During the Second Seminole War, General Eustis of the U.S. Army, under the command of General Thomas S. Jesup, moved a column south from Fort Mellon in Sanford, Florida, on December 17, 1837. The column consisted of the 3rd Regiment of Artillery, four companies of the 3rd and 4th Dragoons, and four companies of Alabama Volunteers, accompanied by a train of 50 wagons carrying 20,000 rations. The force hacked its way through palmettos, cabbage palm hammocks, pine barriers, and scrub, building roads, more than 20 bridges ranging from 20 to 70 feet long, and seven causeways to reach this point. From December 25 through 27, 1837, the soldiers built a supply depot of pine pickets 80 feet square with two blockhouses 20 feet square and called it Fort Christmas, having begun it on Christmas Day. The original fort stood about one-half mile north of this location on a creek they named Christmas Creek, and on the opposite side of the creek was an abandoned Indian village known as Powells Town.