LIVING HISTORY
ing they celebrated 1ew <ear·s 'ay like tourists, taking a
refreshing swim in the ocean. Motte was amazed to discover
the air temperature was 80 degrees.
NEW FORT NAMED
On Jan. 2, 1838, the regiment took barges 4 miles south to
the highest bluͿ on the west side of the ,ndian 5iver. &uriously,
12
Motte observed what he believed were man-made
formations around the bluͿ. +e said the way the ground had
been worked gave strong indications that the place had been
used for fortiÀcations in ancient times. 3erhaps by pirates, he
surmised. (But might it have been the site of the Spaniard’s
illfated 6anta /ucia" At any rate, the soldiers spent the day
constructing a blockhouse on the bluͿ. ,t was much like any
other frontier military blockhouse of the era, Motte said,
except that it was made with palmetto logs.
“We deemed it worthy of the title of fort,” Motte wrote in
his journal, “it was therefore dubbed Fort Pierce, after our
worthy commander.”
Less than two weeks later, Jesup arrived with a thousand
more men. He was assembling his troops for one of the biggest
campaigns of the war, he created an intricate network
of forts and depots across the state. With troops crisscrossing
back and forth, his plan was to force the Seminoles southward
and away from settlements in northern Florida. He wanted his
enemy to concentrate its forces for battle, instead of peppering
troops and settlers with hit-and-run guerilla tactics.
His strategy seemed to be working. Just three weeks before,
on Christmas Day, Col. Zachary Taylor ran into a large force
of Seminoles congregating near the north side of the big lake.
The Battle of Lake Okeechobee, which became the largest >>
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Jesup’s temporary headquarters during the Florida War.