"The arming of the Seminoles?" Topic

Hello everyone ,

In the Second Seminole War, the seminoles used the bow and if so in what proportions?

All were armed with muskets or rifles and sometimes took the bow in addition?

Or all were archers and sometimes took the musket or the rifle in addition?

The bow was seldom used during the war. Seminoles had a ready supply of muskets and rifles although they varied considerably in caliber and age. Even when powder supplies dwindled, they just used lesser quantities of powder rather than resorting to bows.

The Seminoles are reported as having many muskets. They were at a distinct disadvantage because the caliber of the shot was small as these were trade hunting muskets and rifles.

There were a number of reports of the soldiers after a battle shaking musket balls out of their heavy whole uniforms. The bow was regarded like the spear as a weapon for town defense rather than an open battle weapon. I imagine that in the cases of limited powder/ shot availability, the bow would have been used.

So no archers in an army of miniatures or so I follow the proportions given in the list of army No. 1 – The tribes of the eastern forest – Seminole Army of the Second Seminole War – 1835 to 1842- of the rules "Too Few To Fight, Too Many To Die" where it is stated that the Seminoles must have at least three times more warriors armed with muskets than warriors armed with bows.?

I wouldn't include any archers.

What brand and size figures are you using? I'm looking to get into Seminole Wars gaming as well.

Only Old Glory, I only like them …

And me too, I prefer that they have no archers, because in fact in the books on them there is never question of their bows …

Post updates from time. I look forward to seeing how your figures turn out.

The problem is that I have the whole range Old glory on the subject and even if it does not make too many figures, where to find the ideas to paint their outfits with the most variations possible?

I think Osprey did a book on the Seminoles.

Seminoles you can have fun with. The most iconic images that are repeatedly used depicting Osceola obviously represent the most formal garb, but Seminoles would have had access to all the colors and materials US settlers and frontier traders. They chose to employ a wide variety of colors and accouterments. Look at the Osprey book or Google images to get an idea and then employ any combo almost any combo of colors that you want. The only thing to avoid is patchwork which is mostly an early 20th century tradition and would probably be difficult to paint anyways.

The Dade Massacre battlefield museum has great displays including some showing how the Seminole calico shirts blended with the terrain and light.

Yes so they use psychedelic colors and no bows …

For the bows it seems so that it is as for the Northeastern Indians versus the british in the second half of the 18th century, everyone has muskets or rifles and no bows in war.

A lot of guns but as mentioned, the caliber of the Seminole guns were so much smaller than the Americans. There are comments to this effect in several reports from the era. One such reported commented on the very high number of kill shots being to the head area of the soldiers.

I had read that for the arapahos, but this is the first time I read this about seminoles?

I can confirm that there were a relatively high number of Seminole rounds that did not penetrate the uniforms or skin. There are a lot of fired musket balls with fabric impressions. I understand it to be mostly due to the longer ranges and lower powder quantities used by the Seminole rather than the smaller diameter balls. Seminoles used a wide range that included .45 caliber hunting rifles, but I imagine a full charge with one of those is still very lethal. Sounds like a good experimental archaeology project.

Yet it seems that some were snipers, more they were not idiots and had to be aware of their mistake with their bad dosage of powder.

What is the largest number of warriors they have engaged in a single battle?