Fort Drane (Marion County, Florida, Florida)
Marion County, Florida · Florida · Second Seminole War
History & Significance
General Duncan L. Clinch, overall commander of U.S. forces in Florida and a veteran of the First Seminole War, gathered several hundred army regulars on his 3,000-acre sugar plantation "Auld Lang Syne," located twenty miles northwest of Fort King, in 1835. The fort's palisade enclosed the main buildings in a 150-by-80-yard area with blockhouses at two corners armed with cannons and two fieldpieces; after completion, some 150 settlers fled their homesteads and crowded into the fort, most without adequate food or clothing.
Soldiers garrisoned there suffered terrible conditions—one officer reported "suffering from hunger, thirst and fatigue" and had to return north to recover. Malaria characterized the garrison from the beginning; on 28 December 1835, when 250 men marched to the Battle of Withlacoochee, 100 more were too ill to accompany them.
Despite its harsh conditions, the fort became the main base of U.S. Army operations in spring and early summer of 1836, with Clinch gathering troops for a planned assault on the Seminole stronghold at the Cove of the Withlacoochee. The fort was abandoned by January 1837 and subsequently burned down along with the Auld Lang Syne plantation house; the Seminoles who burned the buildings camped at the site briefly afterward.
Key Facts
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Drane
- https://achh.army.mil/history/book-civil-gillett2-amedd-1818-1865-chpt3/
- https://dos.fl.gov/florida-facts/florida-history/seminole-history/the-seminole-wars/
- https://www.legendsofamerica.com/fort-drane-florida/
- https://fcit.usf.edu/florida/docs/s/semwar01.htm