The Second Seminole Indian War:

A Field Tour of Fort Foster, Dade Battlefield, Fort Cooper,

Fort King, Paynes Prairie, Castillo de San Marcos, St. Augustine,

Fort Matanzas, Bulow Plantation, Addison Blockhouse,

New Smyrna Sugar Mill, Okeechobee, Highlands Hammock,

Paynes Creek and other sites across Florida

January 28-30, 2008 – beginning & ending in Sarasota, Florida

led by Edwin C. Bearss

The First Seminole Indian War (1817-1818) failed to subdue the Seminoles of Florida despite the best efforts of Andrew Jackson. The U. S. government decided to relocate all Seminoles to the Indian Territory of the West, in what is today Oklahoma. In 1832, the government signed the Treaty of Paynes Landing under which the Seminoles agreed to relocate to the west within three years. About 4,000 of them did so but the majority, led by the charismatic Chief Osceola, refused to comply. For this, Osceola was briefly imprisoned by the U. S, government. Shortly after his release, he began a series of punitive attacks against the Americans. On December 28, 1835 Osceola shot and scalped Indian agent Wiley Thompson. On that same day, 300 Seminole warriors ambushed 100 U. S. soldiers led by Major Francis Dade near Fort King and killed all but three of them in the “Dade Massacre”. On December 31, Osceola led a major Seminole victory against General Duncan Clinch’s force of nearly 1,000 men on the Withlacoochee River. After these attacks, the Seminoles slipped into the Everglades and built villages deep within the swamps from which they launched attacks against the settlers for the next seven years. 

Generals Winfield Scott and Richard Call conducted numerous campaigns against the Seminoles in 1836, which were largely ineffectual. The conduct of the war brought bitter criticism from the American public and a change of command resulted. General Thomas Jesup, with a combat force of 8,000, took overall command of the Seminole campaign at the end of 1836.

In March 1837, several Seminole chiefs agreed to end the war, and gave up hostages to guarantee their commitment to the truce.  But on June 2, Osceola and a force of about 200 warriors, attacked Fort Dade, and freed all 700 Indian prisoners including the hostages held to guarantee the truce. Then, On October 21, Osceola was tricked by General Jesup into attending a “peace council.” While under a white flag, Osceola was surrounded and shackled, then imprisoned in St. Augustine and later taken to a more secure confinement at Fort Moultrie in Charleston, South Carolina. Suffering from exhaustion and malaria, Osceola died on January 30, 1838, still a prisoner of war. Despite their renowned leader’s death, many Seminoles continued to resist relocation to the Oklahoma territory and fought on. By 1842, they were nearly exterminated. Some 4,420 Seminoles surrendered and were relocated west. A few hundred remained in the Everglades under the leadership of Billy Bowlegs. The Third Seminole Indian War would later ensue.

Join Ed Bearss, America’s most famous battlefield guide, as he presents a unique tour of the Second Seminole Indian War. We will board our bus in Sarasota on Monday morning, January 28 and during that day visit Fort Foster, the Dade battlefield, Fort Cooper, Fort King and Paynes Prairie before arriving in St. Augustine where we will spend the night of January 28. The next day, our tour will take us to Castillo de San Marcos, Fort Matanzas, Bulow Plantation, Addison Blockhouse, and the New Smyrna Sugar Mill before arriving in Melbourne where we will spend the night of January 29.

On Wednesday, we will tour the Okeechobee battlefield, Highlands Hammock and Paynes Creek. We will arrive back in Sarasota at 5:00 PM on Wednesday, January 30, in time for the opening reception of the Sarasota World War II Conference.  

Our meeting place in Sarasota will be at a public garage at 100 Central Avenue in downtown Sarasota, where we will pay for your car to be parked until our return. A map showing the exact location of the garage will be provided in your confirmation of registration materials. For those of you staying at the Helmsley Sandcastle Hotel during and after the Sarasota Civil War Symposium and planning to stay there again for the Sarasota World War II Conference, January 30-February 2, you will NOT need to maintain a hotel room there while you are away on this Seminole Indian War tour. Check out early on the morning of January 28, stow your luggage in your vehicle and drive out to our meeting place at the parking garage on Central Avenue. Or if you are not in a car, check out early on Monday morning, we will stow your luggage for you, and we will give you a ride to and from our starting point at the garage on Central Avenue.

We hope you’ll join Ed Bearss, America’s leading history guide on this unique tour of The Second Seminole Indian War. Seating is limited and we advise you to enroll early.

About Our Tour Leader

Edwin C. Bearss is Historian Emeritus of the National Park Service and the most well known battlefield guide in America. He is acclaimed as one of the stars of Ken Burns's award-winning PBS series, The Civil War. While working for the NPS at Vicksburg in 1956, he helped locate and raise the ironclad gunboat Cairo, one of the most significant artifacts of the Civil War. He is the author of countless articles on the Civil War and many books including The Vicksburg Campaign; Forrest at Brice’s Cross Roads and in Northern Mississippi in 1864; Protecting Sherman’s Lifeline: The Battles of Brice’s Cross Roads and Tupelo, 1864, and most recently Fields of Honor: Pivotal Battles of the Civil War.

What is Included in your Registration:

·        2 nights’ lodging – Monday night in St. Augustine and Tuesday night in Melbourne

·        2 continental breakfasts

·        3 lunches

·        refreshments & snacks during the tour 

·        information package

·        all admissions and taxes & gratuities associated with group functions

Registration Fees

·        Double Occupancy - $665 per person

·        Single Occupancy - $765

Refund Policy for This Tour

To be eligible for a refund or a credit, you must notify us by phone, fax, e-mail or letter. If we receive such notice on or before January 15, 2008, we will refund or credit to you, as you wish, 100% of your fees paid within 30 days of our receipt of your notice of cancellation. If we receive your notice of cancellation after January 15, 2008, we will refund your fees paid less any charges for room & board that we may be unable to recover. In the case of such cancellations made after January 15, 2008, we will make every effort to refund or credit to you 100% of the fees you’ve paid.