart was part of this group, and was headed to join her husband at his new post.

Although Lt. Richard W. Scott, commander of the flatboat, had been warned that he may be attacked, he was apparently unaware of the level of danger: war had broken out between the United States and an alliance of Seminoles and Creeks.  Just one week earlier, the U.S. military had attacked the Creek Village of Fowltown in southwest Georgia in order to pressure Chief Neamathla, who had refused to surrender land claimed by the United States under the Treaty of Fort Jackson, Alabama.  The village was ravaged and several villagers killed, including women.  Although he did send a messenger overland to request assistance from the fort, he continued his journey upstream before help could be mobilized and reach him.

Meanwhile, warriors from Fowltown, joined by other Seminoles and Creeks, planned to retaliate. They laid in wait at a sharp bend in the river.  They knew that the flatboat was coming, and that this place would be the ideal location for an ambush.

As the flatboat approached the bend, the current pushed the vessel close to the river's east bank, where the warriors where hiding. Lt. Scott and many of his men were killed in the first hail of bullets.  As the women and children looked on in panic and terror, the warriors waded into the river and stormed the boat. When the fighting was over, Elizabeth Stewart found herself being taken captive.  All of the other women and children were dead.  Only six of the soldiers survived, four with injuries, some of whom evaded death by jumping overboard and swimming away from the boat.     

Elizabeth would have to wait until spring for rescue. She was enslaved and moved between several villages during the months following her capture. The attack which became known as Scott's Massacre was met with further retaliation by the U.S. government.  Andrew Jackson's troops invaded Spanish Florida to battle the Creeks and Seminoles in 1818.  Elizabeth was with a band of Creeks attacked by this force at the Battle of Econfina Natural Bridge in April of that year, and was rescued by a Lower Creek warrior allied with the United States.

It's not entirely clear if her husband was among those killed in the attack, or if he had been at the fort and died later. What we do know is that Elizabeth later remarried John Dill and spent the rest of her life in Fort Gaines. Two of their homes still stand there today. As an interesting footnote to the story, legend has it that during her captivity, Elizabeth collected paper currency left on the ground during attacks. The Indians had no use for the money, and ignored it in favor of tangible goods. By the time she was rescued she was purportedly a wealthy woman. She remained one of the wealthiest citizens of Fort Gaines throughout her lifetime.

These early years of American settlement on the frontier border along the Apalachicola and Chattahoochee Rivers saw conflict among the U.S, Spain, and the native peoples, as they competed for control of the territory. This topic will be examined in our January 12 lecture by Homer Hirt, President of RiverWay South, entitled "The Corner of our Country." This is a reference to the fact that at one time, the southwestern border of the United States was at the confluence of the Apalachicola, Chattahoochee, and Flint Rivers at modern day Lake Seminole.  Joins us then to learn more.