Civil War and history buffs alike should make an assertive effort to visit a town called Fort Meade, located in interior Polk County in Central Florida. Fort Meade was named after General George Gordon Meade of Gettysburg fame, and would host such notable military figures as future Confederate Generals Ambrose Powell Hill and Stonewall Jackson, who would both be stationed at the Fort between 1850 and 1851. Fort Meade’s history dates back to 1849, when General Twiggs had proposed a permanent military road from the Atlantic coast at Fort Pierce to the Manatee River.
During the year of 1849, the recent Indian attack on Chokonikla, which left three men dead, alarmed frontier settlers living near the area (see my previous article “Kennedy-Darling Indian Trading Post at Hatse Lotka”). At the time of the incident, President Zachary Taylor had reached a decision: if the Indians would turn in the murderers, Indian removal would not be implemented. In addition, this road would be used to protect inhabitants living near Indian Territory. The military road would also separate frontiersmen and Indians who chose not to emigrate from the area. Lt. George Gordon Meade had been working on this military road for about two months when he realized that General Twiggs had made a great blunder.
The original road at Charlie Apopka Creek was not the Indian nation’s true northern boundary. Meade’s findings concluded that the true northern boundary ran up Bowlegs Creek on the eastern side and north of the mouth of Whidden Creek. If these findings were correct, the military road would have to be relocated more than ten miles north of the original proposed plan and the recent post built at Fort Chokonikla would have to be abandoned. This was not good news.
Lt. Meade would now have to report to General Twiggs of his findings, but first he would have to find a route more suitable for military travel and a site for a fort to protect the crossing of and at the Peace River. His new proposed route would commence at Fort Brookes (Tampa) traveling southeast over the Alafia river, and continuing east towards Hooker’s Prairie near the abandon fields of Talakchopco (Fort Meade). On December 13, 1849, with Lt. Meade’s military career at stake, Twiggs and five of his aids followed Lt Meade from Chokonikla towards Kendrick Branch and up towards higher ground in present- day Fort Meade.
In Canter Brown’s book Fort Meade, Florida he explains that, “The Riverbanks immediately above the branch were high and firm and overlooked an ancient Indian fort that had given generations of Creeks and Seminoles access to South Florida hunting grounds. The river coursed by with a stream only forty to fifty yards in width. Across its usually placid waters, the opposing or eastern bank opened, after a short passage through the river hammocks, into high, open land almost denuded of living trees.” General Twiggs, apparently in a shocking but blissful trance, proclaimed, “Here shall be Fort Meade.”
In 1851, due to sickness from malaria from mosquitoes in the summer months, the fort would later be moved from the Peace River to its present-day location at Third Street and Cleveland Avenue within the historic district. The new fort would be rebuilt under Lt. Ambrose Powell Hill’s guidance. During that period, Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson was stationed at Fort Meade and in his letter to his sister dated on March 1, 1851 and writing in Fort Meade, he spoke about the life there and in the surrounding area.
“Florida, so far as I seen it, is a vast plain with occasional slight elevations. It is covered with beautiful forests of pine, the yellow pine growing on the elevations and the pitch pine on the lowlands. The country is filled with lakes and swamps. The soil is very sandy and generally very thin. It produces corn and most northern productions, with the exception of wheat, rye, oats and barley, where the soil is good.
It produces most excellent sugar and cotton, but is peculiarly adapted to the growth of the sweet potato, which sometimes grows more than two feet in length and eighteen inches in circumference. But the profitable occupation here is raising cattle. Here cow and calf will cost ten dollars. All that is necessary is to buy a sufficient number, and turn them into the woods, hunt them up every year, mark and brand them. The owner neither feeds nor salts them. When the steers become three, four, five, six, and seven years old, they are sold from seven to sixteen dollars, and carried by Nassau Key West, or elsewhere for consumption. “
He continued, “There is plenty of game here such as deer and turkey; some bears, tigers and panther. I have just returned from an eight days’ scout, in which I saw deer in one forenoon. I could find no Indians. I travelled more than one hundred miles, without seeing a house. I like scouting very much as it gives me a relish for everything; but it would be still more desirable if have an occasional encounter with Indian parties.”
He also wrote, “I have been on several sugar plantations in Florida. They present the appearance of a large farm covered with luxuriant corn. Eatables here are very dear; eggs are from thirty-seven to fifty cents per dozen; corn between one and two dollars per bushel; hens fifty cents each, etc. I wish that I could not only see you every year, but every day.”
Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson would spend almost seven months in Fort Meade before resigning from the US Military life to take a teaching position at the Virginia Military Institute. Today the location of the old Fort is now called Heritage Park and can be visited daily during daylight hours. Please check our main website at www.peacerivervalleyflorida.com for a free walking tour of Fort Meade, Florida.
Sources: Canter Brown’s Fort Meade Florida
Virginia Military Institute historical records.