Fort Gadsden

James Gadsden Highway Marker on Florida Route 65

Reading a guide to Florida from the 1930s, I came across a reference to an incident at Fort Blount. Upon further research turned out to have many names, including the current usage Fort Gadsden. Turning north onto Florida Route 65 from U.S. Route 98, there is an old marker that appears to have been forgotten. It is partially obscured by trees and bushes that have grown in front of it. The sign, its paint faded, simply notes that the highway was designated the James Gadsden Highway by the 1969 Florida State Legislature. The condition of the sign is a presage of what is to come as you travel north. Both the fort and the highway are named for the man who played a significant role in American history, including the removal of Seminole Indians from Florida and Georgia along the Trail of Tears, the Gadsden Purchase of territory that would become southern Arizona and New Mexico, and the antebellum politics of the American South.

The twenty-mile drive north of U.S. 98 can be somewhat monotonous. The adjacent lands are part of the Apalachicola National Forest and Tate’s Hell State Forest and are dominated by pine forests, small streams and waterways. Occasionally, you can catch a glimpse of a little used, or abandoned, railway. There are not many roads that branch from Florida 65 and those that do are what a 1939 guide would call “unimproved,” consisting of crushed gravel. The name of some of these roads conjure interesting and imaginative ideas in our minds; for example, Bloody Bluff Road.

After beginning to doubt my directions, a sign indicated that I should turn west onto Brickyard Road to reach the entrance of Fort Gadsden. Although there is a prominent sign on the highway that indicates the direction of the fort, you would be forgiven if you immediately stopped and reconsidered your turn from the highway - I did. Making our way through tall pine trees, dodging the puddles that dotted the road, and after stopping to ask a group of hunters for directions, we found the entrance to the site – only to find that it was closed. There was a temptation to have a walk back to see the fort, but the obvious closed sign and the number of hunters roaming in the same area I thought better of it.

I was drawn to the site because what happened there is one of those stories that is rarely heard. In 1814 the fort, then known as Fort Blount, was in the hands of the British who helped runaway slaves and offered protection to Native Americans. It was a place of refuge. Former slaves who had a chance for a free live begin establishing farms and communities; however, American forces, under orders from General Andrew Jackson who wanted the fort destroyed and the slaves returned to their owners, attacked the fort on 24 July 1816. The attack lasted for four days, ending only when a cannon ball landed in the powder magazine destroying the fort and killing most inside. Only sixty of the 334 inhabitants of the fort survived. Only three people escaped injury; of those three, two (a black and an Indian) were executed shortly afterwards.