Editing Seminole Wars (section)

===Second Seminole War (overview)===
{{Main|Second Seminole War#Background}}

The [[Second Seminole War]] (1835–1842) began as a result of the United States unilaterally [[Void (law)|voiding]] the Treaty of Moultrie Creek and demanding that all Seminoles relocate to [[Indian Territory]] in present-day [[Oklahoma]] under the [[Indian Removal Act]] (1830). After several ultimatums and the departure of a few Seminole clans per the [[Treaty of Payne's Landing]] (1832), hostilities commenced in December 1835 with the [[Dade battle]] and continued for the next several years with a series of engagements throughout the peninsula and extending to the [[Florida Keys]]. Though the Seminole fighters were at a tactical and numerical disadvantage, Seminole military leaders effectively used [[guerrilla warfare]] to frustrate United States military forces, which eventually numbered over 30,000 regulars, militiamen and volunteers.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Seminole-Wars |title=Seminole Wars {{!}} United States history |work=Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date=3 August 2017 |language=en |archive-date=11 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190411164903/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Seminole-Wars |url-status=live }}</ref> General [[Thomas Sidney Jesup]] was sent to Florida to take command of the campaign in 1836. Instead of futilely pursuing parties of Seminole fighters through the territory as previous commanders had done, Jesup changed tactics and engaged in finding, capturing or destroying Seminole homes, livestock, farms, and related supplies, thus starving them out; a strategy which would be duplicated by [[General]] [[W. T. Sherman]] in his [[Sherman's March to the Sea|march to the sea]] during the [[American Civil War]]. Jesup also authorized the controversial abduction of Seminole leaders [[Osceola]] and [[Micanopy]] by luring them under a false flag of truce.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Osceola and the Great Seminole War |last=Hatch |first=Thom |publisher=St. Martin's Press |year=2012 |location=New York |pages=219 }}</ref> General Jesup clearly violated the rules of war, and spent 21 years defending himself over it, "Viewed from the distance of more than a century, it hardly seems worthwhile to try to grace the capture with any other label than ''[[wiktionary:treachery|treachery]].''"<ref>Mahon p. 217</ref> By the early 1840s, many Seminoles had been killed, and many more were forced by impending starvation to surrender and be removed to Indian Territory. Though there was no official peace treaty, several hundred Seminoles remained in central and southern Florida after active conflict wound down.<ref name="FLMEM"/>