[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 105 (Wednesday, September 8, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1537-E1538]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               FORT KING

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. CLIFF STEARNS

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, September 7, 2004

  Mr. STEARNS. Mr. Speaker, on Monday, May 10, 2004 Fort King of Ocala, 
Florida was designated as a national historic landmark in front of 200 
guests at the downtown square in Ocala, Florida. Many speakers were 
present and told of the underlying significance of Fort King, where 
Osceola fought against the United States, as a key fort in a chapter of 
American history, the Second Seminole War from 1835-1842. Henry 
Sheldon, an engineer of Gainesville, Florida, who is a member of the 
Seminole Wars Historic Foundation, was one of the speakers that 
evening. Below is his brief account of the historical significance of 
Fort King:

 The Historical Significance of Fort King; Fort King Ceremony, May 10, 
                                  2004

                         (By Henry A. Sheldon)

       Imagine standing at this spot in Florida two hundred years 
     ago. Before you would be an immense forest, unbroken except 
     by rivers, prairies, and lakes. It was said that if a 
     squirrel could leap the rivers, it could walk on the tree 
     tops from St. Augustine to Texas.
       The sounds were those of the forest--the wind in the pines, 
     the dying crash of a 500 year old mammoth oak, the cry of a 
     hawk in the clouds, or the scream of a panther at the edge of 
     the hammock.
       For thousands of years native Americans passed by this spot 
     in pursuit of deer and buffalo. Maybe a hunter sat right 
     where you stand catching his breath as the pursuit continued. 
     Maybe a town stood here. Maybe there were cook fires and 
     children playing over there. The people were dressed in 
     deerskins.
       Then one day a different sound was heard in the forest. It 
     was the sound of wagons, and horses and men shouting orders. 
     ``Pull up, veer to the left of that big pine, keep the wagons 
     moving.'' They were soldiers, heading that way--East, toward 
     the giant Silver Spring. They were dressed in blue and white 
     and carried flintlock muskets similar to those used in the 
     French and Indian War, the American Revolution, and the War 
     of 1812. They had orders to build a fort.

[[Page E1538]]

       They were looking for a hilltop, near water. They found 
     such a spot 3 miles east of here on the first high ground 
     west of the Silver Spring. Now the sound was of axes and the 
     great pines on the hill began to fall to be used for the 
     walls and blockhouses of the fort. The year was 1827.
       The fort was similar to wilderness forts constructed by the 
     French and the English during the 1600's and 1700's. It was 
     the same type of picket fort constructed by George Washington 
     at Fort Necessity in 1754. It was similar to the British Fort 
     William Henry captured by the Marquis De Montcalm in the 
     siege of 1757 and memorialized in James Fennimore Cooper's 
     Last of the Mohicans.
       Like Fort Leavenworth in Kansas, Fort Sill in Oklahoma, and 
     Fort Laramie, in Wyoming, Fort King advanced the frontier. 
     Many of these frontier forts became our cities. Fort 
     Pontchartrain, became Detroit, Fort Dearborn became Chicago, 
     Fort Pitt became Pittsburgh, Fort Brooke became Tampa, and 
     Fort King became Ocala.
       For 15 years (1827-42) Fort King was to be a main stage in 
     the heroic and tragic saga of the advance of the American 
     Frontier in Florida. It was constructed to administrate the 
     Treaty of Moultrie Creek which relocated the Seminoles to 
     central Florida. Fort King was to promote law and order in 
     the wilderness by protecting the Seminoles from trespassing 
     settlers and adventurers.
       Initially, Fort King and the Indian Agency were viewed 
     positively by the Seminoles. As Coahajo said to Gad 
     Humphreys, the Indian Agent in Jan 1829, ``This house was 
     built for us, so that when we had any difficulty, we might 
     come here and settle it.'' It represented the `Great 
     Father's' (i.e., the US President's) commitment to them for 
     their safety and well being. Chief John Hicks said to Gad 
     Humphreys ``We know that the Great Father's power is great, 
     and he can do with us as he chooses; but we hope that his 
     justice is as great as his power.'' They trusted the Great 
     Father and his Indian Agents. To the Seminoles, Fort King was 
     a symbol of hope.
       But the Great Father could not stop the overwhelming 
     advance of the white settlers, the whisky peddlers, and the 
     slave hunters. Two years after being constructed, Fort King 
     was abandoned due to budget cuts from the recession of 1829. 
     The Seminoles were left without the soldiers to protect them 
     from marauding whites. Justice lapsed.
       The government reduced their annuity. The Seminoles could 
     not buy corn. They began to starve. Captain John Sprague 
     wrote: ``The Indian, exasperated by repeated wrongs, was 
     reckless of the future--indeed, cared but little of results. 
     Revenge, ever sweet to him, whatever may be the consequences, 
     was all he sought.''
       Fort King stood empty for 3 years (1829-32), but the 
     Seminoles did not disturb it. The Seminoles waited for the 
     return of the soldiers to protect them under the terms of the 
     Treaty of Moultrie Creek. However, in May 1832, the Great 
     Father (Andrew Jackson) made them sign a new treaty at Paynes 
     Landing on the Oklawaha River.
       In June 1832, one month after the signing of the Treaty of 
     Paynes Landing, the soldiers returned. Fort King was re-
     garrisoned. But now the Seminoles were told that they must 
     leave Florida entirely and forever. Instead of a symbol of 
     freedom, hope and justice, Fort King and its soldiers became 
     a symbol of hate and oppression.
       On to the stage came a new Seminole--His name was Osceola. 
     His first appearance to the world was at Fort King in October 
     1834. Here, the defiant young war chief rejected the US 
     orders to leave Florida and threatened war unless the 
     Seminoles were left alone. There was no trust left.
       Then came the fateful day of Dec 28, 1835. That morning 40 
     miles to the south along the Fort King Road, the Seminoles 
     ambushed and annihilated two companies of US Army regulars in 
     route to Fort King. That afternoon, Osceola shot and 
     killed the Indian Agent Wiley Thompson outside the walls 
     of Fort King. The Second Seminole War had begun.
       During the seven year guerilla war that followed, every 
     major general and every regiment of the US Army was stationed 
     at or passed through Fort King. Here stood the Generals: 
     Gaines, Scott, Clinch, Jesup, Taylor, and Armistead. Here 
     stood the junior officers Worth, Johnson, Prince, Bragg, 
     Meade, and Pemberton--men who would gain fame in the Mexican 
     and Civil Wars. And here stood the enlisted men: Bemrose, 
     Clarke, and hundreds of others who served in the Florida War.
       Following the initial series of engagements, most of which 
     the Seminoles won, US forces withdrew from the interior of 
     Florida abandoning Fort King in May 1836. The Seminoles stood 
     victorious. At this zenith of their success and hopes, the 
     Seminoles burned the hated Fort King to the ground.
       But it would be a short lived victory. The Army returned a 
     year later and rebuilt Fort King. It would be garrisoned 
     throughout the remaining 5 years of the war and from here the 
     Army of the South would direct dragoon and infantry units in 
     unrelenting search and destroy missions against the 
     Seminoles.
       When it ended in 1842, most of the Seminoles had been 
     killed or captured and relocated to Indian Territory in 
     Oklahoma. These native Americans constitute the Seminole 
     Nation of today. An unconquered and defiant few withdrew to 
     the vastness of the Florida Everglades and survived to the 
     present as the Seminole Tribe of Florida.
       In March 1843, Fort King was abandoned by the US Army for 
     the last time and transferred to the people of Marion County. 
     The Fort was used as the County's first courthouse and public 
     building. In 1846, it was dismantled by the citizens of 
     Marion County for its lumber. The great pines had done 
     their job.
       Hated and loved, Fort King was the stuff that dreams are 
     made of. To the pioneers, it represented America in the 
     wilderness. It was to these people--the Declaration of 
     Independence, the Constitution of the United States, The Bill 
     of Rights, and freedom and democracy as we knew it. To the 
     Seminoles--this fort was first a symbol of justice and 
     goodwill and then a symbol of arrogance, intolerance, and 
     persecution. Hated and loved--In the end, Fort King is us.
       The historical significance of Fort King is that it links 
     us to our past and to our future. To stand on that hilltop 
     puts us in the footsteps of Osceola and the native Americans 
     who roamed and lived on this land for thousands of years 
     before the Spanish, French, English, and Americans ruled it. 
     It is a place in the modern city that links us to our 
     wilderness past. It reminds us of the difficulties faced by 
     our young republic in maintaining justice and peace on the 
     Frontier. It is how we got here. Here is our story on the 
     exact spot of land where it all happened.
       The lesson learned from Fort King is our need to assimilate 
     and accept people of other cultures who in the final analysis 
     value being American as much as we. Can we become a better 
     people? The fact that we stand here as friends with the 
     Seminoles, the very people we oppressed at the start of our 
     State, is a testament that we can. Fort King is a place of 
     hope.

                          ____________________