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 1837-1838 Second Seminole War.
Thursday is debate night in Houston, and Warren is one of the ten candidates seeking the 2020 Democrat presidential nomination who will be on stage. The debate is hosted by ABC and Univision and will be moderated by ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, David Muir, Linsey Davis, and Univision’s Jorge Ramos.
In the first two debates among candidates vying for the 2020 Democrat presidential nomination, hosted by CNN and MSNBC, Warren faced no questions about her false claims of Native American ancestry.
Neoma O.C. Sarah Smith Crawford is Sen. Warren’s great-great-great-grandmother. She and Jonathan Crawford were parents of Sen. Warren’s great-great-grandfather Preston H.Crawford.
In that time period, widows of soldiers who served the United States in the Tennessee Militia began their request for pensions at the county level. William Brown, the chairman of the Bledsoe County Court in 1851, offered these observations about Neoma O.C. Sarah Smith Crawford’s request for a pension when it was brought to his attention.
According to an entry in Sequatchie Valley Revolutionary War Soldiers , which was confirmed to Breitbart News on Wednesday by James Douthat, who compiled and published the book at his company, Mountain Press:
Wm. Brown, Chmn of County Court, requests increase in Sibby Reed’s pension; mentions Thomas Pope of Sparta; and on October 12, 1851 writes that JONATHAN CRAWFORD was a Private in Capt. Richard Waterhouse’s Company in the “Florida War” and died shortly after his return, from disease contracted there. Is not his widow entitled to a pension?
Douthat also confirmed that records show Jonathan Crawford was enrolled in Captain Richard Waterhouse’s company during the Second Seminole War from 1837 to 1838.
The pension for which Neona Crawford, widow of Private Jonathan Crawford, applied in Bledsoe County in 1850 and 1851 was granted by the U.S. Department of War for Neona in 1853. She received a pension of $3.50 per month for a period of six years, ending in 1859. The pension was apparently administered out of the U.S. Department of War’s offices located in Knoxville, Tennessee.
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