The ruthless destruction of property and of lives on the east side of the peninsula was heartrending.  Their principal ravages, however, were on the east side from St. Augustine to the south.  Major Benjamin A. Putnam, with a small detachment of men, marched into this country with a view to drive the Indians away.  He was met by an overpowering number of the savages, and forced to retreat.  In fact, no part of the State seemed to be free from these murderous savages.

General Clinch made requisitions on the Governors of Georgia, South Carolina, and Alabama to aid the Floridians in their unequal warfare with the savages.  It was felt by the citizens of Florida that the Government at Washington showed great apathy, if not real indifference, to their condition.  A meeting was called in Charleston, S.C., early in January, for the purpose of aiding the people of Florida with men and means, but General Eustis informed the meeting that General Clinch had sufficient force and supplies under his command to subdue any number of Indians and negroes that could be brought to oppose him.  On January 12th, intelligence having been received from General Clinch asking for six hundred men, the committee conferred with General Eustis and requested him to send a company of United States troops with arms and ammunition for the defense of St. Augustine.  This was granted, and the citizens of Charleston chartered a steamboat and placed on board one thousand bushels of corn, one hundred barrels of flour, thirty barrels of beef, twenty barrels of pork, and ten tierces of rice.  On January 20th another meeting was called to raise volunteers for Florida.  The banks of Charleston subscribed twenty-five thousand dollars as a loan to the Government.  The committee dispatched a schooner, loaded with corn, rice, bread, beef, pork, and military and hospital stores, and sent a physician to attend the sick.

Four companies of volunteers were put in motion on the 27th for St. Augustine—­viz., the Washington Light Infantry, Captain Ravenel; Washington Volunteers, Captain Finley; German Fusileers, Captain Timrod; and Hamburgh Volunteers, Captain Cunningham.  These volunteer companies arrived at St. Augustine on January 30th, and were at once sent out to scour the country for hostile Indians; they were, however, relieved from duty on February 12th, on the arrival of the South Carolina militia and United States troops under Major Reynold Marvin Kirby.  These troops were placed on the same duty as their predecessors, but there was no engagement with the hostile Indians until the latter part of March.  An instance of the chivalric spirit of the South Carolina volunteers is worthy of mention.  On requisition of the Governor for three companies to be furnished for Florida, Colonel Chesnut, of Camden, called out his regiment.  After telling them what was wanted, he requested those who desired to volunteer in defense of their suffering neighbors to step forward.  The whole regiment marched forward and tendered their services.  At the same time four thousand dollars were contributed for their equipment.