On This Spot

View of the area that made up the initial site of the Indian attack (tall white pillars are situated on spots where individual officers were killed).

The triangular formation of logs in front of the museum building represents the spot where the US troops threw up a log defensive formation and made their last stand.

The featured marker is still missing as of today's visit, Sept 25, 2014. The Park Ranger was also missing, so it was not determined what became of it.

"Up this peaceful road from Fort Brooke toward Fort King came Dade's men to their Deaths." Fort Brooke of 1835 is the Tampa of today, Fort King, 106 miles north by the military road, is now Ocala.

For five days the Seminoles had stealthly observed the march of Dade's column, on its way to reinforce the small garrison at Fort King. Unknown to Major Dade's command, Oceola, Micanopy, and Alligator had planned to attack Dade's men and kill General Thompson, the Indian Agent at Fort King.

At 8:00 on December 28, 1835, two- thirds of the march had been covered, and the open country here seemed to require less vigilance. Flanking scouts were withdrawn, the day was chilly, and the men trudged along in coats buttoned over their ammunition boxes.

Suddenly, men reeled and fell to a deadly fire poured upon them from behind trees and Palmettos. Half of Major Dade's command lay dead or wounded. Major Dade and Captain Fraser were killed nearby, and three of the six surviving officers were wounded. Those men remaining after the first onslaught sought cover from which they might return the fire. After several rounds from their cannon, the Indians withdrew a short distance. The soldiers hastily threw together a low redoubt of logs, cared for their wounded, and collected ammunition from the fallen.

The soldiers hastily threw together a low redoubt of logs, cared for their wounded, and collected ammunition from the fallen.
Later, bodies of the enlisted men were buried in two graves within the redoubt. Later relocated to St. Augustine

The second phase of the battle lasted until about 2:00 P.M. Most of the force of 108 men had been killed. The wounded were dispatched by the enemy after the battle ended, with the exception of three members of Major Dade's force who survived the attack and returned to Fort Brooke. Chief Alligator, the Seminole leader, claimed that only three of his warriors were killed, and only five were wounded.

The scene of the ambush remained deserted for seven weeks. Finally, on February 20, 1836, an expedition under General Gains arrived here, identified the bodies, and gave them proper burial with military rites, placing officers' bodies on the east side of the trail, and the enlisted men in two graves within the redoubt. The small cannon was retrieved from a nearby pond in which the Seminoles had thrown it. They mounted it muzzle down, as a monument to the dead. Almost six years later, on August 15, 1842, the officers and men of the army contributed funds to pay for a second interment; and Dade's silent command now rests in the National Cemetery at St. Augustine.

Here Major Dade fell.
When the smoke finally cleared, virtually the entire army force had been wiped out. Dade, his officers and at least 103 men were dead.
A beautiful monument was erected at West Point to his memory and that of his command.
Click for more information.

Dade Monument in foreground, Capt. Fraser Monument in background