In the spring of 1836, President Andrew Jackson ordered General Winfield Scott to punish and defeat the Seminoles in Florida, and Scott planned a three-pronged advance on the main Seminole stronghold in the Cove of the Withlacoochee. One division under General Abraham Eustis came from St. Augustine and included five companies of the First Georgia Battalion of Volunteers under Major Mark Cooper, while General Duncan Clinch advanced from Fort Drane and Colonel William Lindsey came from Fort Brooke. Because the cove was not adequately mapped, the plan failed as the separated forces struggled to coordinate. On April 1st, Scott ordered Cooper to establish a defensive observation post near Lake Holathlikaha in what is now eastern Citrus County. Cooper's 380 Georgians, including an artillery company with one field piece, built a blockhouse enclosed by roughly square breastworks of pine and oak logs on a bluff above the lake near a spring and a military trail later incorporated into Old Floral City Road. Ordered to hold the position and await relief in about nine days, they were left with limited rations, a few draught oxen, and undernourished cattle. Three days after construction began, the Seminoles discovered the site and laid siege, quickly taking the oxen and cattle and leaving the soldiers short of food. Osceola joined the siege and attempted to storm the breastworks with more than 500 warriors, but the attack was repulsed. Cooper and his men made repeated sorties to drive back the attackers and obtain water from the lake, while the Seminoles sometimes stood across the water, beyond musket range but not beyond the field piece, taunting the soldiers in hopes of wasting their ammunition. After 16 days, Clinch's army reached the post with needed supplies; the defenders had suffered 20 wounded and one killed. The post continued to be used intermittently as an observation station during the war, but after most Seminoles had been forced from the region by the end of 1836, it lost much of its importance. The site later became part of Fort Cooper State Park, which preserves the fort location, Lake Holathlikaha, and surrounding land, and the park's creation is tied to the preservation efforts of John H. Eden Jr., whose research and persistence helped ensure that the place was not forgotten and eventually became a state park.