Early History of Gadsden County now available at Amazon.com

The Early History of Gadsden County is now available for order online through Amazon.com. The book went into national release over the weekend.

Please click here for ordering information.

Sales from this book benefit the West Gadsden Historical Society in its efforts to preserve and interpret the history of Gadsden County, Florida.

The book covers incidents from the history of Gadsden County beginning with the Spanish mission era and continuing up through the War Between the States. Some highlights include Ellicott's Observatory, Nicolls' Outpost, the Second Seminole War, the McLane Massacre, the U.S. Arsenal at Chattahoochee, Neamathla's Reserve, the C.S.S. Chattahoochee and Gadsden County's role at the Battle of Natural Bridge.

The Forts of Gadsden County

It is a little known fact that Gadsden County has been the location of a suprising number of forts and military posts over the years. Over the next week or so, we'll explore the history of some of these.

Although little remains of these, with the exception of a few structures from the 19th century U.S. Arsenal at Chattahoochee, they were important to the early history of not just the county, but the nation itself.

Here is a list of the sites that we will explore over coming days:

• Old Spanish Fort
• Nicolls' Outpost
• U.S. Arsenal at Chattahoochee
• Fort Barbour
• Fort McClellan
• Lamb's Camp Fort
• Unnamed Forts of the Second Seminole War

We'll begin with a look at the rumored Old Spanish Fort at Chattahoochee later today.

Anniversary of the Seizure of the U.S. Arsenal at Chattahoochee

Today marks the 148th anniversary of the seizure of the U.S. Arsenal at Chattahoochee by the Quincy Young Guards at the beginning of the Civil War.

The incident was the first armed encounter of the Civil War in Florida and the anniversary marks a major date in the history of Gadsden County.

To commemorate the event, I began a series of posts today on our sister site at http://civilwarflorida.blogspot.com/.

Over the next few days I will be posting excerpts from my recent book, The Early History of Gadsden County. If you are interested in learning more, please follow the link above to read the excerpts or consider purchasing a copy of the book by following the link in this paragraph.

Purchases benefit the West Gadsden Historical Society in its effort to protect and preserve the history and historic sites of Gadsden County.