Apalachicola River, Part 22

Two years after the destruction of the "Negro Fort" on the lower Apalachicola, the U.S. Army returned to the site.

Maj. Gen. Andrew Jackson selected Prospect Bluff, site of the destroyed fort, for a base of operations during the First Seminole War.

Invading Spanish Florida, he marched down the Apalachicola River to Prospect Bluff in March of 1818. Maj. James Gadsden, an engineer attached to Jackson's army, was ordered to design and build a new fort at the site. Pleased with Gadsden's efforts, Jackson named the new post Fort Gadsden in his honor.

Fort Gadsden was much smaller than the original British post. Gadsden incorporated the ruins of the British water battery into his design, using it as the river face of a new bastioned fort.

U.S. troops occupied Fort Gadsden for several years, but abandoned the post when Spain ceded Flroida to the United States in 1821. For the next 40 years, the site functioned as a riverboat landing. A town was projected on the site by early developers, but never came into existence. Troops did return from time to time during the Second Seminole War (1835-1842), making use of the solid earthworks from Gadsden's fort.

In our next post, we will look at the Civil War history of the Fort Gadsden site.