Background
Uchee Billy was born in the state of Georgia.
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Uchee Billy
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Career
He may have been descended from John Hicks, a Mikasuki. Billy was mistakenly reported to have been killed during a major sweep by United States forces along the Saint Johns River in 1836. He was captured by Brigadier General Joseph Hernandez, commander of the East Florida Militia, on the night of September 10, 1837.
Hernandez was led to the site by a Seminole brave, Tomoka John, who had been captured along with Seminole Chief King Phillip two nights earlier at Dunlawton Plantation.
During his capture, Uchee Billy slew one United States soldier, 21-year-old Lieutenant John Winfield Scott McNeil. His grave marker in the Saint Augustine National Cemetery states he was "killed by Uchee Billy".
Uchee Billy along with his band was imprisoned in Fort Marion in Saint Augustine, where Coacoochee and Osceola were also being held. He died in the fort on November 25, 1837 in prison in Saint Augustine, Florida.
After his death his skull was defleshed by the attending physician Frederick Weedon from Saint Augustine who kept it as a macabre curio.
Weedon was also the attending physician for Osceloa, whom he decapitated after his death at Fort Moultrie in South Carolina, and kept his head in a jar of preservative.
Membership
Only one member of the band of 21 escaped.
