One hundred and seventy five years ago – in 1835 – soldiers stationed at Tampa’s Fort Brooke marched north to Ocala, planning to reinforce units stationed at Fort King. They never made it. On December 28th, they met a force of more than 200 Seminole Indians near present-day Bushnell. Dozens of Seminoles and 120 U.S. Soldiers died in what is now known as the Dade Battle, the first confrontation of the Second Seminole War.
To mark the occasion, the Tampa Bay History Center welcomes preeminent Seminole War historian and author Frank Laumer as part of the Florida Conversations Lecture Series on Tuesday, Dec. 28 at 6:30 p.m. Laumer’s talk, entitled Soldiers, Seminoles and Slavery: Florida and the Second Seminole War, will explore the key events, players and legacy of the seven-year confrontation between the U.S. government and Florida’s Seminoles.
Frank Laumer is the author of two histories of the Second Seminole War, Massacre! and Dade’s Last Command. Laumer’s most recent book, Nobody’s Hero, is a fictionalized account of Pvt. Ransom Clark, the only American to survive the Dade Battle.
Laumer was the first recipient of the D. B. McKay award of the Tampa Historical Society “For Distinguished Service in the Cause of Florida History.” He is a past president of both the Seminole Wars Historic Foundation and the Dade Battlefield Society.
Co-sponsored by the USF Libraries Florida Studies Center and supported by WUSF Public Media, Florida Conversations features authors and presenters covering a variety of Florida topics, from politics to fiction, history to environmental issues.
Florida Conversations is free and open to the public. Public parking is available at the Channelside garage, the St. Pete Times Forum East Lot and other city-owned lots. For more information, contact the Tampa Bay History Center at 228-0097 or online at www.tampabayhistorycenter.org.
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