By Richard J. Procyk

Florida Historical Society Press

In this book the author recounts the story of the 42-year struggle (1817-1858) for control of Florida between the U. S. armed forces (both regulars and volunteers) and Red and Black Seminole warriors. Of the three wars fought during this conflict the longest and bloodiest was the Second Seminole War (1835-1842), in which a crucial series of pitched battles culminated in the Battle of Loxahatchee, January 24, 1838. Historians and Archaeologists working as a team have unearthed the site of that battle on the Loxahatchee River in northern Palm Beach County, as well as the location of the subsequent encampment of the Tennessee Volunteers commanded by Major William Lauderdale, near Old Fort Jupiter.