Fort Gadsden Fort Gadsden is located in Franklin County , Florida , on the Apalachicola River . The site contains the ruins of two forts , and has been known by several other names at various times , including Prospect Bluff Fort , Nicholls Fort , British Post , Negro Fort , African Fort , and Fort Apalachicola . Listed in the National Register of Historic Places , the Fort Gadsden Historic Site is located in Apalachicola National Forest and is managed by the U . S . Forest Service . It was named a National Historic Landmark in 1972 . Original fort . During the War of 1812 , the British hoped to recruit the Seminole Indians as allies in their war against the United States . In August 1814 , a force of over 100 officers and men led by a lieutenant colonel of Royal Marines , Edward Nicolls , was sent into the Apalachicola River region in Spanish Florida , where they began to aid and train local Indians . Although Nicolls claimed he rallied large numbers of Indians , his efforts bore little fruit in terms of actual fighting , and the completion of the war ended his mission a few months after his arrival . In late November 1814 , Major Uriah Blue , commanding a 1000 man force of Mississippi Militia , Chickasaw and Choctaw warriors , left Fort Montgomery to seek out and to destroy the Red Stick Creeks . Present among the force was Creek War veteran Davy Crockett Being unfamiliar with the territory , and being short of provisions , Major Blue ' s force did not find the fort , and returned to Fort Montgomery on 9 January 1815 . Before Nicolls left , however , he built a fort at Prospect Bluff , 15 miles above the mouth of the Apalachicola and sixty miles below U . S . territory , which he equipped with cannon , guns , and ammunition . The fort , originally known as the British Post , served as a base for British troops and for recruitment of ex - slaves into the new Corps of Colonial Marines , and as a rallying point to encourage the local Seminole Indian tribes to attack the United States . When the British evacuated Florida in the spring of 1815 , they left the well - constructed and fully armed fort on the Apalachicola River in the hands of their allies , about 400 fugitive slaves , including members of the disbanded Corps of Colonial Marines , and a number of native Indians . News of the " Negro Fort " ( as it came to be called ) attracted as many as 800 black fugitives who settled in the surrounding area . In September 1815 , US Indian Agent Benjamin Hawkins sent a group of 200 men to attack the fort at Prospect Bluff . The attack failed , thereby lulling the inhabitants of Prospect Bluff into a false sense of security Under the command of a black man named Garson and a Choctaw chief ( whose name is unknown ) , the inhabitants of Negro Fort launched raids across the Georgia border . The fort , located as it was near the U . S . border , was seen as a threat to Southern slavery . The U . S . considered it " a center of hostility and above all a threat to the security of their slaves . " The Savannah " Journal " wrote of it : It was not to be expected , that an establishment so pernicious to the Southern States , holding out to a part of their population temptations to insubordination , would have been suffered to exist after the close of the war . In the course of last winter , several slaves from this neighborhood fled to that fort ; others have lately gone from Tennessee and the Mississippi Territory . How long shall this evil , requiring immediate remedy , be permitted to exist ? Seminole Wars . In early 1816 the U . S . built Fort Scott on the west bank of the Flint River in Georgia for the purpose of guarding the Spanish - American border . Supplying the fort , however , was a problem ; to take materials overland required traveling through unsettled wilderness . Major General Andrew Jackson , the military commander of the southern district , preferred supplying Fort Scott by boat over the Apalachicola River in Spanish territory , which had the advantages of being both easier and of providing a likely " casus belli " for destroying the Negro Fort . As expected , when a naval force attempted the passage on July 17 , 1816 , it was fired on by the Negro Fort , and four U . S . soldiers were killed . Ten days later , Andrew Jackson ordered Brigadier General Edmund P . Gaines at Fort Scott to destroy the Negro Fort . The American expedition included Creek Indians from Coweta , who were induced to join by the promise that they would get what they could salvage from the fort if they helped in its capture . On July 27 , 1816 , following a series of skirmishes , the American forces and their Creek allies launched an all - out attack under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Duncan Clinch , with support from a naval convoy commanded by Sailing Master Jarius Loomis . The two sides exchanged cannon fire , but the shots of the inexperienced black gunners failed to hit their targets . A " hot shot " ( a cannonball heated to a red glow ) from the American forces entered the opening to the fort ' s powder magazine , igniting an explosion that was heard more than 100 miles ( 160 km ) away in Pensacola , and destroyed the fort , killing all but 30 of 300 occupants . Garson and the Choctaw chief , among the few who survived the carnage , were handed over to the Creeks , who shot Garson and scalped the chief . Other survivors were returned to slavery . The Creeks salvaged 2 , 500 muskets , 50 carbines , 400 pistols , and 500 swords from the ruins of the fort , increasing their power in the region . The Seminoles , who had fought with the blacks , were conversely weakened by the loss of their allies , and Creek involvement in the attack increased tension between the two tribes . Seminole anger at the Americans for the fort ' s destruction would contribute to the breakout of the First Seminole War a year later . Spain protested the violation of its soil , but according to historian John K . Mahon , it " lacked the power to do more . " Rebuilt fort . In 1818 General Jackson directed Lieutenant James Gadsden to rebuild the fort , which he did on a nearby site . Jackson was so pleased with the result that he named the location Fort Gadsden . During the American Civil War , Confederate troops occupied the fort until July 1863 , when an outbreak of malaria forced its abandonment .