Abstract
During the course of the long and seemingly interminable Second Seminole War, various schemes— most of them impractical and expensive, and sometimes barbarous— were advanced to end the bloody and expensive conflict. Robert Gamble, one of Florida’s most prominent citizens, suggested that the government offer a bounty of $1,000 for every Seminole, whether dead or alive. This reward, he prophesized, “would be sufficient to bring men qualified for such enterprise from every part of the United States, even the trappers from the Northwest.“ The government apparently never gave this proposal very serious consideration. A bizarre scheme that did have official approval, however, was the abortive attempt to use imported bloodhounds to bring the Indians to bay. Still another plan that received serious consideration by American military authorities was the use of balloons, which were first used in warfare by the French revolutionaries in 1794. Napoleon made the balloon corps a part of the French army, but it did not see much service.
Recommended Citation
Schene, Michael G.
(1976)
"Ballooning in the Second Seminole War,"
Florida Historical Quarterly: Vol. 55:
No.
4, Article 8.
Available at:
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/fhq/vol55/iss4/8
