Brass Bowl

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Fort Brooke & Tampa

Throughout the 2nd & 3rd Seminole wars (1835-42; 1856-58), Fort Brooke served as the nucleus of a small but growing community that included not only soldiers of many ethnic backgrounds & languages, but also settlers, slaves, & Freedmen lured by the military economy, as well as by all of the excellent features of terrain & climate that continue to attract residents & visitors today.  Among the troops were man foreign-born men for whom military enlistment provided fast & east entry into the new society;  although service in the heat, mosquitoes, & snakes of Florida would not seem easy at all.  An Englishman, John Bemrose, who served as a hospital orderly at several Florida forts, recorded that he met Germans, French, Scots, Polish, Swedes, Canadians, & Nova Scotians,  Their languages seemed to him “like the chatter of Babel.”  The Indians visited the fort to obtain supplies.  Indian prisoners & emigrants encamped there, awaiting transport.  The long shoreline of Cotanchobee also made a fine meeting place for Cuban fisherman who secretly brought arms & ammunition to support the Indian resisters  In Jan, 1834, Hillsborough became Florida’s 18th county, & its seat was named for Tampa, the settlement that had taken root a  round Fort Brooke. The fort remained active until it was formally abandoned by the U.S. government on Dec. 21, 1882.  It was occupied regularly until 1860 & thereafter, was a seasonal camp for soldiers from Key West Barracks.