During the Second Seminole Indian War, 1837-1841, the United States fought to drive the Seminole Indians from the peninsula of Florida. From his main base at Fort Mellon on Lake Monroe, General Jesup, commander of the Army of the South, proposed sending an army of 2000 men under General Eustis to the headwaters of the St. Johns River in pursuit of the Seminoles retreating southward, supported by supply depots placed about a day's march apart, approximately 30 miles, along the route. Fort Lane was the first depot in this chain. It was established on the west bank of Lake Harney on December 18, 1837, by Companies F and K, 2nd United States Infantry under Major Greenleaf Dearborn of Maine. Brought by barges from Fort Mellon, the companies consisted of an average of 125 Florida militiamen, including a fifer and a drummer, according to army records. One of Jesup's dispatches was dated from headquarters at Fort Lane, head of Lake Harney. Post returns indicate that in March 1838, after completing its assignment, the Fort Lane detachment returned to Fort Mellon. Fort Lane was named for Captain John F. Lane, a Kentuckian born in 1810 who graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1828 and whose first assignment was as a professor of mathematics and philosophy at West Point. In 1836, while serving as aide-de-camp to General Jesup, he committed suicide. Other officers were Lieutenants Silas Casey as adjutant, J.R.D. Bennett, William Alburtis, Hannibal Day, and Major Thomas Steniford.