The Florida War

By John T. Sprague

University of Tampa Press, 2000

This new edition of invaluable history of the Second Seminole War was published in collaboration with the Seminole Wars Historic Foundation. It not only includes the original 1848 text, but also an introduction by historian John K. Mahon, an added original drawing of Ft. King reproduced from Sprague’s journals in the Library of Congress, and a photograph of Sprague, reproduced from the Roger Hunt Collection, U.S. Army Military History Institute. As Dr. Mahon points out in his introduction, Sprague’s account was written only four years after the close of the seven-year struggle by an officer who participated in the last four years of the conflict. His book is more truly a historical document than a history, and it remains the cornerstone of Second Seminole War History.