Fort Cooper was utilized as a reconnaissance, observation, and dispatch post until 1842 by various U.S. Army detachments directed by the U.S. War Department with “positive orders given to penetrate the strongholds of the Withlacoochee Cove to capture and destroy everything calculated to give strength or sustenance to the enemy”.

The Battle of Fort Cooper was of significant military importance. It impressed Chief Osceola (the most famous Seminole who lived in the Cove of the Withlacoochee) and tribal chiefs that the Cove of the Withlacoochee was not invincible or defensible from effective military tactics. Nevertheless, due to the continued inefficiency of the U.S. Command, it took almost six years of indecisive encounters before the Indians finally vacated the Cove area and joined their resistance down the Southern Florida peninsula.

The Seminole’s effort to expend the powder supply of Fort Cooper had failed. When the relief column arrived they found the garrison extremely short of provisions. The men had “subsisted for some time on two and a half ounces of meat per diem with flour in proportion” but they had ample gun powder supply remaining

The U.S. War Department and the Florida Command erroneously thought the War would be short. However, it lasted over seven years. In terms of lives lost and money expended the Seminole Wars were the costliest of all American Indian War conflicts.

Measurements of the Fort’s Walls:

South Wall 213.25 feet with 326 recorded posts

West Wall 201.8 feet with 132 recorded posts

North Wall 255.9 feet with 177 recorded posts

East Wall 223.1 feet with 16 recorded posts

Construction utilized small white pine and laurel oak logs 5-10 inches in diameter which were irregularly staggered to chink the gaps of the vertical picketing.

Welcome to Fort Cooper State Park