Military Roads
How the U.S. Army Cut the Paths That Pioneer Families Followed into Florida
Roads built for armies were roads that everyone else could use.
Before a pioneer family could roll a wagon south into Florida, someone had to cut a way through. When the United States took Florida from Spain in 1821, the peninsula had paths, among them game trails, the routes Seminole and Miccosukee people had long used, and old Spanish tracks, but few roads wide enough for a loaded wagon. The U.S. Army built or oversaw many of the first ones. They were not made for settlers. They were made to move troops and supply forts. Once cut, though, they were open to mail riders, drovers and pioneer families alike.
Why Roads Were Hard
Florida is flat, and across much of the interior the water table sits close to the surface, so seasonal flooding could leave wetlands miles wide with no dry crossing. Rivers such as the Suwannee, Withlacoochee and Peace could be crossed only at known fords and landings. Cypress swamps were impassable to wheeled vehicles without a causeway. Army commanders arriving with supply wagons found their usual methods poorly suited to the country.
The Bellamy Road
The most significant early territorial road was the Pensacola–St. Augustine Road, authorized by Congress in 1824. A state historical marker describes it as the territory’s first federal highway. The Army sought bids for the eastern portion, and the contract went to John Bellamy, a planter from Jefferson County. His section, from the Ochlockonee River near Tallahassee to St. Augustine, was completed in 1826.
Bellamy’s road followed the older Spanish Camino Real for much of its length, crossed the Aucilla, Suwannee and Santa Fe rivers, and reached the St. Johns River at Picolata. Congress had specified a width of 25 feet; the contract reduced it to 16. Cost figures differ: one account gives Bellamy’s contract price as $13,500, while the state marker gives $23,000 for the road as a whole.
Who Built Them
The labor force was mixed. Soldiers built portions of Florida’s military roads as part of their duty, and civilian contractors took on others. On the Bellamy Road, the state marker records that enslaved laborers from Bellamy’s plantation did much of the work. Where the ground was too wet, crews laid logs across the roadbed, a method called corduroy. Larger rivers generally required ferries.
Roads in Wartime
Army road building continued during the Second Seminole War (1835 to 1842), which the Florida Park Service calls the longest and most costly American Indian war in U.S. history. Roads were cut and improved as campaigns required. The Fort King Road, linking Fort Brooke at Tampa Bay with Fort King near present-day Ocala, grew out of a military road begun by the federal government in 1825. The December 28, 1835, attack on a U.S. Army column on that road is generally treated as the opening engagement of the war.
Roads That Settlers Followed
The Armed Occupation Act, effective August 4, 1842, offered 160-acre grants to heads of families who would live on the land for five years and cultivate five acres. Settlers needed to reach their claims, and existing military roads and trails were among the available routes.
What Remains
Most of the original corridors, corduroy crossings and log bridges are gone. Remnants of the Bellamy Road’s sand track survive, and part of it forms the county line between northwest Putnam and southwest Clay counties. The roads were drawn through country that Seminole and Miccosukee people knew well, and the conflict that made them possible carried human costs that were unequally borne. Federal removal policy and military operations forced many Seminole people out of Florida, but Seminole and Miccosukee communities endured in the state, and their descendants live in Florida today.
Quick Facts
First federal highway
Pensacola–St. Augustine Road, authorized 1824 (state historical marker)
Eastern section
The Bellamy Road, built under Army contract by John Bellamy, completed 1826
Earlier route
Spanish Camino Real, which the road generally followed
Width
25 feet in the 1824 act; 16 feet in the contract
Cost
$13,500 contract price per one account; $23,000 total per the state marker
Labor
Soldiers, contractors and, on the Bellamy Road, enslaved workers
Fort King Road
Begun by the federal government in 1825, linking Fort Brooke and Fort King
Armed Occupation Act
Effective August 4, 1842; 160-acre grants
Surface
Unpaved; corduroy log sections over wet ground
Surviving trace
Part of the Bellamy Road forms the Putnam–Clay county line
Did You Know?
- Congress specified a 25-foot-wide Pensacola–St. Augustine Road, but the contract was for 16 feet.
- The Bellamy Road followed much of the old Spanish Camino Real.
- Part of the Bellamy Road still serves as a county line.
Vocabulary
Corduroy road: a road surface made by laying logs crosswise over wet ground.
Territorial road: a road built or funded while Florida was still a U.S. territory.
Contractor: a person hired to carry out a job for an agreed price.
Discussion Questions
1. Why would an Army road built for soldiers end up serving settlers?
2. How should a history of these roads account for the people who did the work?
Related Articles
- FLH-0110 — Wagon Travel
- FLH-0114 — Stage Routes
- FLH-0111 — Florida’s Forgotten Ferry Crossings
- FLH-0115 — Mapping Early Florida
Sources
Florida Division of Historical Resources. Historical markers, “Pensacola–St. Augustine Road” and “Bellamy Road.” markers.flheritage.com (summaries examined; full text not independently examined)
Florida State Parks. “A Deadly Day in December” and Dade Battlefield Historic State Park history. floridastateparks.org
Goza, William M. “The Origins of the Fort King Road.” Florida Historical Quarterly 43, no. 1 (1964) (cited via secondary description; not independently examined)
Armed Occupation Act of 1842, 5 Stat. 502 (cited via secondary description; not independently examined)
Mahon, John K. History of the Second Seminole War, 1835–1842 (not independently examined)
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