| |
 |
|
 |
| |
| |
TRIBAL DUEL
27" X 30" Oil Painting
Video
Major David Moniac leads the Creek Regiment into the battle at
Wahoo Swamp during the Second Seminole War, 1836.
The bitter separation of the Creeks and those who would come to be
known as Seminoles occurred at the beginning of the nineteenth century.
The new tribe moved south into Florida, where they established their
homeland. The emigration led to violence and unrest with the white
settlers of the new U.S. Territory that led to the outbreak of the Second
Seminole War in 1835.
In 1816, a young Creek boy from Alabama, David Moniac, was appointed
to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. David graduated in
1822. Shortly after receiving a commission to the U.S. Army, he resigned
from the military to return home to assist the family business of
planting and horse breeding. David remained there and began a family,
unconcerned with the troubles brewing to the south.
By 1836, in spite of the harsh Indian removal policies initiated against
his own people, Moniac was reappointed his commission in the Army in order
to lead a regiment of Creek volunteers to go to Florida, where they fought
their old enemies, the Seminoles.
In late summer of 1836, Moniac and his Creeks found themselves in a desperate
battle in the abysmal Wahoo Swamp of west central Florida. At a critical point,
the heroic Moniac initiated an assault that would take his men across a
dark stream into the face of the hidden Seminoles. He leapt into the waist
deep water, sword and pistol in hand, but was struck fatally by a rifle shot
and sank into the black water. His body was recovered after the battle and
buried nearby.
Major David Moniac was both a gallant officer and a brave Creek warrior. He
also had the distinction of being the first Native American graduate of West
Point.
|
|
|