Letter from General T. S. Jesup regarding the removal of Creeks to Mobile Point, Alabama, April 1837.

[M234, roll 238, frame 401]


Head Quarters, Tampa Bay Flo.
April 11th 1837

Sir,

I have the honour to receive this morning, your letter, of the 27th of March approving the arrangements made with the Creek Chiefs for the subsistence of themselves and families, after their arrival at their new homes in the West.

I received yesterday evening information of the removal of the families of the Creek Warriors to Mobile Point. I had been previously informed of this excitement in the Creek Country, and had seen an account in the newspapers of the removal of the Creek families but was not aware of the brutal treatment which those families had been compelled to submit to, until I received the reports of Lieuts. Reynolds and Sloan to Major Wilson, whom I had sent to Mobile Point to inquire into the circumstances preceding and attending the removal, copies of which are enclosed.

I have explained to the Chiefs that the measure adopted was the only one by which their families and those of their warriors could be secured from insult. Some are satisfied but others are not, and what effect their dissatisfaction may have on the Seminoles, I am not prepared to say.

The Creek families were plundered of the greater part of their property and it is no more than justice that they be remunerated. I will endeavor to satisfy them if possible and send them off by detachments, as I get the Seminoles off.

I have the honor to be,
Sir,
Your Obdt, Servt
Thos S. Jesup
Major Genl --

The Hon. J. R. Poinsett
Secy of War
Washington City