SW0116 A British-built Fort at Prospect Bluff in Spanish Florida Shielded Blacks and Indians from U.S. Territorial Designs on Apalachicola River

 

In July 1816, the so-called year without a summer, the U.S. military made war on an Apalachicola River outpost in Spanish Florida. It wasn’t the Spanish who were attacked, however. It wasn’t their fort. It also wasn’t the British who were attacked. The Treaty of Ghent ended the US war with Britain the previous year. So who was in this Fort at Prospect Bluff, which stood in defense and defiance against any intruders?

Historian Dale Cox author of, appropriately enough The Fort at Prospect Bluff, returns to the Seminole Wars podcast to explain who was in the fort and why the U.S. government viewed it as a threat, even though it operated in internationally recognized Spanish territory.

Note a sketch of the area (above) versus an above-ground LIDAR view of the outline today.

 

Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. He is a combat veteran and of the U.S. Army, serving in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, and Kosovo, and at the Pentagon after 9/11. A military historian, he holds masters degrees in Public History, Communication, and Homeland Security, and is a graduate of the US Army War College with an advanced degree in strategic studies. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Florida. 

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