General Call arrived at Fort Drane [FL] with his forces. The West Florida horsemen were a splendid lot of fellows. They were evidently taken from the planters and farmers. Each was armed with a rifle, their officers carrying swords to distinguish them, being all dressed alike in plain planter's dress...[John Bemrose, p. 38]    

 

     Wore..."the usual dress of riflemen, viz. drab frock shirts trimmed with green fringe..." [from W.W. Smith, 1836, p. 114.]

     Of the various companies of this regiment, only two wore anything approaching a "uniform."  The Irish Volunteers ( a uniformed volunteer militia company from Charleston) wore uniforms of "similar stuff" as Elmore's Riflemen, but of "darker hue... in close bodied short coats, lined with their favorite green, a broad stripe of which ran along the outer seam of their trowsers." Except for that company, the volunteers were "scarcely distinguished by any difference in their attire; all wore plain dresses and such as were best adapted to the woods and swamps."

     Among these "plain" dressed companies; the "Edgefield Blues" had a "uniform dress" of "plain blue cloth coattees, ornamented with a few brass buttons on the skirts and sleeves, and trowsers that corresponded. the rest were clothed in woodsmen's suits, in native homespun, or in their usual home garb; almost all wore mocknutters, or foraging caps of the fur of the muskrat, rabbit, or fox, with tassels, and pink and white cockades affixed to them." [W.W. Smith, 1836, p. 114.]

    

...A company of Georgia Mounted Volunteers rode through this place on their way to the Cherokee Council. All had their coats off with their muskets and cartouche boxes strung across their shoulders. Some of the men had straw hats, some of them with white felt hats, others had old black hats on with the rim torn off, and all of them were as unshaven and as dirty as they could well be. The officers were only distinguished by having Cherokee fringed hunting shirts on. Many of the men were stout young fellows, and they rode on, talking, and cursing and swearing, without any kind of discipline....

 

...While the commanding officer, under whose review they were to pass, was dressed in a field officer's full uniform of blue and silver, and mounted on a fine charger richly caparisoned; the battalion that marched before him was as grotesque as the most ingenious caricaturist could make it. About a dozen of the whole number had muskets, some with bayonets, some without; and these were carried in as many different ways as there were pieces. The rest of the troop, about one hundred in number, carried sticks, umbrellas, waggoner's whips, and large planks or rails. Their dresses too, were as varied as their arms; some wore cloth coats, others white cotton jackets, and many were in their shirt sleeves; while hats of all kinds, black, white, and straw, broad-brimmed and narrow, made up the motley dress of this strange company; and in marching, the aim seemed to be to make the line as irregular as possible, and cause every man to step out of time. In short they seemed to labor under the influence of symetriphobia....

 

...Scarcely any two men are dressed alike or took the same step, and, whenever I saw them approaching, some with a shoe on one foot and a boot on the other, some with their guns wrong end up and others with them on their shoulders, wearing their knapsacks bottom up and wrong side out, I could not held thinking one might suppose they were learning how to catch up their guns and knapsacks and effect the most speedy escape in time of danger....

 

 

     The documentary evidence suggests that the overwhelming number of militia and volunteer units of the 2nd Seminole War were armed with United States muskets or rifles, and corresponding accouterments. During the 1820s-1830s the bulk of the arms produced by the US Government were distributed to the various states based on the returns of the strength of their militias. These arms were then either stored by the state or distributed to the militia units or individuals. The larger part of these arms were made by the various government contractors, in "contract brown" finish on the barrels, etc.

    The militia of the Territory of Florida was in an un-organized condition when the 2nd Seminole War broke out in 1835. Consequently, General Richard Kieth Call (later Territorial governor etc.) purchased a large number of shotguns to equip the Florida mounted volunteers who subsequently engaged in the first campaign of the war in late 1835.  The South Carolina militia companies which travelled to St. Augustine to assist in the defense of that place in early 1836 did so equipped with state arms and equipments. The majority of the "militia" units of the war served in Florida as US volunteer troops, and were consequently equipped with weapons and accouterments from the various US arsenals.

    General Winfield Scott drew arms etc. from several of these arsenals in early 1836 to equip the US volunteers, including those at Augusta, GA and Mount Vernon, AL, etc. General Gaines drew arms from the arsenal at Baton Rouge, LA to equip Col. Persifor Smith's Louisiana Regiment during the same period. The larger portion of these stockpiled US arms were likely War of 1812 and earlier vintage. This accounts for the widespread find of old pattern US Army 1808 brass oval bayonet scabbard belt plates in Florida.The arsenals drawn on for arms for the Florida War were subsequently restocked with new made arms and accouterments while the old patterns were exhausted and worn out in Florida by "volunteers and [US service] Indians."

    When the volunteers were mustered out of service, they left their arms and accouterments in Florida, where they were stockpiled in ordnance depots at Tampa Bay and Garey's Ferry ready for issue to new incoming volunteer units.