The Second Seminole War, the most costly of three conflicts between the U.S. and the Seminoles in Florida, was fought from 1835 to 1842 after Seminoles resisted government efforts under the Indian Removal Act of 1830 to relocate them to Oklahoma; more than 1,500 soldiers died and $20 million was spent. In the spring of 1836, Citrus County became the site of a two-pronged attack against the resisting Seminoles, as General Winfield Scott led 380 soldiers in maneuvers intended to trap them near the Cove of the Withlacoochee. Many soldiers were wounded or fell sick, and Major Mark Anthony Cooper remained behind to hold the position with five companies of the Macon Volunteers and a small artillery company. His men built a sizable pine-log fort on a low bluff overlooking Lake Holathlikaha, later named Fort Cooper in his honor, and from this encampment they defended themselves against attacks by Chief Osceola and his warriors. Later in the war, the fort served as a reconnaissance, observation, and dispatch post. Excavation at the Fort Cooper site in 1971 uncovered old pickets, hand-forged nails, musket balls, a tin cup, a soldier’s grave, bone fragments from the war, pot sherds, and prehistoric arrow points that showed an even earlier history.