The annual Fort Cooper Days battle commemoration returns March 18 and 19 at Fort Cooper State Park in Inverness. This battle featured militia and volunteers fighting off a Seminole attack in the second of those wars.

A militia captain, rising from the ranks of private to sergeant and then officer, is Howard “Butch” Nipper Junior. He is a proud third generation Florida Cracker and he portrays a Florida Cracker who picks up his musket and answers the call of duty to muster. Butch tell us all about a militiaman’s life in the Second Seminole War and how modern living historians present impressions to educate, inform, and entertain the public.

Butch Nipper command a small squad during a demonstration at the Florida Pioneer Museum in Dade City, Fla. He then joins with Matt Milnes, who portrays a regular Army officer, in calling for the men to fire a salute. 

Butch Nipper's parade dress is based on the Uniform of the Macon Volunteers, which served with Major Cooper's 1st Battalion of Georgia Foot in Florida in 1836. Daguerreotype circa 1845. Below, illustration of a militia officer commanding the unruly militia at a muster. 

Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Fla. 

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