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Swamp Sailors in
the
Second Seminole War
by George E. Buker
Order
this Book now
The Indian Removal Act of 1830 led to the Second Seminole War,
fought by the United States to evict the Seminoles from the
Florida Territory. When the last surviving Seminoles sought
refuge in the Everglades and resorted to guerrilla-style tactics,
however, the U.S. Navy found its standard strategies of
guerre de course and gunboat coastal defense useless.
For the first time in its history, the American Navy was forced
to operate in a nonmaritime environment. In Swamp Sailors,
George Buker describes how Navy junior officers outshone their
commanders, proving themselves less resistant to change and more
ready to implement novel strategies, including joint combat
operations and maneuvers designed specifically for a riverine
environment.
By 1842, when the Second Seminole War was halted, Lt. John
McLaughlin’s "Mosquito Fleet" exemplified the
Navy’s new expertise by making use of canoes and
flat-bottomed boats and by putting together small, specially
trained joint combat teams of Army and Navy personnel for
sustained land-sea operations.
Originally published in 1975 and now in paperback for the first
time, Buker’s Swamp Sailors is the story of the
U.S. Navy’s coming of age, sure to be of interest to
military history enthusiasts, to students of Florida history, and
to armchair sailors everywhere.
George E. Buker, formerly a commissioned naval aviation
commander, is professor emeritus of history at Jacksonville
University and author of Sun, Sand, and Water: A History of
the Jacksonville District U.S. Army Corps of Engineers;
Jacksonville: Riverport-Seaport; and Blockaders,
Refugees, and Contrabands: Civil War on Florida’s Gulf
Coast.
1997. 148 pp. 6 X 9.
7 illustrations, 6
maps, notes, bibliography, index.
ISBN 0-8130-1514-6
Paper, $16.95
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"Buker’s
research and narrative of the Navy’s offensive operations in
the Everglades in cooperation with the Army, Marines, and Revenue
Service are excellent. . . . Required reading for all American
military and naval historians."--Florida Historical
Quarterly
"Read about the beginnings [of riverine warfare] here . . .
in Swamp Sailors. It is excellent."— Valor and Arms
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