David Moniac (December 1802 – November 21, 1836), an American military officer, was the first Native American graduate of the

United States Military Academy The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known Metonymy, metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a f ...

West Point, New York West Point is the oldest continuously occupied military post in the United States. Located on the Hudson River in New York, West Point was identified by General George Washington as the most important strategic position in America during the Ame ...

in 1822.James Lamar Appleton, "David Moniac"
''Encyclopedia of Alabama'', 2007-2011, accessed 20 November 2013 A Creek with some Scots ancestry, who was related to major Creek leaders on both sides of his family, Moniac was the first cadet to enter West Point from the new state of

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = " Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County , LargestMetro = Greater Birmingham , area_total_km2 = 135,7 ...

. Moniac resigned his commission in 1822 to manage his clan's property in Alabama, where he developed a cotton

plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Th ...

. In 1836, during the

Second Seminole War The Second Seminole War, also known as the Florida War, was a conflict from 1835 to 1842 in Florida between the United States and groups collectively known as Seminoles, consisting of Native Americans and Black Indians. It was part of a ser ...

, Moniac was commissioned as a captain and selected to command a Creek volunteer cavalry unit, the only Native American among the officers. He was killed at the Battle of Wahoo Swamp. In the 1990s, his remains were transferred from a local cemetery to the newly established

Florida National Cemetery Florida National Cemetery is a United States National Cemetery located near the city of Bushnell in Sumter County, Florida. Administered by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs it encompasses and began interments in 1988. It is now ...

for military veterans, a few miles away.

Early life and education

David A. Moniac, as his name was sometimes recorded, was the son of the prosperous Creek merchant

Samuel Moniac Samuel ''Šəmūʾēl'', Tiberian: ''Šămūʾēl''; ar, شموئيل or صموئيل '; el, Σαμουήλ ''Samouḗl''; la, Samūēl is a figure who, in the narratives of the Hebrew Bible, plays a key role in the transition from the bib ...

and Elizabeth Weatherford, both mixed-race Creek. His mother was the sister of the Creek leader

William Weatherford William Weatherford, also known after his death as Red Eagle (ca. 1765 – March 24, 1824), was a Creek chief of the Upper Creek towns who led many of the Red Sticks actions in the Creek War (1813–1814) against Lower Creek towns and against a ...

, and his great-uncle was Alexander McGillivray, an important Creek chief on his mother's side. The Creek had a

matrilineal Matrilineality is the tracing of kinship through the female line. It may also correlate with a social system in which each person is identified with their matriline – their mother's lineage – and which can involve the inheritance ...

kinship system, so Moniac was considered to be born into his mother's Wind

Clan A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, clans may claim descent from founding member or apical ancestor. Clans, in indigenous societies, tend to be endogamous, mea ...

and gained his social status there. Moniac's maternal uncle would have been more important to his upbringing than his father. The Moniac family lived in present-day

Montgomery County, Alabama Montgomery County is located in the State of Alabama. As of the 2020 census, its population was 228,954, making it the fifth-most populous county in Alabama. Its county seat is Montgomery, the state capital. Montgomery County is included in th ...

, near the unincorporated community of Pintlala. His father served with the U.S. forces in the

Creek War The Creek War (1813–1814), also known as the Red Stick War and the Creek Civil War, was a regional war between opposing Indigenous American Creek factions, European empires and the United States, taking place largely in modern-day Alabama ...

, as he was allied with the Lower Creek who were more assimilated. They defeated the

Red Sticks Red Sticks (also Redsticks, Batons Rouges, or Red Clubs), the name deriving from the red-painted war clubs of some Native American Creeks—refers to an early 19th-century traditionalist faction of these people in the American Southeast. Made ...

. At this time, the United States was encouraging assimilation of the Creek and other tribes of the Southeast to European-American ways. They became known as the

Five Civilized Tribes The term Five Civilized Tribes was applied by European Americans in the colonial and early federal period in the history of the United States to the five major Native American nations in the Southeast—the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek ...

, for they adopted many aspects of U.S. culture. The Fort Jackson Treaty, which concluded the Creek War, included a provision for the education of the Creek people. His father's military service, most likely enabled Moniac to get an appointment in 1817 to the U.S. Military Academy, located in New York. No doubt a role was played by John Crowell, Alabama's first member of the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

and after that, Indian agent to the Creeks (which usually meant a Creek wife; white husbands were coveted). Before starting there, Moniac studied with John McLeod, a tutor in Washington, D.C, to prepare for the entrance exam and classes. At his request, he repeated a year of college; he graduated 39 out of 40 in 1822, although the 40 were the survivors of an entering class of 117. Moniac served for five months as a Brevet

Second Lieutenant Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces, comparable to NATO OF-1 rank. Australia The rank of second lieutenant existed in the military forces of the Australian colonies and Australian Army unt ...

in the Sixth Infantry, but resigned his commission on December 31, 1822. President Madison was encouraging Army officers to resign, as in 1821, the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It be ...

and

First Seminole War The Seminole Wars (also known as the Florida Wars) were three related military conflicts in Florida between the United States and the Seminole, citizens of a Native American nation which formed in the region during the early 1700s. Hostiliti ...

s over, Congress had cut the size of the Army and West Point was graduating more officers than the Army could use. He returned to Alabama to deal with clan property.

Return to Alabama

Moniac returned to Alabama, where he settled in Baldwin County. He developed a cotton plantation and bred thoroughbred race horses. He married Mary Powell, a Creek who was a cousin of the Seminole leader

Osceola Osceola (1804 – January 30, 1838, Asi-yahola in Muscogee language, Creek), named Billy Powell at birth in Alabama, became an influential leader of the Seminole people in Florida. His mother was Muscogee, and his great-grandfather was a S ...

. Among their children was a son, David A. Moniac, who served as sheriff of Baldwin County, where the Moniac descendants stayed. Sheriff Moniac is buried in the Old Methodist Church in

Daphne, Alabama Daphne () is a city in Baldwin County, Alabama, United States, on the eastern shoreline of Mobile Bay. The city is located along I-10, 11 miles east of Mobile and 170 miles southwest of the state capital of Montgomery. The 2010 United States ...

. The plantation home, built in the 1830s, still stands today. It may be the oldest house in Baldwin County. It is located on Gantt Road in Little River, Alabama. Edit added 6/7/2022 - About 3 years ago the home burned. There is nothing but a few brick pillars left that supported the home.

Second Seminole War

Fourteen years after he graduated from West Point, with the outbreak of the

in 1836, Moniac was called twice into service: he first served with the Alabama

militia A militia () is generally an army or some other fighting organization of non-professional soldiers, citizens of a country, or subjects of a state, who may perform military service during a time of need, as opposed to a professional force of r ...

to suppress an uprising of displaced Creek.

Indian removal Indian removal was the United States government policy of forced displacement of self-governing tribes of Native Americans from their ancestral homelands in the eastern United States to lands west of the Mississippi Riverspecifically, to a ...

had started in the Southeast, as tribes were relocated to

Indian Territory The Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the United States Government for the relocation of Native Americans who held aboriginal title to their land as a sovereign ...

west of the Mississippi River. In August 1836, Moniac was commissioned as a

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

of the Creek Mounted Volunteer Regiment. It was a volunteer unit of Creek warriors led by white officers on leave from regular units. He was the only Native American officer in the unit. The regiment patrolled and skirmished with the Seminole in Florida along the Withlacoochee River. He was promoted to major in November. That month, Territorial Governor Richard K. Call took a force of 2500 regular soldiers, Moniac and his Creek volunteers, and Tennessee and Florida militia from Ft. Drane, to the Wahoo Swamp on the Withlacoochee River. They were to find and destroy the stronghold of Seminole Chief Jumper. In what would become known as the Battle of Wahoo Swamp, Call's force attacked an estimated mixed force of 600 Seminole and African-American warriors, who were defending their families. The deep water blocked the American force. Moniac ran ahead into the water to encourage his men to cross. He was shot dead by the Seminoles. General Call called off the attack after taking fierce fire from the Seminole camp, and being unsure if the water was fordable. The American dead from the battle were buried near those killed the previous December in 1835 at the nearby

Dade's Massacre The Dade battle (often called the Dade massacre) was an 1835 military defeat for the United States Army. The U.S. was attempting to force the Seminoles to move away from their land in Florida and relocate to Indian Territory (in what would becom ...

site, where the Seminole defeated U.S. Army forces.Mishall, John and Mary Lou Mishall. 2004. ''The Seminole Wars: America's Longest Indian Conflict''. University Press of Florida. . pp. 90–91, 95–97. Later all the bodies were moved for burial at the

St. Augustine Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Afr ...

National Cemetery.

Honors

*In the 1990s, Major Moniac's remains were transferred and reinterred in the

, as a recognition of his military service. The new cemetery was established a few miles from the Wahoo Swamp Battlefield.

References

External links