ociety of his people.

When General Alexander Ramsay Thompson was agent of the United States
for these Indians, on one occasion Assiola appeared before him and
announced that the lands claimed by the Government belonged to the
Indians; that the Indians could take care of themselves, and did not
need General Thompson's services. He was arrested and placed in
confinement, and after being imprisoned some time expressed regret,
signed the treaty, and was released. Subsequently he rendered valuable
service in arresting criminals, and regained the confidence of the
whites. This confidence, however, was of short duration.

War having been declared in the name of the Florida Indians, a
detachment of volunteers with some regulars, under General Duncan L.
Clinch, moved to the Ouithlacoochee, the Indian encampment. Three days
before the event which will be described as occurring at
Ouithlacoochee, Major Francis Langhorne Dade, with a small command,
had moved from Fort Brooke to relieve the post of Fort King. Major
Dade and his command had marched sixty-five miles in five days,
intrenching themselves each night in their encampment. On the sixth
night they were attacked by Indians and negro allies, and out of one
hundred and twelve all were slain except three. The officers killed
were Major Francis Langhorne Dade, Captain George Washington Gardiner,
Captain William Frazier, Lieutenants William E. Basinger, J.L. Keayes,
Robert Richard Mudge, Richard Henderson, and Dr. John Slade Gatlin.
Total killed, officers and men, one hundred and seven; escaped, three.
A handsome monument has been erected to their memory at West Point.
Returning to General Duncan L. Clinch's advance on Ouithlacoochee,
here he was attacked by Assiola and his followers after he had crossed
the river; but the general succeeded in repelling the attack and
driving the Indians. While the battle resulting in the massacre of
Major Dade and his command was being fought, the death of Thompson and
others was effected within a few hundred yards of Fort King, on
February 28th. All of the troops except Thomas W. Lendrum's company of
the Third Artillery, about forty strong, had been withdrawn on the
26th, to re-enforce General Clinch at Lang Syne plantation, with a
view to his striking a blow at the families of the Indians supposed to
be concealed in the swamps and hammocks of the Ouithlacoochee River,
with the hope of drawing the Indian warriors out and bringing on a
general