SW082 Laumer‘s Legacy: Historians Indebted to Land Developer, Scholar Frank Laumer, Whose Research Excavated from Dusty Archives an Army Private, the Dade Battle, and the Seminole Wars

<p></p> <p> </p> <p>Our listeners have heard much about Frank Laumer. Twice, he led a team to walk the 60-plus mile route of Dade’s fatal march. He co-founded the Seminole Wars Foundation. He authored three books. With the immediacy and intensity of a novel, his Massacre! tells the story of Dade’s battle. He followed this up with Dade’s Last Command, a fact-based chronicle of the overall march, Finally, he penned a novel, Nobody’s Hero, about Private Ransom Clark, one of only three soldier survivors of the battle.</p> <p>In the summer of 2019, Drs Scot French and Amy Giroux, from University of Central Florida, visited Frank Laumer at his Dade City home, Talisman. They sought to hear from Frank Laumer himself about his research practices and to hear his thoughts on some contentious aspects of the Dade Battle itself and the Second Seminole War in general. Since he began his research in the early 1960s, the late Frank Laumer’s research, books and articles on the Dade battle and the Seminole War have informed and inspired many. One inspired group is the Veterans’ Legacy Project or VLP at the University of Central Florida. Project Director Dr. Scot French said Frank’s research and writings are at the heart of the VLP and are a great inspiration to the team.</p> <p>[We have invited Dr French to join us in a later episode of the Seminole Wars podcast to share more fully just what that important and noble project is all about and how the Seminole Wars provide ample material. We have also invited UCF’s Dr. Amy Giroux to discuss her project for identifying every Second Seminole War soldier at eternal rest under the three memorial pyramids at St Augustine’s National Cemetery.]</p> <p>Regular Florida Frontiers radio program contributor, Holly Baker, recorded the session and in October 2019 produced a 10-minute segment.  Florida Frontiers is the weekly radio program/podcast of the Florida Historical Society. Holly is the Society’s Public History Coordinator as well as the archivist for the Society’s Library of Florida Hi