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Scarce map showing the location of Camp Izard, during the second Seminole War.
Camp Izard was an emergency fortification established in response to a Seminole Indian attack on a military force led by General Edmund P. Gaines in 1836.
This post was established on February 27, 1836, when General Gaines and his force while attempting to cross the Ouithlacoochee River, came under attack by some 1500 Seminole Indians under chiefs Osceola and Alligator. The camp was named for First Lieutenant Izard, the first casualty.
The Seminoles surrounded the soldiers and forced them into a 250 yard quadrangle, which the soldiers fortified with log breastworks and earthen bastions. General Gaines sent a request to General Clinch for reinforcements after the first day, but the siege lasted two weeks without any reply. Regular Army rations ran out and the command was reduced to eating their Horses and dogs.
The Seminoles tired of the conflict and requested a parley. General Gaines sent representatives to the parley who were told by the Seminoles that they just wanted to be left alone and would let the troops leave if Gaines would promise to abandon his pursuit of them. While the talks were under way 500 American reinforcements arrived and opened fire on the Seminoles who then abandoned the siege and left.
The post was used intermittently until it was abandoned at the end of the war in 1842.
