Brass Bowl

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The Fort & Town of Tampa

Above Whiting St. & the military reservation, the town of Tampa was taking shape even as the wars continued.  First came those who provided skills useful to the military; cobblers, harness makers, laundresses, blacksmiths, among others.  Sometimes their families came as well.  Among the officers & men who appreciated the intensity of Florida’s climate & landscape, some stayed on after their service, as merchants or government agents.  Throughout the wars, & years of intermittent raids & skirmishes, the Indians continued to visit Fort Brooke & Tampa also, to trade or fish, or conduct other business.  The Indians had made it clear all along that their fight was not with individuals but, rather with a government that would go so far as to kill them in order to take away their homes.  But the withdrawal of troops in 1842 angered & frightened many Floridians, & tensions mounted again, until their erupted in a short series of skirmishes that constituted the 3^rd Seminole War (1856-58).  U.S. Soldiers destroyed a camp & garden belonging to Billy Bowlegs, & the Indians fought back.  For the second time, however, the U.S. made a unilateral decision to pull its troops out.  The cost of removing the few hundred remaining Seminoles would far outweigh the benefits.  They would finally be left alone in their homeland.  The tiny community of Tampa would remain also, until the coming of Henry Plant’s railroad, in the late 19^th century, would provide a distinct economic base for municipal growth.