Fort Hamer

Fort Hamer. . Near this location stood Fort Hamer, a Second Seminole War fort and hospital that stood on the south bank of the Manatee River at the highest point navigable by steamboats. The fort was part of a greater U.S. military strategy of a line of forts across the state from the Manatee River to Indian River on the east coast. Fort Hamer was the first fort built as part of this strategy. beginning in November 1849 under the direction of Major John Henry Miller of the Fourth Artillery, and was vital to the U.S. Army's ability to remain resupplied. In addition to barracks and stables, the fort contained a large hospital and supply warehouse supporting its role as a staging and supply post. At its height the fort housed at least 190 soldiers in January of 1850. At this point in the Second Seminole War, small bands of Indians who had been worn down by the continuous conflicts and atrocities met with government agents to agree to removal to Oklahoma in return for compensation and protection. Fort Hamer was the embarkation point for seventy-four Seminole, Miccosukee, and Muscogee Indians who left Florida on February 28, 1850 aboard the steamer Fashion. Records show a total of nineteen men, including the Miccosukee Chief Kapiktoosootsee, twenty-two women, fourteen boys, and nineteen girls leaving aboard this ship. A month later they were followed to New Orleans by another party of fourteen Seminoles aboard the same ship. A final small group of emigrants followed in August; rapidly diminishing in strategic value, by November of that year the fort had been deconstructed and the materials were sent south to be reused in the construction of Fort Casey and Fort Myers.