John Horse

In Mexico the Black Seminoles became known as Mascogos. The government granted them and Wild Cat's Seminoles land where the Rio San Rodrigo meets the Rio San Antonio, and the Mascogos built their own settlement at El Moral, which, like the Florida towns, took in people escaping slavery. Slaveholders in the United States pressed Mexico to send them back, and the government moved both groups inland to the Hacienda de Nacimiento on the Rio San Juan Sabinas. When Wild Cat's people returned to Indian Territory in 1861, the Mascogos stayed.

What the plaque says

John Horse Born in Spanish Florida of a black mother and Seminole father in 1812, John Horse (also known as Juan Caballo, Juan Cavallo, or Gopher John) was a prominent leader of Seminole blacks during the 2nd Seminole War. After a valiant fight alongside Seminole Chief Coacoochee (known as Wild Cat), and emancipation by Gen. Thomas S. Jesup, John Horse was removed to the Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma) with hundreds of his people in June 1838, but within a short time John was back in Florida serving the U.S. Army as interpreter, scout, combatant and as a mediator with Seminoles in the latter part of the war. For his services, John was officially granted his freedom by future President Gen. Zachary Taylor. From his new home in Indian Territory John Twice journeyed to Washington, D.C., to plead his people's case to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. Years later John claimed he and Gen. Jesup met with Pres. Polk to discuss the plight of the Seminoles. In late 1849, oppressed and hunted after their freedom was withdrawn by the federal government, two groups of Seminoles and blacks, led by horse and Coacoochee, slipped out of Indian Territory into Texas, en route to freedom in Mexico. The band rested briefly here at Las Moras Spring in early July 1850. In time, John settled his group at Nacimiento on land made available by the Mexican government. In exchange, the Seminoles provided protection from Apache and Comanche. When the Seminole Scout Detachment was formed at Fort Duncan in 1870, John returned to Texas. In 1876, while living in the Seminole Camp at Fort Clark, John survived a third attempt on his life in an ambush near this site. After recovering, he returned to Nacimiento, Mexico. Following a trip to meet with Pres. Porfirio Diaz to plead for his people's permanent land rights in Nacimiento, he died in Mexico city in 1882 at the age of 70. (2014)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Clark and the Old Guardhouse Museum — 0.4 mi
  The 1852 post at Las Moras Springs, home from 1872 to 1914 of the Black Seminole scouts, now a gated resort with its old guardhouse open as a museum on weekends.
• Kickapoo Cavern State Park — 22 mi
  A lightly developed former ranch on the Kinney-Edwards line with twenty caves, a Saturday tour into a 1,400-foot cavern and a summer bat flight from Stuart Bat Cave.

More markers nearby

• Site of Original Post Cemetery — steps away
• Fort Clark — 0.5 mi
• 2nd Cavalry Division at Fort Clark — 0.5 mi
• Military Roads in Texas — 0.6 mi