(For decades, local historian and paranormal investigator
George “Buster” Singleton published a weekly newspaper column called “Somewhere
in Time.” The column below, which was titled “This is David Moniac’s story” was
originally published in the Feb. 18, 1982 edition of The Monroe Journal in
Monroeville, Ala.)
David Moniac was not a native of Monroe County, but many of
his descendants live in the county today. This is his story.
On Sept. 18, 1817, one of the unlikeliest cadets ever to
enter the U.S. Military Academy at West Point became the first Indian to be admitted
to the academy. He was David Moniac, then 15 years and eight months of age.
David had traveled from a Lower Creek village on Pinchona Creek, near the trail
which was to become the Federal Road in the present Montgomery County. This
same road borders Monroe County today.
On the banks of the Hudson River, far from the Tallapoosa
and Alabama rivers that he knew so well, Cadet Moniac must have been acutely puzzled
at the attitudes and cultures of his fellow cadets. Many of the beliefs and
customs that he practiced were alien also to his fellow classmates. These practices
caused the young man to get several demerits in the first years at West Point.
His best academic subjects were mathematics and military
tactics. In these, he ranked 27th in his class. Moniac graduated
from the academy in the summer of 1821. But on Dec. 31, 1822, he resigned his
commission because of a periodic cut by Congress to decrease the size of the
Army.
Moniac settled near his uncles, David Tate and William
Weatherford, the famous “Red Eagle.” He married Mary Powell, the cousin of
Osceola, the great Seminole leader. From the time of his resignation until
1836, he was a respected cotton farmer and breeder of thoroughbred race horses,
a passion he had inherited from his grandfather, Charles Weatherford. He built
a home near Little River in Baldwin County.
When the Florida war began in 1836, Moniac returned to
military service as a captain in the Mounted Creek Volunteers. There were 750
Creek Indians in the regiment, including two chiefs. The Indians wore white
turbans to distinguish them in battle from the enemy. The Seminoles hated this
white symbol of the Creeks’ defection to their enemy. Moniac was the only
officer designated as Indian among the 13 officers in the regiment. Shortly
after returning to duty with the military, he was promoted to the rank of
major.
During the Battle of Wahoo Swamp, Moniac moved ahead of his
troops to measure the depth of the Withlacouchee Creek, trying to make sure the
water was shallow enough for his men to cross. He was struck down by enemy
fire, his body pierced by 67 bullets. It is ironic that Osceola, the chief who
commanded the Seminole attack that killed Moniac, was a cousin to the slain
major’s wife, Mary Powell Moniac.
Thus on Nov. 21, 1836, the brief and tragic life of this man
came to an end. Here on the banks of a little known river, deep in the swamps
of Florida, ceased a truly remarkable odyssey between two American cultures – a
man caught up in history, our history, somewhere in time.
(Singleton, the author
of the 1991 book “Of Foxfire and Phantom Soldiers,” passed away at the age of
79 on July 19, 2007. A longtime resident of Monroeville, he was born on Dec.
14, 1927 in Marengo County, graduated from Sweet Water High School, served in
the Korean War, lived for a time among Apache Indians, moved to Monroe County
in June 1964 (some sources say 1961) and served as the administrator of the
Monroeville National Guard unit from 1964 to 1987. For years, Singleton’s
column “Somewhere in Time” appeared in The Monroe Journal, and he wrote a
lengthy series of articles about Monroe County that appeared in Alabama Life
magazine. Some of his earlier columns also appeared under the heading of
“Monroe County History: Did You Know?” He is buried in Pineville Cemetery in
Monroeville. The column above and all of Singleton’s other columns are
available to the public through the microfilm records at the Monroe County
Public Library in Monroeville. Singleton’s columns are presented here each week
for research and scholarship purposes and as part of an effort to keep his work
and memory alive.)
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