Elizabeth Warren a Direct Descendant of Militia ‘Indian Fighter’ Who Fought Seminole Tribe

Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s (D-MA) great-great-great grandfather Jonathan Crawford served in Major William Lauderdale’s Battalion of Tennessee Volunteer Militia from November 1837 to May 1838, a six month time period during which it fought two battles in Florida against the Seminoles.

Today, there are two federally recognized Native American Seminole tribes, the Seminole Tribe of Florida, which has 4,000 enrolled members, and the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, which has more than 18,000 enrolled members.

Lauderdale’s battalion fought against the Seminoles at the Battle of Loxahatchee River, in present-day Jupiter, Florida, on January 24, 1838. Then on March 22, 1838, they fought against the Seminoles again at the Battle of Pine Island, in present-day Fort Lauderdale.

A native of Virginia, Lauderdale moved to Tennessee, where he was known as the latest in a long line of Indian fighters, as the Daily Press reported in 1992:

Like other Virginians of his day, Lauderdale developed into an Indian fighter. In 1803 he marched as a Tennessee volunteer to the Louisiana Territory to fight for the United States against the Spanish and the Indians. In the War of 1812 he served under Gen. Jackson and fought against the Indian allies of the British in what are now Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana.
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William Lauderdale became Gen. Jackson’s trusted understudy in the War of 1812. When the Creek Indians rose up to massacre white settlers in Alabama in 1813 and President James Madison ordered Jackson to defend the area, Capt. Lauderdale and his Tennessee Vols helped win the battle of Talladega. Lauderdale went on to play a part in Jackson’s defeat of the British in the battle of New Orleans in 1815, which ended the War of 1812.

Evidence supporting Jonathan Crawford’s service under Lauderdale in Florida was brought by his widow, Neoma O.C. Sarah Smith Crawford, also known as Neona Crawford, to the Bledsoe County Commission of Bledsoe County, Tennessee in 1850 and 1851, when she applied for a pension from the U.S. government for her husband’s service during the...

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