SW037 A More Detailed Look at how Major Dade Led His Troops to Massacre on Fort King Road

[Editor's Note: This is the ninth in a series of podcasts promoting the Seminole Wars Foundation's self-paced virtual challenge, The Major Dade Memorial March to Fort King. We launched Dec. 22. Registration to join Laumer's Legion is still open. Visit www.seminolewars.us for details.]

"Dade's Battle" Copyright Guy LaBree 1987

U.S. Army Major Francis L. Dade’s movement of a combined artillery and infantry column from Fort Brooke to Fort King is a controversial one, mainly because it ended in disaster. Dade knew such movement could be dangerous but believed the intent of the orders from General Duncan L. Clinch were clear: reinforce the garrison at Fort King without delay. This would explain why he did not wait for the two additional companies that were expected to arrive any day to join him.

But, other questions remain. Why were communications interrupted between Fort Brooke and Fort Drane, where General Clinch was planning a campaign to confront the Seminoles about removal to the west? What was the terrain like that Dade’s column had to traverse? What were his troops eating on the march? Did either of these hamper Dade’s ability to move his troops with alacrity to relieve Fort King? What were his troops carrying? What role did their heavy great coats, worn to protect against cold and rain, play when the troops came under fire? How did Dade’s men maintain their professionalism and good order when the Seminole assault ripped through their ranks? After they won the battle, why didn’t the Seminole take any prisoners? And were the Seminole actions to dispatch the wounded soldiers a massacre, as portrayed in news accounts, and a violation of accepted norms of war?

Autodidact, living historian, and military reenactor Jesse Marshall returns to the Seminole Wars podcast to answer these questions and to provide perspective on why things went the way they did. The outcome was not foreordained.

Dade Battlefield Sketch from Diary of Surgeon Nathan Jarvis, 1836

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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