Military Trail

Military Trail. . After the second Battle of the Loxahatchee (January 24, 1838) during the Second Seminole War (1835-1842), Maj. Gen. Thomas S. Jesup directed Maj. William Lauderdale, Commander of the Tennessee Battalion of Volunteers to cut a trail south from Ft. Jupiter to Ft. Dallas (present day Miami). Lauderdale’s mission was to capture Seminoles who had escaped the Loxahatchee battle. On March 2,1838, Lauderdale, with approximately 200 Tennessee Volunteers and the U.S. 3rd Artillery Regiment, marched south, following the Seminoles. To avoid swamps and lagoons, they kept to the higher coastal pine ridge that extended from Ft. Jupiter to the New River, where Lauderdale built a fort (in present day Ft. Lauderdale), and moved on to Ft. Dallas. Because Lauderdale’s command had blazed a trail covering 63 miles through overgrown terrain in only four days, the route was designated “Lauderdale’s Trail.” It was used for military operations through the end of the Third Seminole War in 1858, and became known as “Military Trail.” Now a major commercial thoroughfare, Military Trail is a remnant of the long and dramatic history of the Seminole Wars in Florida.