Attack on Fort King

On December 28, 1835, the same day as the Dade Massacre, a Seminole attack at Fort King helped set the stage for the Second Seminole War. General Wiley Thompson, the Fort King Indian Removal Agent, and Lieutenant Constantine Smith were taking their customary afternoon walk outside the fort palisade toward Erastus Rogers' cabin when sixty Seminole warriors led by Osceola opened fire from the woods, killing both men. Osceola scalped Thompson, and the attackers then went to the sutler's cabin, where Rogers, Mr. Kitzler, two clerks, and a young boy were shot and killed before the store was burned. Micanopy and Osceola led swift attacks on U.S. troops that day, and the two attacks together marked the beginning of the war.

Ocala, Florida · United States