He also wrote to the adjutant general at Washington, urging that no time be lost in succoring the troops in Florida, and saying, from his knowledge of the Seminole character, that at least four thousand men would be required to subdue them, protected and aided by a strong naval force.

At that time the United States was divided into two military departments by a line drawn from the southern part of Florida to the northwestern extremity of Lake Superior.  The Eastern Department was under the command of General Winfield Scott, and the Western under that of General Gaines, and by reference to a map it will be seen that the line passed directly through the theater of hostilities in Florida.  The meeting of these two distinguished generals was purely accidental.  General Scott was in Washington when the news was received of General Clinch’s engagement with the Seminoles.  After dispatching his letter to the adjutant general, General Gaines proceeded to Pensacola for the purpose of getting the co-operation of the naval forces at that station.  He found, however, that Commodores Dallas and Bolton and Captain Webb had received orders to direct their attention to the inlets of Florida, whence they had sailed.  He received here the most alarming intelligence of the state of affairs in Florida.  He proceeded to Mobile on January 18th, and there learned that Fort Brooke was invested by the Indians and the garrison in great danger of being cut off and slaughtered.  He at once sent an express to General Clinch, supposed to be at Fort King, stating that he would arrive at Fort Brooke about February 8th with seven hundred men, and requested General Clinch to take the field and march southward and form a junction with him at Fort Brooke.

As the crisis demanded immediate action, and General Scott being present to receive the instructions of the Government in person, he was charged with the direction of the campaign without regard to department boundaries.  General Gaines had left his headquarters at Memphis, Tenn., on a tour of inspection through his department, and it was very uncertain when or where the orders and instructions of the Government would reach him; and as the immediate services of an officer of high rank of mind and discreet judgment were required to maintain the neutrality of the United States during the war between the Texans and Mexicans, General Gaines was selected for that important duty.  However, the official dispatches did not reach General Gaines until he had already taken the field in Florida and marched from Fort Brooke to Fort King, within ninety-five miles of where General Scott had established his headquarters.