Fort Foster in central Florida was built in December 1836 under Lieutenant Colonel William S. Foster on the site of Fort Alabama after an earlier fort and bridge were destroyed. Designed chiefly as a heavily defended supply base rather than an isolated outpost, it protected the Hillsborough River crossing and large stores for campaigns into Seminole territory. Praised in early 1837 as one of the strongest field fortifications raised against Seminole forces, it saw skirmishes that winter and was defended by Army and Navy personnel before repeated abandonment and brief reactivation. Reconstructed on its original site, it now preserves a rare interpretation of the Second Seminole War.