Native Americans wipe out U.S. Army command (Not Custer)

 

On December 23, 1835, one hundred and ten men under the command of Major Francis Dade left Fort Brooke (present-day Tampa), to reinforce and resupply Fort King (present-day Ocala).   Relations between the United States and the Seminoles in Florida had grown increasingly hostile as the U.S. Army tried to forcefully relocate the Seminole to reservations in Indian Territory (present day Oklahoma).

Major Dade knew he might be attacked, but having crossed several rivers and the thicker woods, he felt relatively safe and called in his flanking scouts in order to increase the speed of the marching column. Major Dade had no idea of the number of enemies he might be facing or where they might be.  His column was now completely blind.  Meanwhile, Seminole scouts watched the troops in their sky-blue uniforms every foot of the way.

The troops marched for five quiet days until December 28, when they were just south of the present-day city of Bushnell. Suddenly, they withered under a volley of fire delivered by one hundred and eighty hidden Seminole warriors.  Major Dade and half of his men were brought down immediately.

No organized defense was made.  The cannon was discharged several times, but the men around it were quickly shot down.  Most of the soldiers, still in two single file lines, were quickly killed.   Only three U.S. soldiers were reported to have survived the attack.

Lack of intelligence about the enemy, combined with the enemy’s use of terrain and the element of surprise account for this U.S. Army defeat.

History's Ten Worst Generals

Virginia Witch Trials

 

    The most famous American witch trials occurred in Salem Massachusetts from 1692-1693, but Virginia had its own witches and witch trials.  All right-minded people in the American colonies took the existence of witches for granted.  The Devil was always a real and present danger.  Despite being on constant alert and ever vigilant, Virginians did not experience the same degree of hysteria with regard to witches that gripped the Puritans of Massachusetts.  For one thing, clerical influence was much a less factor in Virginia, where the clergy rarely participated in witchcraft trials.  Unlike New England’s witch trial courts, where the accused had to prove their innocence, in Virginia, the accuser had to demonstrate the accused was guilty. Nineteen witchcraft trials were held in Virginia during the 17^th century.  Most ended in the accused witch being acquitted.  In a 1656 case a man was convicted of witchcraft and sentenced to whipping and banishment.  There was no death penalty for witchcraft in Virginia.  The last witchcraft trial in Virginia took place in 1802.

   Virginia’s most famous witch, the so called “Witch of Pungo” was one Grace Sherwood, a forty-six-year old married woman from Princess Anne County.  Grace was married to James Sherwood, a planter. The couple had three sons: John, James, and Richard.  The family lived in Pungo (today part of Virginia Beach).  Grace Sherwood was a strong woman, a healer and herbalist, and someone with an affinity for nature and animals.  She did not suffer fools easily.  Here, at that time, was a sure formula for trouble with the neighbors.  And trouble she got. 

   In early 1697, Richard Capps accused Grace of casting a spell that caused the death of his bull.  The court found insufficient evidence of witchcraft and the charge was dismissed.  The Sherwoods sued Capps for slander.  This case also went nowhere.  The following year, John Gisburne accused Grace of casting a spell on his pigs and cotton crop.  This resulted in another case of insufficient evidence, and another failed defamation suit on the part of the Sherwoods.  The year 1698 was a busy one for Grace Sherwood.  Having beaten back the accusations of John Gisburne, later in the year she was accused by Elizabeth Barnes of having assumed the shape of a black cat.  As a demonic cat, Grace was accused of having entered the Barnes’ home in the night, where she proceeded to jump over the bed and whip Elizabeth Barnes.  The witch then left through the keyhole.  Not surprisingly, this resulted in another case dismissed, and another failed defamation suit on the part of the Sherwoods.

   Things remained quiet for a number of years, until in 1705 Grace Sherwood was involved in a fight with her neighbor Elizabeth Hill.  Sherwood sued Hill and her husband for assault and battery and was awarded monetary compensation in December 1705.  This ruling by the court did nothing to calm tempers.  On January 3, 1706, Elizabeth Hill accused Grace Sherwood of witchcraft, of having used her satanic powers to cause a miscarriage. In March 1706 the court ordered Sherwood’s house to be searched for waxen or baked figures that might indicate she was a witch.  No luck here, the search produced nothing.  The court next authorized a jury of twelve women to look for marks of the devil on Grace Sherwood’s body. The forewoman of this jury was the same Elizabeth Barnes who had previously accused Sherwood of witchcraft.  This group discovered marks of the Devil, oddly enough.

   Despite this overwhelming evidence, authorities remained reluctant to declare Grace Sherwood a witch.  Authorities in Williamsburg, the colonial capital, considered the charge against Sherwood too vague and ordered the local court to examine the case in greater depth.

   By July, Grace Sherwood was worn out with travelling from her farm to court and thus consented when the court offered her a trial by ducking.  The procedure here would involve binding Grace and throwing her into the river; if she sank, she was innocent, but if she floated, she was clearly a witch. 

   Grace Sherwood’s protestation that, “I be not a witch, I be a healer,” fell on deaf ears.  People had come in from all over the colony to watch the spectacle.  The crowd began to chant, “Duck the witch.”  A spot on the Lynnhaven River, now known as Witchduck Point, was chosen for the test.  Grace Sherwood was securely bound, rowed out into the river, and thrown from the boat.  She rose to the surface.  Proof positive that she was a witch.  The court, with an over-abundance of judicial caution, decided to give Grace a second chance to demonstrate her innocence.  The sheriff was ordered to tie a thirteen-pound Bible around her neck. Grace was rowed back to the middle of the river and thrown from the boat.  Weighted down by the Bible, she sank, but somehow managed to untie herself and return to the surface.  She was definitely a witch, if there ever was one.

   Grace Sherwood was convicted of witchcraft and sentenced to imprisonment. Freed from prison by 1714, Grace returned to her home and lived peacefully until her death in 1740. Some neighbors said the Devil took her body.  Others pointed to the increase in unnatural storms and loitering black cats after her death.  Locals killed every cat they could find, which then lead to an infestation of rats in 1743. 

   Grace Sherwood lies in an unmarked grave in a field near the intersection of Pungo Ferry Road and Princess Anne Road in Virginia Beach.  To this day, local residents tell of a mysterious moving light that appears each July over the spot where Sherwood was thrown into the water.  Is it possible that this is the restless spirit of Grace Sherwood?  Perhaps, but not everyone is convinced that Grace Sherwood was a witch.  The Governor of Virginia granted her a pardon on July 10, 2006.  Additionally, a statue of Grace Sherwood was erected on Independence Boulevard in Virginia Beach. Grace is shown alongside a raccoon, representing her love of animals, and carrying a basket containing garlic and rosemary, in recognition of her knowledge of herbal healing.

Virginia Legends and Lore

Tombstone Legends

 

Tombstone owed its creation to the discovery of silver.  The mines sat in the richest productive silver district in Arizona.  The population of Tombstone grew from 100 to around 14,000 in less than seven years.

Tombstone had four churches, a school, two banks, three newspapers, and an ice-cream parlor, which sat amidst 110 saloons, 14 gambling halls, and numerous dance halls and brothels.  The town is best known as the site of the “Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.” At about 2:30 p.m. on Oct. 26, 1881, the Earp brothers, Wyatt, Virgil and James along with Wyatt’s pal Doc Holiday, representing the law, shot it out with an outlaw gang known as “The Cowboys.”  Three of the outlaws were killed. During the next five months, the gang struck back. Virgil Earp was ambushed and maimed, and another of the Earp brothers, Morgan, was murdered. Wyatt, Warren Earp, Doc Holliday, and others formed a posse that killed three more Cowboys whom they thought responsible.

After the shootout in Tombstone, and after leaving Arizona, Wyatt Earp was often the target of negative newspaper stories that disparaged his reputation.  Some regarded him as little better than a murderer.  This all changed with a heroic biography published in 1931, Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal by Stuart N. Lake. The book became a bestseller and created Wyatt Earp’s reputation as a fearless lawman. Since then, films, television shows, and works of fiction further added to the fame of Wyatt Earp.

Two months after the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, on December 26, 1881, the Birdcage Theatre opened in Tombstone.  The theater was owned by William Hutchinson. Hutchison originally intended to present respectable family shows but found that he could make more money by catering to a rougher crowd. The walls of the Bird Cage were riddled with gunshot holes from the frequent shootouts.  The theater also did extra duty as a saloon and brothel.

Performing under the stage name “Fatima”, Fahreda Mazar Spyropoulos, better known to history as “Little Egypt” got her start at the Bird Cage.   Spyropoulos popularized the form of dancing, which came to be referred to as the "Hoochee-Coochee", or the "shimmy and shake.”  We now call this belly dancing.  There is a larger-than-life sized painting in the Bird Cage, which Spyropoulos donated, entitled "Fatima". It bears six patched bullet holes; one can be seen above the belly button and there is a knife gash in the canvas below the knee.

Arizona Legends and Lore