Dade Battlefield Historic State Park in Sumter County, Florida

Photograph: Dade-battlefield-bushnell03.jpg by Ebyabe · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Restored from the credited Wikimedia Commons file, normalized to the consistent attraction-card frame and converted to WebP by 1stFlorida.com. Portrait originals retain their complete composition over a softly blurred extension of the same photograph.

Sumter County attraction

Dade Battlefield Historic State Park

Sumter County · Central Florida

Eighty acres near Bushnell hold the ground where the Second Seminole War began on December 28, 1835.

ABOUT THIS PLACE

On that morning Major Francis L. Dade and more than one hundred soldiers were marching north from Fort Brooke to Fort King when roughly one hundred and thirty Seminole fighters under Micanopy opened fire from the pines and palmettos. Dade and the whole left flank fell in the first volley. The fighting lasted about six hours. Three soldiers lived to tell it, along with Dade's guide, Louis Pacheco. The State of Florida bought the eighty acres in 1921 for two thousand dollars to keep the site intact. It was listed on the National Register in 1972 and named a National Historic Landmark in 1994. The Army used the land for training during the Second World War. Today a visitor center open from nine in the morning until five explains the march and the battle, a nature trail loops through the same flatwoods the soldiers walked, and replica log breastworks mark where the survivors built cover. Every year since 1980, on the weekend after Christmas, reenactors including Seminole participants stage the battle on the ground where it happened. The park gates open at eight in the morning and close at sundown, year round

GETTING THERE

Get Directions ↗Official place website ↗

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