Captain Francis Langhorne Dade of the U.S. Army and his 120-man Companies A, B, D, H, and N built Fort Duval in November 1826 at the mouth of the Suwannee River. The structure measured 140 by 130 feet and stood six feet high, with portholes for firing, and it was named for territorial governor William Pope Duval. Fort Duval was built to guard the mouth of the Suwannee River, which Indians had used for many years to travel to Cuba, the Bahama Islands, and other places for trade and goods, a practice William Bartram witnessed in 1774 while visiting Indians upriver from the mouth. In April 1818, General Andrew Jackson used the river to transport his wounded back to St. Marks after his Battle for Billy Bowleg’s Old Town on the Suwannee River. By May 15, 1841, Fort Duval had been destroyed, and Capt. Cambell Graham then wrote of Lt. Palmer’s survey of the river mouth in search of its remains. Time and tide have destroyed all traces of Fort Duval, and the Suwannee River now carries fishing enthusiasts and sportsmen.