A Tale of Two Forts

In 1823, the Treaty of Moultrie Creek set the northernmost boundary of the Seminole reservation at the place that soon became Fort King. As friction grew between the Seminole and white settlers, Gad Humphreys built the first Indian Agency there in 1826 to help settle the conflict, but conditions worsened in 1827. The first Fort King was built that year to administer the treaty and protect the Seminole and their designated lands from white settlers. Governor Duval and Indian Agent Gad Humphreys chose the site because it offered a defendable hill, dependable drinking water, nearby lumber, and close proximity to Humphreys' Indian Agency. The fort was named for Colonel William King, former commanding officer of the Fourth Infantry before Duncan L. Clinch, whom Andrew Jackson had appointed civil and military governor of the provisional government of West Florida in 1818. A design drawing made in 1827 by Captain James M. Glassell showed a stockade 162 by 152 feet, with a main gate on the north wall, a second gate on the south wall, and two 14-foot-square blockhouses at the northwest and southeast corners. Inside were barracks, officers quarters, kitchens, mess halls, and munitions magazines, while letters from the period also mention a commissary and quartermasters' storehouse, sinks, hospital, guard house, sutler's store, stables, and a blacksmith's shop. Lieutenant Henry Prince's diary sketch showed that the first fort was actually built as an irregular pentagon rather than to the design specifications, and archaeology supports that illustration. It is speculated that the U.S. Army ran out of funding and left the first fort incomplete. Fort King's occupancy fluctuated over the following years, and it stood vacant for three years before soldiers returned in the summer of 1832 as tensions worsened. After Osceola's attack on Fort King in 1835, the military abandoned the fort in May 1836, and the Seminole burned it in July 1836.

Ocala, Florida · United States