Uchee Billy

Male, Person

77

Who is Uchee Billy?

Uchee Billy or Yuchi Billy was a chief of the Yuchi tribe who along with his band escaped forced relocation from Georgia to Indian Territory by moving to the area of what is now Volusia County, Florida in 1822. During the Second Seminole War Uchee Billy was an ally of the Seminoles, and was one of the principal war chiefs who fought the U.S. Army.

Billy was mistakenly reported to have been killed during a major sweep by United States forces along the St. Johns River in 1836. He was captured by Brigadier General Joseph Hernandez, commander of the East Florida Militia, on the night of September 10, 1837. His brother Uchee Jack and most of his small band were also captured. Only one member of the band of 21 escaped. Hernandez was led to the site by a Seminole brave, Tomoka John, who had been captured along with Seminole Chief King Phillip two nights earlier at Dunlawton Plantation.

During the capture of Uchee Billy one U.S. soldier was killed, 21-year-old Lieutenant John Winfield Scott McNeil. His grave marker in the St. Augustine National Cemetery states he was "killed by Uchee Billy".

Uchee Billy along with his band was imprisoned in Fort Marion in St. Augustine, where Coacoochee and Osceola were also being held. He died in the fort on November 25, 1837. After his death his skull was defleshed by the attending physician Frederick Weedon from St. Augustine who kept it as a macabre curio. Weedon was also the attending physician for Osceloa whom he decapitated after his death at Fort Moultrie in South Carolina, and kept his head in a jar of preservative.

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Submitted
on July 23, 2013

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