Nicolls' Outpost

The British built two forts on Florida's Apalachicola River during the closing months of the War of 1812. While the fort at Prospect Bluff is a well-known part of U.S. history, the story of the second fortification has never been told. In Nicolls' Outpost, historian Dale Cox unveils the story of an earth and log outpost that nearly became the jumping-off point for a British invasion of Georgia. The author reveals that there were actually two "Negro Forts" on the Apalachicola River, British outposts where escaped slaves came to find freedom and wear the uniform of Great Britain during the War of 1812. He also provides exquisite detail of a council at the fort that ended with the first formal written agreement between the various towns and groups that went on to form today's Seminole Tribe of Florida and the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma. Dale Cox is the author of nineteen books on Southeastern U.S. history. His Yuchi Indian ancestors fought in the Creek Wars and the War of 1812. This is the story of an Underground Railroad that ran south into Florida and a British invasion that almost stormed north into Georgia, all told through the history of a long-forgotten fort at Chattahoochee, Florida.