Fort Gadsden is located in Franklin County, Florida on the Apalachicola River. Listed in the National Register of Historic Places, the Fort Gadsden Historic Site is managed by the U.S. Forest Service.
History
Remains of Fort Gadsden.
During the War of 1812, the British constructed a fort on the Apalachicola River in what was then Spanish Florida. The fort served as a rallying point to encourage the local Seminole Indian tribes to attack the United States. The British abandoned the fort after 1814, and it was occupied by a band of fugative slaves and Indians, and became known as the "Negro Fort". On July 27, 1816, under the orders of General Andrew Jackson, Lieutenant Colonel Duncan L. Clinch, with U.S. forces and Creek Indian allies attacked the fort. During the battle, a cannon ball exploded in the fort's powder magazine, killing all but 30 of 300 occupants. In 1818 General Jackson directed Lieutenant James Gadsden to rebuild the fort. Jackson was so pleased with the result that he renamed the site Fort Gadsden.
During the American Civil War, Confederate troops occupied the fort until July 1863, when an outbreak of malaria forced its abandonment.
External links
Map to Fort Gadsden (http://www.southernregion.fs.fed.us/florida/recreation/index_apa.shtml)
Reference
Andrew Jackson and his Indian Wars by Robert V. Remini. Viking Penguin, 2001.
The ruined fort was built by the British during the War of 1812 and left to their fl allies (300 African Americans and 30 Seminole and Choctaw Indians) when they departed in 1815.
The fort was under the command of a fl man named Garson and a Choctaw chief (whose name is not known).
Negro Fort was perceived as a threat to white slaveholders in Georgia.
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