Battle of San Felasco Hammock was a Early Republic and War of 1812 engagement fought in Florida, 1836. It was a United States victory.
The clash at San Felasco Hammock unfolded as one episode within the Second Seminole War, the conflict Florida's Seminole Indians waged to resist being forced west to Arkansas Territory under the terms of the 1830 Indian Removal Act.
Newnansville, Florida, had developed along the Bellamy Road near where a natural bridge crossed the Santa Fe River. Just when settlement began there remains uncertain, though records show Dell's post office opening in January 1826. The community became the county se
The clash at San Felasco Hammock unfolded as one episode within the Second Seminole War, the conflict Florida's Seminole Indians waged to resist being forced west to Arkansas Territory under the terms of the 1830 Indian Removal Act.
Newnansville, Florida, had developed along the Bellamy Road near where a natural bridge crossed the Santa Fe River. Just when settlement began there remains uncertain, though records show Dell's post office opening in January 1826. The community became the county seat of Alachua County in 1828. Once fighting broke out in 1835, families from surrounding areas fled to Newnansville for safety, and residents fortified both the courthouse and jail. By December of that year, the town's Fort Gilliland housed 259 soldiers.
Word arrived in Newnansville during September 1836 that as many as 150 Seminoles had assembled at Colonel Francis Sanchez's plantation within San Felasco Hammock, some 4 miles south of town, where they were gathering cattle to drive toward Hogtown prairie. Fort Gilliland stood at this point as the only remaining garrisoned post in northern Florida between the St. Johns and Suwannee rivers. Five men attempting to gather corn roughly a mile from Newnansville came under fire from Seminoles on September 17. Though the men got away safely, soldiers who chased the attackers toward Sanchez's plantation had to turn back when a severe rainstorm hit. That evening, scouts reported spotting 300 Seminoles at the plantation site.
The following day, Colonel John Warren marched out with a force numbering 100 men according to Mahon or 150 according to Yelton, bringing along a howitzer. Roughly three-quarters of a mile from the plantation, the Seminoles launched their assault on the column. Though Seminole numbers likely exceeded those of the troops, the artillery piece balanced the disparity. Twice at least the Seminoles tried seizing the howitzer, yet after ninety minutes of fighting they withdrew. The engagement left one American soldier dead and five wounded, while the toll among the Seminoles went unrecorded.
Approximate location. The nearest recorded settlement is shown; the exact site is unrecorded.
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