This Seminole chief fought in the Everglades for several years and outlasted four American generals. After the death of Osceola, the great Seminole patriot and chief, the savage guerrilla war was continued by Billy Bowlegs who laid waste large sections of the Florida frontier. His surrender ended the Seminole War, but some chiefs and warriors continued to kill white men.

In the winter of 1842, General W. J. Worth, a veteran of the long and bloody campaign in the swamps, recommended to the War Department that one hundred and twelve Seminole warriors and over two hundred women and children be permitted to remain in Florida and not be removed to the Indian territory. Washington approved, and the remnants of the small nation that had fought almost twennty years against an army that at times totaled eight hundred troops returned to their homeland, ironically located on the Peace River.