DADE COUNTY. 217 



upon their whole march. At night, Major Dade selected favour- 

 able positions to encamp. Having crossed the further fork of 

 the Withlocoochee, on the afternoon of the 27th of December, 

 he encamped on a knoll whose advantageous position probably- 

 deterred the enemy from making the attack. That night he 

 exhorted the men to be on the alert ; encouraging them, that if 

 they should not be attacked there, they could get through safe 

 to their destination ; and it was doubtless with buoyant hearts 

 that they commenced the next morning's fatal march. Every 

 officer was killed. They were eight in number : Captains 

 Gardner and Fraser ; Lieutenants Basinger, Mudge, Hender- 

 son, Keans, and Assistant-Surgeon Gatlin. On the 20th of 

 February, the remains of Major Dade, his brother officers, and 

 nearly one hundred soldiers, were interred with appropriate 

 honours. Major Dade, although a strict disciplinarian, was be- 

 loved by his soldiers. Not one of them who had known him 

 for any length of time, but would have shed the last drop of 

 blood in their veins in his defence. When he was about to 

 leave Tampa Bay for the Withlocoochee, his favourite sergeant, 

 Peter Thomas, volunteered to accompany him, and fell by his 

 side when attacked by the Indians. Major Dade, in the pri- 

 vate relations of life, won all hearts by his courteous and 

 affiible manners. His mind was highly cultivated, and it is 

 thought that if his life had been spared, he had intended to 

 write a history of Florida, for which his great knowledge of 

 that country peculiarly qualified him. To his family he was 

 every thing that could be desired — a devoted husband, an af- 

 fectionate father. Among the last words that he uttered just 

 before he started upon the fatal expedition, were those in rela- 

 tion to Mrs. Dade and their only daughter, " little Fanny," as he 

 was wont to call her. We confess that we admire Major 

 Dade for his nobility of soul — for his bravery — for his gene- 

 rosity — but most of all, we admire him for his strict attention 

 to the duties of religion. He had been blessed with a pious 

 mother, and her early instructions were not lost upon him. 

 The soldier who was willing to brave every danger, who was 

 a stranger to fear, entertained a high regard for the obligations 

 of religion ; and we can assure our readers, that Major Dade 

 never engaged in battle without imploring the divine protec- 



